Packing the usual Super Bowl accessories — expedition parka, ice ax, gaiters and personal locator beacon — I depart Sunday for the ragged frontier of human existence: New Jersey (perhaps you thought the ice ax was for ice). Presuming Gov. Chris Christie decides not to play politics with the freeways and airport, I will join the Seahawks and Baja Seattle for a little ballgame Feb. 2 that annually determines the fate of civilization.
Having been to about 10 of these soirees, I can assure you that with several thousand of journalism’s semi-finest on hand, the media scrums will be far more health-threatening than anything at the bottom of the pile at MetLife Stadium. Concussion protocols for all.
Nevertheless, I will swing away for a week to bring you the fascinating (Peyton Manning) and the mundane (the rest of the Broncos) while keeping track of the intrepid little blue ballclub in its pursuit to become the NFL’s Death Star. How else to prove that Richard Sherman is better at life than all of us?
Before departing, I want to give a shout-out to Sportspress NW media partners who are supporting the expedition: Crosscut.com and sponsor MTR Western, KPLU-FM, CBS radio’s AM 1090 The Fan and the Kitsap Sun, as well as longtime advertising sponsors, Buckley’s and Portage Bay.
All have contributed to doubling our traffic metrics over the last few months. My stuff will show up daily on these media outlets who are supporting local entrepreneurial journalism, and allows me to survive the week on more than the standard Seattle entree of gorp.
Co-founder Steve Rudman, Adam Lewis, Tim Garrison, Dave Eskenazi, Drew Sellers, Drew McKenzie and our other contributors would also like to thank numerous readers who have provided voluntary donations so that Sportspress NW can remain a free site with an authoritative voice independent of leagues, conferences and teams.
If you would like to join them, here’s how: http://sportspressnw.
So it’s off to the Iditarod . . . um, the Super Bowl, where I will carry the Seattle flag with a pointy flagpole, which will be used on the first icicle-caked New Yorker who calls our burg South Alaska.
After six months of using “championship week” as a figurative, coach Pete Carroll and his fellas have a chance to go all literal in the media capital of the world. If they do, Sherman’s one-man play opens Friday on Broadway. You read it here first.
11 Comments
Experiencing ground hog day in Jersey…on paper it doesnt seem to rank with what some would call the opportunity of a lifetime.
But it could very well be. Pinch yourself on the plane ride home if you are fortunate enough to mutter the words Seattle Seahawks~defending Super Bowl champs 2014.
Dreams do come true. Go Hawks.
Don’t forget, Jersey gave us Springsteen.
And Chris Christie.
And Pia Zadora. How could you forget Pia Zadora of Hoboken, which also gave us baseball (sort of)? And Crosscut’s own David Brewster, too.
Good luck out there in the frozen wastes, Art. Will be looking forward to your reports almost as much as the game.
Go Hawks!
In these media scrums, my guess is even Marshawn Lynch can’t find the A gap.
Really? I’d think among East coast media A-holes would be easy to find.
(Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)
Well said, Art. Say, since players that reach the Super Bowl tend to re-evaluate themselves vs other players at their positions, can you tell us who is unsigned for next season? Sometimes keeping one player happy required the pruning of other good people.
Will do that down the road. Tate is the most important player on that list.
easy on the hookers and blow, art. thanks for being unembedded in the big apple.
Fortunately, we have nothing of the kind in Seattle.
Enjoy your week back east and safe travels to you Art.
Go Seahawks!