Baltimore Ravens – Super Bowl Champs
Beyonce performs at Super Bowl 47
In case you missed it.
What are your thoughts, folks? Was Beyonce the best Super Bowl Half-time show? Madonna? The Who? Springsteen?
Who was the best Super Bowl Half-time star in your opinion?
Rob Gronkowski shirtless in New Orleans
After last year’s loss to the New York Giants, Rob Gronkowski was photographed dancing at the Patriots’ postgame party, and he’s at it again this year in New Orleans.
The Patriots may not have made it to the Super Bowl this year, but Gronkowski’s party antics did. He was photographed shirtless at Bogie’s Bar in Baton Rouge drinking a beer and loving life.
The good news for Patriots fans is that while he may have been missing his shirt, he was wearing his cast on his left arm. Perhaps this is all part of his healing process and if it is, party on, Gronk.
This is why I’m pulling for the Baltimore Ravens
So I haven’t followed the sports handicappers to see who thinks who should win.
BUT – Brendan Ayanbadejo’s courageous support for equal rights for all (plus SF 49ers Chris Culliver’s thoughtless anti-gay statements this week) makes it clear who I would like to see win this year’s Super Bowl.
Plus, the Ravens have cooler costumes.
Go Brendan! Go Ravens!
Big Game Today
Vanessa Williams explains why Super Bowl National Anthem performances are pre-recorded
Currently in New Orleans for the Super Bowl, the fab Vanessa Williams spoke with Yahoo News’ OMG about singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl in 1996, explaining why artists pre-record the song then lip-sync live at the event:
“Whitney [Houston] had done hers before me and the network wants you to pre-record, so you pre-record with your orchestra,” the former “Desperate Housewives” star explained. “You lay down the track. Then when it’s time to perform you lip sync, because you’ve got flyovers with the jets, you’ve got pyrotechnics behind you and you want to make sure that the sound is consistent. And that’s what the network asks of you. So, there’s no ‘Can she sing it? Can she not? Is it live or is it not?’ There’s no way you’re gonna get a live orchestra on the field at the same time and that’s part of what they want as a network.”
Easily one of my favorite rendition’s of our anthem, Vanessa’s performance also honored the astronauts of the Challenger space shuttle, which had exploded 10 years earlier, killing all aboard. “It was one of the highlights of my life,” she says. “And when you walk out on that field, it’s a sea of color and people. It’s surreal and an honor too!”
Hit play to enjoy Vanessa’s 1996 Super Bowl performance:
SF 49ers Chris Culliver faces the media after anti-gay statements
San Francisco 49er Chris Culliver faced members of the media this morning following outrage over remarks he made in an Artie Lange radio interview that a gay teammate would not be welcome on the 49ers or in the NFL:
“I don’t do the gay guys man. I don’t do that. No, we don’t got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do. Can’t be with that sweet stuff. Nah… can’t be… in the locker room man. Nah.”
Those comments were then followed up with this half-hearted apology:
“The derogatory comments I made yesterday were a reflection of thoughts in my head, but they are not how I feel,” he said in the statement. “It has taken me seeing them in print to realize that they are hurtful and ugly. Those discriminating feelings are truly not in my heart. Further, I apologize to those who I have hurt and offended, and I pledge to learn and grow from this experience.”
Culliver’s personal public relations representative, Theodore Palmer, added:
“Chris is very apologetic for any harm caused to anyone,” Palmer told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “His intent was not that at all. He is one who celebrates the differences of others. All of this was just a big mistake. It was interpreted wrong.”
I’m not sure how you interpret his original comments anyway other than homophobic.
Asked how he is feeling today, a shell-shocked looking Culliver replied: “Just emotional, that’s it… Apologetic.”
Culliver was then asked what he was thinking when saying those things: “I was really just … not thinking. It was something that I thought, but definitely not something I feel in my heart.”
Culliver said he had spoken with Coach Jim Harbaugh, who earlier said he “rejected” the player’s remarks: “We talked privately… about the whole situation…just to learn and grow from it…. like I said that’s not what I feel in my heart, and he understands that.”
Culliver was then asked if he would welcome a gay player, and gave this response: “If it is … it is…everybody’s treated equally in the locker room.”
He said that he had not addressed his remarks with the team: “I’m not trying to bring anything trashy to the team.”
Being married to a longtime, experienced PR rep, I have an idea what the past day or so has been like for Culliver. And I also have an inkling of the kind of behind the scenes discussions that he’s been a part of. It’s pretty clear that his “apology” was written for him by the PR teams. AND the phrase that’s been drilled into him is the “not what I feel in my heart.”
People says stupid things. I know that. But I think Culliver most probably said what he truly felt in the heat of heading to the Super Bowl, feeling kind of invincible. And this kind of talk doesn’t get a second thought in the locker room.
Unfortunately for Culliver, he wasn’t in the locker room when he made his comment.
San Francisco: Gay sports bar celebrates 49ers in Super Bowl
A photographer snapped a celebration photo at “Hi Tops” in San Francisco’s Castro District when the 49ers clinched a spot in the Super Bowl. The image captures the thrill of victory with cheers and kisses at a gay sports bar. And now that photo is included in the current issue of Sports Illustrated.
“Hi Tops” opened a few months ago, bartender Logan Chavarria says, “A lot of people come in and don’t even know it’s a gay bar and then we find out we have common bond.”
The 49ers are definitely bringing people together. Randy Report readers already know that the 49ers are part of the anti-bullying “It Gets Better” campaign.
Owner Jesse Woodward says the photo sends a winning message “Sports fans from all walks of life and we’re all a big melting pot everyone can get along.”
(via NBCBayArea.com)
Beyonce to perform at Super Bowl halftime show
A source familiar with Super Bowl XLVII told The Associated Press the Grammy-winning diva will take the stage at the halftime show on Feb. 3, 2013, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity because that person wasn’t authorized to publicly reveal the information.
Beyonce has previously sung the national anthem at Super Bowl XXVIII in 2004.
(source)
Madonna Super Bowl Half-time show
Just in case anyone missed it – here it is in high-def.