Super Bowl Opening Night 2017: Live updates from Media Day and more
Finally, an event for legitimate reporters and cosplayers alike.
Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
10:41 p.m.: Tom Brady got a tad emotional when talking about his dad.
10:39 p.m.: Malcolm Butler said the game was more than just a matchup between him and Julio Jones, that it’s going to have to be a team effort.
10:22 p.m.: Martellus Bennett says he’s enjoying every single moment because he doesn’t know when he’ll be back.
Marty B added that he doesn’t deal with tickets and tells people, “call my wife.”
10:06 p.m.: Tom Brady says that Bill Belichick is the greatest coach of all-time. “He’s a great coach, he’s a great motivator. He doesn’t take any days off.”
9:51 p.m.: The Patriots have arrived.
9:44 p.m.: Cooper Manning’s suit is now matched by this Patriots fan, with a Patriots suit. He’s even got the face paint on.
9:29 p.m.: Falcons WR Mohamed Sanu, who is Muslim, says via ESPN’s Dan Graziano that he would prefer to talk football than world affairs. “Very tough situation. It’s really hard for me to talk about that right now. I’m not here to talk about my religious beliefs. I’m here to focus on football.”
9:20 p.m.: A protest, this one against Brock Osweiler.
9:08 p.m.: Kyle Shanahan told Marshall Faulk that nothing was set in stone with the 49ers, and that he met with the team this weekend, including John Lynch. “I can’t B.S. you guys, I’m looking forward to talk to them after the game.”
8:59 p.m.: Fake Tom Brady is in the house.
8:58 p.m.: Cooper Manning is out here talking to Tom Brady while wearing a money suit. Money suits are good!
8:52 p.m.: Kel Mitchell is in the house, and he’s back in costume as Ed from Good Burger.
8:44 p.m.: Arthur Blank and Robert Kraft played a “fill in the blank game.” Blank said that the best football decision they made was drafting Matt Ryan, and Kraft said hiring Bill Belichick.
Blank says the most famous person in his phone is Kenny Chesney, and Robert Kraft lied and said Elton John (we know it’s Donald Trump).
8:24 p.m.: 4-time gold medal winning Olympic gymnast Simone Biles is in the building!
Before the event
Super Bowl LI is set to be a monster, a showdown between the league’s top two quarterbacks with a chance to redeem an otherwise forgettable playoff season. The biggest game of the year deserves the biggest media scrum of the year.
Throngs of reporters will descend on Minute Maid Park Monday night for a smattering of questions, ranging from mundane to inane, for the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots. Media Day became a primetime event last winter, giving the league another opportunity to fill the evening schedule for its own network. As a result, Monday Night Football regulars will have the chance to watch Tevin Coleman field questions from a hand puppet in place of their usual Colts-Jets matchup.
Weird media stunts have evolved into the norm during the official kickoff to Super Bowl week. A grown man in a costume interviewed Peyton Manning last year about his “Omaha” audible. A guy in a skiing uniform tried to teach players how to speak German. And, uh, this person was there, too.
This will be a press conference unlike any these teams have endured this season. The focus Monday night will be on fun, which should be a delightful contrast to typically dour New England head coach Bill Belichick. The four-time NFL champion excels when it comes to crapping on stupid questions, be it about tablet computers, an apparent black eye, his emotions, or Mark Sanchez’s famous buttfumble.
He’s been much more, well not cuddly, but nicer when it comes to Super Bowl Media Day. He even fielded a question about stuffed animals from then-linebacker Jerod Mayo’s 4-year-old daughter:
“What stuffed animals do I like? I like a little puppet where you can kind of put your fingers in and it’s a little monkey and then he can talk and move his fingers and nod his head and kind of talk back to you.”
Needless to say, that one went over much better than the deluge of DeflateGate questions that followed.
The event will kick off with the Falcons taking the field first to field questions from puppets, reporters, and cosplayers alike. The Patriots will come second, allowing media members to escape right from the stadium to local bars in hopes of drinking away Belichick’s glares.
The event begins at 8 p.m. ET on NFL Network.
Pre-Media Day reading
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