NBC2 SPORTS BLOG - THE SUPER BOWL XLI EDITION (4:00am - Friday)

NBC2 SPORTS BLOG - THE SUPER BOWL XLI EDITION (4:00am - Friday)

SOMEWHERE ON I-75 -- It's four in the morning on Thursday night... actually Friday morning, but my mind and body still think it's Thursday. I'm somewhere between the toll plazas on Alligator Alley banging away on a laptop as our news truck hurtles through the darkness toward Super Bowl weekend in Miami. After anchoring the 11pm news on Thursday, we packed up all our gear and high-tailed it across the alley to kick off our Super Bowl coverage.


To start off our three days of coverage, we arranged a knockout of a story in the wee hours of Thursday night.

...or so we thought.


Immokalee native, former University of Miami star, current Arizona Cardinal Edgerrin James was slated to kick off the weekend with his "Edgerrin James Super Bowl Bash" at a sports bar near the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Fort Lauderdale.

After working all week to track down and contact the event promoter, we finally found out late Thursday afternoon that we had the green light to get over and spend a few minutes with Edge.
It's been a while since we've heard from Edge, and there are a lot of things to discuss: 'How's Arizona'? ... 'What's the latest on your cousin Javarris'? ... 'What's it like to be hosting events this weekend in a town you're quite familiar with'. And maybe most importantly... How does it feel to see your former team, Indianapolis, play in the Super Bowl after coming up short so many times when he was on their roster?

Since we had been lucky enough to land through-the-velvet-rope access, we figured we'd better do all we could to get there to kick off Super Bowl weekend right... with Edge.

We immediately hurried our newest employee, Evan Fitzgerald, out the door. Evan's our new sports photographer, having joined our department just a couple weeks ago. Needless to say he was pretty pumped up that one of his first assignments was to go out as the advance man in our pursuit of Edge. He scrambled to gather all the gear he'd need and he headed out across the alley.

The event promoter told me to be there at nine pm to be sure we don't miss Edge. Evan left just after six, and sent us a text message just before nine alerting us that he had arrived and was ready to rock and roll.

Just before our 11pm sportscast, we got another update from Evan. He told us Edge was delayed, and wouldn't be there until around 11:30 or midnight. Back in the office, we were kind of excited to hear this news... as we figured our midnight departure from Fort Myers wouldn't get us to Fort Lauderdale until 2am or so. That said, the new news that Edge was running late made it even more likely he'd still be there by the time we arrived. Evan is more than capable of handling shooting some video and interviewing Edge without us, but we didn't really want to be left out of the fun at the first event of what's going to be a very busy weekend of coverage.


So we did our 11pm sportscast, packed up the rest of our gear (which took forever... you wouldn't believe how much equipment it actually takes to gather, edit, and perform a satellite feed), gassed up the news truck and got all set to hit Alligator Alley.

The good news was that Evan had plenty of time to get great video of the event. People were partying, Miami Dolphin Channing Crowder was the guest bartender, and generally the $100-a-ticket bash was going off without a hitch.


The bad news came just as we were set to shove off. There was a hitch. There was a major hitch.

What's the one thing you think you'd need to have for the "Edgerrin James Super Bowl Bash"?

How about Edgerrin James?

For reasons not disclosed to our guy Evan, Edge was going to be a no-show. I'm certain he has a full docket this weekend, and any number of things could have come up preventing him from making it over. But you'd think the "Edgerrin James Super Bowl Bash" would be somthing Edgerrin James would probably be part of.


So we throttled things back a bit and took our time making sure we had everything we'd need for the weekend. We didn't end up leaving until around 2 or so. Now here we are tired from a a full day of work, and hustling now not to meet Edge... but rather to rescue poor Evan who's been hanging out at the "Edgerrin James-less Super Bowl Bash" for the last six hours.

Not really the way we hoped to kick things off... but at least we're all on our way.

Instead of kicking the weekend off with what would have been a highlight, we now have nowhere to go but up.

The alarm clock in the hotel's going to ring early, and we're not exactly going to be well-rested (especially poor Evan).

But the sun will rise on South Beach in four hours or so and we'll be there ready to REALLY begin our weekend of coverage.


The plan is to try to hit a handful of different aspects of the Big Game just down the road from Southwest Florida. I'll show you how the ticket resale market looks on the streets and beaches... you'll meet a brother and sister from Southwest Florida who are going to be working on the field Sunday as ball boy and ball girl... and I'll do my best to give you a peek into what it's like around Dolphins Stadium as Super Bowl XLI runs its' course.

Be sure to tune into NBC2 Friday and Saturday for live pregame reports from the Stadium. We're taking Sunday off, since you... and we... will be focused on the game itself. But we'll be back again Monday to wrap up the crowning of football's World Champion.
I'll also let you know if we run ever do run into Edgerrin James.

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CHRIS LONG is NBC2's Sports Director. His past odysseys with NBC2 have included a 'one-man-band' trip to Trenton, New Jersey for the 2005 Kelly Cup Finals between the Everblades and Trenton Titans... coverage of the Florida Gators run to the NCAA Championship... and a handful of runs to Lakeland and Fort Lauderdale for various state high school Championship games. Those all were fun... but this one should be in a league all by itself. Please feel free to drop Chris an e-mail at chris.long@nbc-2.com. And if anyone sees Edgerrin James, tell him Evan may still be at the club waiting for him to arrive!


[Editors note:

Unfortunately, due to technological issues with our wireless Internet capability in Miami, we're going to be unable to continue the blog through Super Bowl weekend. Please tune into NBC2's on-air coverage and watch nbc-2.com for our complete coverage of Super Bowl XLI from Miami]