Editor’s Note: DenverBroncos.com’s Stuart Zaas is in Indianapolis working for the NFL during Super Bowl week. He will check in from time to time with updates leading up to the game on Sunday.
INDIANAPOLIS — Players and coaches from both teams met the media on Tuesday at Super Bowl XLVI Media Day at Lucas Oil Stadium. Broncos linebacker Von Miller even joined the media horde to interview players on behalf of Gatorade. As is typical on Media Day at the Super Bowl, a few press members dressed up in costume, drawing amusement from the players and the rest of the media.
Below are some quotes from the owners and a pair of players from each team:
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
OWNER ROBERT KRAFT
On the atmosphere surrounding the Patriots
“There is a special bond on this team. Our locker room is a special place. You can feel it. Even before we came out on the field, there is a camaraderie bond that is special. Part of it is that I’m a believer in spirituality…I think we have very high-quality people on this team and I’m hoping it all comes together on Sunday.”
On what this season has meant to him
“I never understood what it meant to lose someone who you had great respect for. (Myra Kraft) was the greatest person in my life. It’s hard to understand what losing someone means unless you’ve gone through it. She was my best pal. It’s hard for anyone to understand heartache unless they’ve gone through it themselves. The fact that I’m privileged to own an NFL team in my hometown – these 53 guys have been my savior. The have been respectful to me. They presented me with an oil painting when we clinched the bye. I don’t know what’s going to happen after Sunday, but they have sure kept me busy every night right through now.”
QUARTERBACK TOM BRADY
On whether the team is relaxed
“I think you’re most relaxed as a player when you’re prepared and when you’re confident. You’re not worrying about what they’re going to do. I think we’re playing good football. We’ve won out last 10 games. It’s a confident team. If we go out and play well, we expect to win the game. I’m sure the Giants feel the same way.”
On football advice he’s received from his wife
“Throw the ball quickly. She doesn’t like it when I get hit very often. My guys up front do a great job protecting me.”
TIGHT END ROB GRONKOWSKI
On his health
“We are making positive strides every single day. That’s the goal, to make positive strides every day and do the most you can, so you don’t look back and regret that you didn’t do it all. It’s going good, and hopefully I will be ready.”
On the support system his family has been
“They have been a huge support system. It’s great having your family out here. It’s great that my brother (Chris) is on the Colts. He has a house just down the street. I get to go hang out with him at night, catch up with my brother and everything…Talk about the life of being in the NFL, helping each other out and supporting each other. It’s awesome.”
NEW YORK GIANTS
OWNER JOHN MARA
On the Giants as a team
“I think I was struck just being in the locker room while we were waiting to come out here how much camaraderie there is with this team. These guys really get along. They really believe in one another and the work ethic all through the season has been tremendous. They never got down on themselves; they never stopped believing in themselves. I think that comes from the head coach and I think it permeates throughout the rest of the team and when we’ve got a guy playing as well as No. 12 has been playing, I think that gives the entire organization a great deal of confidence.”
On why he hired Head Coach Tom Coughlin
“We felt like he was a winner and he would work so hard and be so devoted to putting a winning team on the field and that’s what we were looking for: a guy who was that dedicated and that hard-working and didn’t care about his image and doing TV commercials or whatever. We wanted a guy that was devoted to the X’s and O’s and coaching and that’s what we’ve got.”
WIDE RECEIVER VICTOR CRUZ
On matching up against wide receivers who also play in the Patriots secondary
“You prepare for it the same as any other defense. Seeing a receiver playing defensive back is definitely a matchup you want to test out early in the game jsut to see how it’s going to go and how it fares.”
On his big-play ability
“When the ball is in my hands, my overall will and desire to just score and break tackles just overwhelms me and i just try to do the best i can with the ball in my hands. Sometimes that results in some long touchdown catches.”
DEFENSIVE END OSI UMENYIORA
On his mental approach to playing in the Super Bowl
“Honestly, i think, as crazy as it sounds, you go about it like any other game. You can’t really take a different appraoch because you do have to do the things that made you successful to get here. We have to play hard and we’re going to play as tough and physical as we can. That’s pretty much it.”
On what he’s most proud of this season
“I think the way we fought. We had our backs against the wall a bunch. We had to do so much to get into this position. The fact that we made it, even through all that adversity, I think that makes me even prouder.”
Below are some photos from Super Bowl XLVI Media Day:
Tags: Media Day, Super Bowl XLVI
Prediction: Pats win 23-16.
Can you imagine paying to get in there? First year the public was allowed to media day but for a fee just for the NFL to make extra money and it looks like plenty of folks are rich enough to do just that, geee, must be nice. I guess if you’re there for the game the fee for media day is chicken fee. When I went to the SB game for the 86 SB it cost us 750.00 for two seats, now it’s like thousands per seat, just like the players salaries it’s completely out of hand.
Lol, Id go if I were an Indy resident…once in a lifetime opportunity for us commoners!
the pats are going to win in a blowout i bet this game is over before the end of the 3rd quarter.
This by CNBC:
Right now, the cheapest tickets for Sunday’s game are about $2,000.
Whatever, NFL football makes me sick when I look at it this way, so I better turn a blind eye.
This seems more up to date though:
I can’t quite tell if this is a phenomenal deal, a terrible deal, or just what’s to be expected, but the cheapest tickets available for the Super Bowl at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis are sitting at $2,250, according to TiqIq.com. There are only two available at that price in the 70,000-seat dome, then the price jumps $48.
You guys better jump on those two tickets! LMAO!
And make sure to bring your binoculars and a handkerchief, because you are going to be in the nose bleed zone, haha.
It went from a blue collar game in my days to an elitist affair, how sad is that.
Ok, I’m done, promised.
What – you think the commoners got into the Roman Coliseum in the “good old days”? … only to be part of the show, I’m afraid …
My brother and his wife were able to get two tickets for 80 bucks to the home playoff game…
Wait? What! Wiemin…that’s hilarious. I guess I better invest in some CDs and bonds so I can afford to go next time the Broncos earn a berth…
The Commoners vs the Lions, haha.
Robert Kraft seems to be a good owner and a nice guy. Reading this makes me feel a little sad for him, but I still hope Eli gets another ring.
Nice job, Stuart.
i love that we said NO to the Raiders. I think they will regrete firing Hue Jackson. Just like when they fired Shanny and sold Gruden. AL did use the money for a new wardrobe
Giants 27 Pats 24
Bay – you sounded like Rodney Dangerfield earlier… “I get no respect” LOL!
Wake up Broncos Country!!!
http://siphotos.tumblr.com/post/16828873234/the-three-amigos-ricky-nattiel-vance-johnson
Local News interviews Peyton Manning,”I have no plans to retire,I’m rehabing like I’m suppose to,and can’t wait to get better”!!!
Nice pic of the Three Amigos!!!! (couldn’t help but notice they are doing the shocker….lmao)
Hola Blogsters…
Just Checking in… not alot of news today it looks like, as is to be expected
Oddly, I’m not really excited for this weekends game; maybe a case of Same Old, Same Old but I don’t feel any sense of anticipation
At the price of these seats, it would take 5 months of my disability checks to pay for me and the wife to go. Guess what…that isn’t going to happen, for either one of us! She wantede to go to the Daytona race last year, until she saw what it would cost to go. This has got to the point that the working man can’t afford to go do anything with his family, and that is real sad.
It’s a good thing I can get to enjoy it at the sports bar or at home because I would be completely out of the loop with my means too.
It’s also a great thing I got to go to many games when they were still half way affordable and I was in the rat race.
So basically now I’m not only retired in life but also retired as a Bronco attending games fan.
I pretty much have accepted that.
There are so many more important things I can do with that kind of money for our family and myself that it’s basically a no brainer.
But whenever they come to Houston or Dallas like an idiot I will probably fork the dough over a couple more times.
That’s the problem with all of this completely out of control pricing abuse, most of us are stupid enough to go along with it.
The days of wanting to boycott the NFL because of the lockout are just a faded memory.
The owners got their way.
The players got their way.
Their attorneys got their way.
The fans got the shaft.
As always.
The commoners will always be devoured by the lions.
Seems it has been that way since the beginning of time.
Now if everybody was getting paid in the neighborhood of these two outstanding NFL contributors this year, we could all go back to the days of affordable NFL:
NYG Victor Cruz & Patriots Rob Gronkowski each made $450K in 2011
Money doesn’t equal results, does it?
That’s not a bad chunk of change Bay. I don’t think I made that much over 15 years working.
Yeah, everybody could be happy along those lines…
But no, Greed has to always take over.
Well they weren’t exactly top picks. Money may not = production but production will and should equal money. We would like to believe if the players made less the tickets would be less. It won’t. Even with a rookie wage scale I doubt they even took a dollar off tickets. Prices are designed to go up, never down … not unless forced to. The only way that happens is if the fans stop paying the current rate, but clearly many are still willing to part with thier cash for tickets and merchandise. So the revenue will never change, and if the players get less, the billionaire owners will get more but the prices will stay the same or get higher cuz business is all about profit. Bending the consumers without breaking them. Same with outsourcing, owners get more and sells within the country while less jobs are available to thier consumers and the country suffers. Greed is an all consuming beast. But its the way of the world so its just one of those “it is what it is” moments.
TRB
ps: Chris Johnson sure hasn’t been the same since his payday … can we blame that on the money or the change in scheme and supporting cast? hmmm. Suppose hunger sometimes = production. We can ask guys like Rod Smith and maybe in the future … chris harris?
Money is at the root of all evil, rings a bell?
I believe thats somewhere in 1st Timothy. Bring out the blog preachers and the recent Tebow Christian converts lol.
TRB
Good morning Bronco Bloggers!
Spot on with Rod Smith TRB, maybe Chris Harris will fit that mold too!
Broncos Country Strong 2012!
Slow news day…so, here’s to JDR building on the success gained from 2011…
http://www.denverbroncos.com/multimedia/videos/2011-Best-of-Series-The-Defense/23445e02-736e-4ccb-a2db-0594a5984975
http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2012/1/30/2758635/occupy-the-super-bowl-indianapolis-protest?sct=nfl_t2_a12
This is disgusting… America is dying, because nobody is trying anymore… Give me Give me Give me… Makes me sick…
You want the right to work? Pick up a Shovel and go starting digging, there’s always a ditch that needs dug somewhere… Nitwits and Spoiled little children that never did any WORK short of in an office anyway… for the same corporations that make the money for the people they are protesting against…. Hmmm sounds about right… MORONS
I love my country, and as an American I have the right to say that this is SICKENING. and is the reason why this country will eventually fail same as every other country in the History of Humanity… Get over Yourselves, just because you realize you exist does NOT make you the most important thing on the planet… What you do affects everyone around you and everyone to come after you… Don’t be selfish…
UGGGH… Sorry for Venting… WAKE UP AMERICA…!!! while you still can…
“Anything in Life that can be done for Money can be done for Free… It is simply a matter of choice for the the Parties involved” Freddie Filo
This is from one of the books that I have written, and the fact that people subjugate themselves simply because of their love of an imaginery object (Fiat Based Dollars) is something that still confounds me every day… Think about it…
Go Turtle, go.
Maybe they don’t wanna dig ditches because it won’t be enough to buy them a SB seat, LMAO!
Has the weather driven you inside today? Seriously, I totally get what you’re saying, and I knew there was a reason I liked you. Later.
Dunno if i quie get whats going on but turtle sure sounds passionate about it. Almost as passionate as von tebow football. TRB
Lol, I think it has something to do with the occupy protesters. I’m not quite sure why he’s so fired up either…maybe it has something to do with the lack of creativity these protesters are displaying.
Egypt for example, that’s a protest! And even though I wasn’t alive, the Vietnam protests got things done (I saw Forrest Gump!…kddn)…
Anyhow, I am curious to hear a little more about turtles stance and why that article provoked a rant!
Just saw Tebow will be a guest on Jimmy Fallon Live tonight!!!
Idk if anybody is on Facebook,the Madden page is where I learned about Tebows appearance tonight, but they are asking “If you could use ONE word to describe his performance this season, what would it be”… And many think Carnage is hard on the kid…..Wow!
Broncos Country Strong 2012!
I’m confused is this the Denver Broncos Blog or Fox News?