ny giants and jets win bid for 2014 superbowl!!

it's official - the nfl owners voted late yesterday afternoon to hold the 2014 superbowl at the meadowland! the ny giants and jets submitted their joint bid for the game three weeks ago (competing against tampa and south florida). while the giants and jets were favored, it took 4 rounds of voting before they clinched a majority of the 32 votes.

superbowl XLVIII (48 for roman numeral challenged) will be the first time the game is played at at a "cold weather" location. the coldest superbowl (in 1972), in new orleans, had a game time temperature of 39 degrees. unless a rogue heatwave rolls into town, it's a good bet that an early february football game at the meadowlands will shatter that record!

as mayor bloomberg observed at the announcement yesterday: "if it snows, it snows. this isn't beach volleyball. it's football!" weather aside, one caveat worth noting - no home team has ever played in the host city superbowl. the giants will have to break that record too :D

ny giants and jets bid for the 2014 superbowl game!!

yesterday the giants and jets teamed up in a bid to bring the 2014 superbowl to the meadowlands! eli manning and mark sanchez were on hand to add a little star power to the announcement. while not quite a long shot, it would have been an outright hail mary if not for the backing of nfl commissioner roger goodell. a superbowl at the meadowlands would be the first one held at an outdoor stadium during the winter!

also bidding are tampa and south florida (classic warm weather sites). the decision is expected in two weeks, on may 25th, when the owners vote on the choice. if none of the three bids receive three quarters of the votes (24 of the 32 owners), the city with the fewest votes is dropped. the winner will then be decided by a simple majority of the second round vote.

go meadowlands!!
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Update: and, the 2014 superbowl goes to the ... meadlowlands!! woo hoo!!

bruce springsteen's superbowl halftime show: video clips and setlist

with only 12 minutes and four songs at his disposal, bruce springsteen took the stage in tampa and rocked the halftime show at superbowl XVIII - with his own ref to throw a delay of game flag to end his performance ;)

here is the setlist:

tenth avenue freezeout
born to run
working on a dream
glory days

while what 3 of the songs would be lead to a lot of speculation, "working on a dream" - the title cut to his new album, was a sure bet :D

here is the entire 12 minute performance, in two parts, courtesy of youtube!





oh, and for the record, the steelers beat arizona 27-23 to become the first team to win the superbowl 6 times!!
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i didn't have the energy to add this last night, but the ny times ran an interesting story on springsteen, "the rock laureate," in the sunday arts and leisure section. here is what bruce said about his prep for the halftime show:

"Party or not, Mr. Springsteen has thought through his Super Bowl set meticulously. “It was very challenging to try and get that exact 12 minutes. I found that in a funny way it was very freeing. O.K., these are your boundaries, so put everything that you have into just this box,” he said. “If you do it right, you should feel the tension of it wanting to spread beyond that time frame. But it can’t.”
. . .

"At rehearsal he strutted across the stage: testing banter, brandishing his guitar, belting lyrics and jiving with Mr. Van Zandt. As the band finished a run-through, someone holding a timer called out the length of the set. “We’ve got one-sixteenth of a second left,” Mr. Springsteen exulted. “And we plan to use it.”"

the ny times followed up that overly effusive and glowing look at springsteen with a rather lame review of the actual show this morning (in the sports section).

go arizona cardinals!!

yes, it's superbowl sunday and the improbable happened - the arizona cardinals find themselves the cinderella team representing the nfc! but, just as improbable, i find myself rooting for them to go all the way and win it tonight. if it was any other nfc team (except, of course, dreaded giant rivals dallas, philly or washington - i'm truly that insane) - i'd probably cheer for the steelers.

but, aside from being undisputed underdogs - and i love underdogs - the cards have a couple of other things going for them. technically, i still haven't gotten over that they are no longer card carrying members of the nfc east! my entire football life frames them as part of the nfc east. now, since, 2001, every time i see a standing chart in the newspaper, i can't help but think it's just a lame typo ;)

the most important reason, however, is they did all of new york at tremendous favor and knocked off philly in the championship game! for one teeny weeny reason alone i'm indebted to the cards and, hence, find it impossible to root against them. if philly had made it to the superbowl after wiping up the meadowlands with the giants last month - regardless of whether the committed an even greater sacrilege and won the superbowl - it would have been a even brutally colder winter and endlessly painful off season :D

so arizona, thanks so much for easing the pain of the giants self-destruction a little. and here's to you guys going all the way tonight! woo hoo!!

but, before settling in for the actual game tonight, i'll head down to central park for the gridiron 4 miler this morning. and, then a trip over to long island for the new york ultrarunning awards brunch.