Kevin_C's Blog

When Butch, Ock, Keba, and I were led to our seats in the University of Phoenix stadium to watch Super Bowl XLII, we had some Bostonians sitting behind us.  They recognized my three row-mates, looked at me and said, “No offense, but Maria Stephanos is a lot better looking than you.”  I told them that I have to bear that cross every day of my life.

I was undaunted, however, because I was at the Super Bowl!  Excitement!  Pageantry!  Tom Petty!  Free Candy!

Yes, I said free candy.  The woman in the photo above would come through the media seats every twenty minutes giving away free candy.  It was to be a small consolation prize for a Patriots loss.

We were able to watch the first three quarters from our seats – at that point it looked like the Pats might pull out a win.  We had to enter the catacombs of the stadium (and I’d be lying if I didn’t flash to a certain scene from “Spinal Tap” at one point), to get onto the field after the game, hopefully to interview and photograph a victorious, history-making Patriots team.

It was not to be, but even with the loss I have to tell you that being on the Super Bowl field after the Super Bowl, confetti streaming everywhere, Terry Bradshaw interviewing Eli Manning a few feet away from me, and the stadium still full of fans is one of the more surreal experiences of my life.

I’ve described this week as hectic, and from reading the blogs of the other folks here I know I’m not alone in that thought, but compared to the post-game field, everything might as well have been a meditation session.  We were all running around trying to find the Patriots (they had already left the field by the time we were let on) and coordinate with the studio back in Dedham for our post-game coverage.

It’s been great blogging about all this for all of you.  While it’s not the end we were hoping for, I’ve still got some photos from today over here.

See you on Super Tuesday,

Kevin

I thought some of you might find it interesting what goes on behind-the-scenes while we're preparing our live segments from Arizona for the newscasts and the 7:30 specials. On Friday I followed around Mark Ockerbloom (referred to throughout the rest of this blog as "Ock") and photojournalist Aron Willey, as they put together their story and then broadcast it to all of you.



Our first stop was the Media Center, located in downtown Phoenix. This is ground zero for the Fourth Estate at the Super Bowl. Butch was also here, picking up our credentials for Game Day. Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin held an early-morning press conference (which those of us in "the biz" refer to as a "presser"), followed by a media event that Reebok put on featuring members of the 1972 Dolphins (photo below). There are different conference rooms throughout the Convention Center, each one hosting a different press conference.  The photo above is of Ock and Aron interviewing Steve Buckley from the Herald to get his take on some of the issues surrounding the Pats.





In the basement of the Convention Center is "Radio Row" (seen above), where all of the Sports Talk stations are set up, allowing guests to show up and do a bunch of radio interviews in a short time-span. The great thing about this is that when you're walking around the center you don't know who you may see walk past you. Ock told me yesterday that yesterday he turned a corner and Mike Ditka was standing right there, and consented to an interview, some of which you saw last night. While everyone here has the skills to do their job without hoping to catch a break, sometimes you luck out. Here's another example: everyone has been trying to land an interview with Robert Kraft. We had a lead as to where he was going to be at 5 p.m. EST (there's a two-hour time difference here), and had it all set, but we wouldn't have been able to get any of that video in the 5 p.m. newscast. Kraft showed up early, spoke with us, and we were able to turn it around in time.

After "Radio Row" we grabbed a quick lunch (by quick I mean sandwiches to go that were eaten in the car – time is at a premium here), then came back to our mobile headquarters located outside the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.



Ock and Aron spent the next hour logging the footage that was shot, picking soundbytes, and communicating with the producers back in Massachusetts – letting them know what we had while they told us where in the show they thought it should go - while I wrote my Paris Hilton blog. Aron ingested all of the footage into our digital editing system while Ock wrote the script to his piece (you can see Ock writing above, while Engineer Tech Rob Mulligan hooks up the dsl line). I took some photos for the behind the scenes blog you're reading now, then wrote about the NFL Experience.



After Ock recorded his voice-tracks, Aron edited the piece together (note shot of Robert Kraft in one of the video monitors). It's a testament to Aron and the other photographers here that the pieces that wind up on the air look so great when they're done under tight deadlines. While Aron edited, Ock reviewed the scripts of the newscast, which he was set to anchor from Phoenix. Keep in mind that it's normally difficult to do one story from a remote location, Ock was preparing to do multiple segments on the other side of the country. Once Aron finished editing, we sent the video story (which is referred to as a "package") back to Massachusetts via satellite, called in how long it was to the studio people there, and Ock prepared for the show.





All of the live hits are being done here on a large scaffolding that overlooks the stadium, giving a cool background shot with the place where the Super Bowl is going to be played sits in the background. The earpieces that news anchors wear (called "ifb") lets them talk to the producers in the studio so they know when Frank and Shirley are going to toss to them. For the start of today's 5p.m. show, both Ock and Butch were on the scaffolding, while Keba was editing with another photographer in the satellite truck for her story at 5:30. Walt McGraw, who has been shooting with Butch all week, manned the camera on top of the scaffolding, telling Ock and Butch when they were going to be taken live.



After the show, Ock and Butch both wrote blogs (Butch wrote about Arlen Specter and Ock wrote about Half-Time show music, but I'm sure you already know that), and they both began to prepare for the 7:30 special, and then the FOX25 News at 10.

Before I went to the Paris Hilton event yesterday, I was at the stadium in Glendale checking out the NFL Experience. The NFL Experience, a kind of professional football theme park, is one of the big draws for families who have come to the game and need some things to do before Sunday that are kid-friendly.



My swanky press credentials got me in while they were closed. One of the things I’ve noticed about security here is that it’s not entirely consistent. The first people I approached told me that there was no way my press pass would get me into the NFL Experience, and the second people I asked let me in while it was closed. I’m not sure what the official word is on that, but it was nice to take pictures of something for once and not have to also fear for my well-being.



If you like playing interactive football games while also being hard-sell marketed at non-stop, then I cannot recommend the NFL Experience highly enough. There are passing games and running games and blocking games and games for every aspect of football except an interactive press conference where you can give short, non-committal answers to questions. All brought to you by various soft drinks and big-box stores.



From talking to some people back in New England, there was a sense among most of them that the NFL Experience had a historical, museum-like quality. There are aspects of this (recreations of some QB lockers, and you can look at the Lombardi Trophy), but it’s mostly games. And a ferris wheel – a big honking ferris wheel in the middle of the thing, which we can view from our FOX25 Mobile HQ.



Pictures can be found here.

Today I’m following Mark Ockerbloom around, and later tonight there’s another party – Wyclef Jean is performing. Watch this space.

Kevin

Also, apropos of nothing, on my way to the NFL Experience I ran into a guy in a large blue bird costume, there to promote Fish and Wildlife. He says hello.

This morning I hitched a ride with Butch Stearns and photojournalist Walt McGraw to the Patriots hotel in Scottsdale; Butch says that as the Pats gain more Super Bowl experience, they seem to pick hotels that are further and further away from the Media Center and/or the Stadium.

Right after we arrived Bill Belichick took the podium and did his typical press conference boogie.  The room was set up with different players seated at tables, a few select players at their own mini-podiums, and Tom Brady, in a partitioned off room, standing at a large podium.  You could tell once Brady finished his q&a portion of the event because  the area with the rest of the players suddenly became what Charlton Heston would call “a madhouse…. A madhouse…!”



Butch and Walt are old pros at this – it was amazing watching them hop around, getting the sound they needed.  This was my first event of this sort, and I’m not used to the dealing with rampaging media hordes of this magnitude.  Still, I took a bunch of photos, and would occasionally hear players talking in athlete-speak (you know the quotes, “Everybody will be the deciding factor of this game”, etc.)  There was also a sense, from the players, that they were pretty happy they didn’t have to deal with the media as much for the rest of the week and could focus on the game.  This has, admittedly, been a long week for everyone, and we’ve still got miles to go before we all go home.  Both Brady and Moss said they missed seeing their families, and Brady said he just wanted to focus on Sunday’s game and get that over with.



One of the interesting things I saw was reserve defensive lineman Le Kevin Smith, sitting by himself and quietly rocking out to his iPod.  I asked him what he was listening to, and even getting that information proved difficult.  “You wouldn’t know it”, was the response.  I pressed on, because I’m all about the tough interview.  He asked me why I wanted to know.  Truth is, I was just interested.  I finally got “some underground hip-hop” out of him.



With all the photos taken, I’m thinking of starting up a new website, called LolPats, based on the popular LolCats meme.  Just think: photos of Tom Brady with an “I Can Haz Gizele Now?” caption.  Randy Moss with “I’m in ur endzone, scoring ur pointz.”  Tedy Bruschi with “19-0 Perfekt Seesun.  KThnx.”  This could be huge.

I’m off to the NFL Experience!  Blog at you soon!  In the meantime, I’m going to listen to some underground hip-hop.  You wouldn’t know it.

Kevin

P.S. More pictures by clicking this link.

One of the things I’ve been reading about online a lot lately has been the rise of the so-called “Hate-riots”, fans and players who loathe the New England Patriots for any number of factors, up to and including the possibility of a perfect season, Spygate, Tom Brady’s supermodel girlfriend, etc.

I know I wrote about this on here before, but the whole thing reminds me of the 2004 ALCS – I was in a bar in New Orleans during Game Seven and folks I was chatting with kept remarking, upon hearing that I hailed from Boston, things along the lines of “Well, I’m a Braves fan, but I hate the Yankees!”

Since being compared, in any way whatsoever, to the New York Yankees is to be avoided at all costs, we decided to investigate this issue further.

 Keba (reporter), Matt (photojournalist), and myself (annoying tag-along) set out to see what all the hubbub is about.

You can see Keba’s piece on the FOX25 News at 5 (and, later on, here on myfoxboston.com), but I can tell you that we didn’t come across a whole lot of Pats haters in Tempe or Phoenix.  People were generally very nice and, while not Patriots fans per se, they were excited about the prospect of seeing history happen in their area with the potential 19-0 season.  However, they also allowed that they knew lots of people who just loathed the Pats.

I have a theory: This is one of those issues where everyone seems to know someone with the condition, but no one will actually admit to it.  Kind of like how no one actually admits to liking celebrity tabloid journalism, yet the ratings for that stuff is always through the roof.

Another factor in this is the exciting world of online communication.  It’s safe to say that some people are a bit,um, insensitive when they get behind a computer keyboard.  How many times have you read an online screed against someone, thinking, “This guy would never say this to my face.”

Finally, I think there’s a cultural difference out West compared to the East.  People out here in the AZ are, generally, more polite (I am not even exaggerating when I say that driver enter the highway from an off-ramp ONE AT A TIME here. Can you see that happening in Boston?  Or New York?) 

Perhaps no one wanted to upset us, finding out we all hailed from Boston.

So I’m sure we’ll see more online ranting about how the Patriots are the worst people who ever lived.   We just won’t meet any of them here in the flesh.

We’re heading out to a charity event being held by Jordin Sparks and her “American Idol” chums Sanjaya and Melissa Doolittle.  Pictures and thoughts to follow.

Stop the Hate!

Kevin

One of the phrases I've been hearing out here a lot lately has been "Evil Empire" in relation to the Patriots, and "Darth Vader" in reference to Bill Belichick.

As an unrepentant "Star Wars" nerd, this got me thinking.

Let's say Belichick is Vader.  I suppose that would make Bob Kraft the Galactic Emperor (and I do enjoy the image of Kraft leaning forward, cackling evilly, and saying "I'm afraid Tom Brady will be quite operational when your friends arrive" to his enemies), Bill Parcells would be Obi-Wan Kenobi and the players would be stormtroopers, because they wear helmets.  One of the players, if he is a cool maverick who plays by his own rules, could possibly be Boba Fett.

However, while it may make superficial sense, this analogy does NOT HOLD UP.

Consider:

Stormtroopers have terrible aim.  In the course of three movies (for the purposes of this blog I'm only using the original, classic "Star Wars" trilogy) the stormtroopers manage to shoot exactly one Ewok and Luke's Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, who were both really, really old.  That scene in "Star Wars" where Luke and Leia swing across the Death Star? There are like 403 stormtroopers shooting laser guns at the two of them, and there is nary a graze on either of them.  Leia even gets to give Luke a creepy* kiss on the cheek "for luck" before they swing across!  Stevie Wonder, Helen Keller and Ray Charles would have had a better chance of hitting those two!  Tom Brady has fantastic aim.  He manages to hit receivers all the time.

If Brady did throw an interception, Darth Belichick would have immediately choked him using the power of the Dark Side of the Force.  Then he would have choked whichever player from the opposing team caught the interception.  Also, every member of the media?  Force chokes for all of them!

Darth Vader had a mechanical apparatus he used to breathe with, which was attached to his chest.  There is no way such a device would fit on a grey sweatshirt.

And, most importantly, the Galactic Empire loses at the end of "Return of the Jedi" - we know that's not going to happen.

May the force be with you,

Kevin

* creepy in light of certain revelations later in the films regarding their relationship as brother and sister.

After all off the Media Day hoopla I hitched a ride with Butch and Walt back to the media center for the FOX Sports meet-and-greet.  Basically, the purpose of this event was for the stars of FOX Sports to make themselves available for interviews to hype the upcoming SuperBowl event.



Not quite as crazy as Media Day, to be sure, but still kind of a madhouse.  Butch grabbed interviews with Joe Buck, Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson, et al.  Terry Bradshaw, unfortunately, was not in attendance.



One of the folks doing the interviewing was former "American Idol" contestant Kellie Pickler - she was also at Media Day but I didn't see her there.  She would not sing for me, but she did pose for a photo.



Frank Caliendo did an interview with Butch, and then recorded a special message for Gene Lavanchy.  Caliendo's special recording for Gene should be coming soon to a FOX25 Morning News near you.



I got some more pics of the event.  You can check them out by clicking this link.

Kevin

Just a quick update: the Pats Media Day photo gallery is up.

Click Here to View

Just got back to our mobile HQ from New England Patriots Media Day.  If you're unfamiliar, Media Day is when the NFL lets all of the journalists into the stadium to interview all of the players and coach Bill Belichick.  Some of the players are set up in booths which are surrounded by reporters and camera crews, some of the players are roaming around the press area.  Press can mean anything from national media, international media, or cable. 

Unsurprisingly, this guy had the biggest throng around him:

When I arrived near the Tom Brady podium, I heard him ask "Come on, don't you guys have any stupid questions for me?"  Someone (I have no idea who) asked him what his favorite music group was.  This question was deemed "Not Stupid Enough" by New England's QB, but he did consent to give an answer: U2.

I was not close enough to ask Tom any questions.  I would have asked him how we in the media can get Bill Belichick to show us some love.

Randy Moss was also nearly impossible to get near.  There's a photo gallery of the whole shebang being created now (should be up soon, I'll link from here and it will also be linked from the Patriots Page), and I assure you that any photos of Brady and Moss contained therein are taxing my digital camera's "zoom" function to its limits.

Along with your typical sports-media types, there were some more gimmicky people running around (and I have not been shoved around like that since I was in the Japanese mass transit system during rush hour.  No wonder Bill Belichick is so taciturn with us!  We, collectively, have no manners.)

This woman, for example, was working for one of the Spanish-language broadcast outlets and showed up asking Tom Brady for his hand in marriage.  I missed the exchange but apparently Tom politely declined.  Other on-air gimmicks involved getting young children to interview players (who can deny answering the question of an adorable little moppet?  NOT PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYERS, apparently.), some dude walking around in a swami outfit (I asked him if he could predict the outcome of the game, but he was rushed away in a tide of media before he could answer.  My magic 8-Ball says "Ask Again Later" - it could be these signs are telling me that MANKIND WAS NOT MEANT TO PREDICT THE FUTURE.)

Here's Butch and photojournalist Walt getting ready to shoot a taped-inside segment for the FOX25 News at 5.  You'll be able to see a lot of the Media Day highlight there and at 10 and 11, but here are a couple of the other interesting bits I overheard.

Journalist: Who is the fastest receiver on the Patriots?

Randy Moss: Randy Moss!

Journalist: Who is the quickest receiver on the Patriots?

Randy Moss: Randy Moss!

Journalist: Who is the strongest receiver on the Patriots?

Randy Moss: Uhmmmmmm........ Randy Moss!

Tom Brady, near the end, talked a lot about global warming and urged everyone to watch the film "An Inconvenient Truth" - someone asked him what kind of car he drives and he replied "I drive a hybrid."

More to come soon.

Kevin