NEW ORLEANS: The circus came to the Superdome on Tuesday as the Super Bowl showed its wild and wacky side during Media Day.
It was all on display at the stadium as about 800 fans paid $25 each to see the players and media in a lighthearted environment that was often comical and serious at times.
Some of the media came dressed for the part. They wore wigs, fake tattoos, miner hats, gladiator suits, superhero costumes and there was one hack with a referee costume who kept throwing his yellow flag.
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Kyle Williams danced salsa with a female Spanish-language reporter while the 49ers’ Ian Williams was more than happy to oblige when a rail-thin television entertainment reporter wanted to experience what it felt like to get tackled by a 300-pound defensive tackle.
“There is no liability on his part if I get snapped in half,” the reporter said just before Williams slammed into him.
The 49ers took the field first in the morning for a about an hour and then after a break it was the Baltimore Ravens’ turn.
San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick answered questions from a large gathering of reporters who crowded six deep around his podium.
“It is a little bit weird for me,” second-year standout Kaepernick said of the experience of being in his first Super Bowl.
High profile players like Kaepernick and running back Frank Gore fielded questions from one of the dozen stages set up on the field at the Superdome while other players just mingled with the crowd.
“I don’t have a first Super Bowl memory. I just remember watching the Super Bowl all my life,” Kaepernick said. “I am just excited for this game. It is not something I am nervous about because you work all season long to get here.”
San Francisco receiver Michael Crabtree said he’s excited for Sunday’s game but also wants to be careful not to let any self doubt upset what he’s trying to accomplish on the field.
“You can’t drop your head on the field because something bad happens,” said Crabtree. “You are going to fumble the ball sometimes. It is what you do after that and how you come back that counts.”
Gore said he’s watching plenty of game film this week to try and figure out ways to crack the tough Ravens’ defense.
“They are a great team,” Gore said. “They are big, fast and strong so we have to be ready. We have to chip away and when we get chances to make big plays we have to capitalize.”
San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh will be going up against his older brother John, who coaches the Ravens, in the first Super Bowl for each of the siblings.
Report links Lewis
to product with banned
substance
Meantime, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis dismissed a Sports Illustrated report on Tuesday linking him to a product that includes a substance banned by the National Football League.
The report on the magazine’s website comes five days before the Ravens meet the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl championship game at the Superdome.
Sports Illustrated’s lengthy story about Sports with Alternatives to Steroids (SWATS) said Lewis spoke to SWATS owner Mitch Ross last October about products that might hasten his recovery from a torn right triceps.
Among SWATS’ products is a deer-antler spray containing small amounts of IGF-1, an insulin-like anabolic growth hormone that stimulates muscle growth and is banned by professional sports leagues.
Nothing in the story links Lewis to actually using a product with a banned substance, only that he requested items that might have contained a banned substance ahead of his emotional return to the field, one that helped inspire the Ravens to the American Conference playoff crown.
A Ravens team official told ESPN that Lewis said Tuesday that he never took any banned substance.
The spokesman said Lewis has never failed a drug test and Lewis made reference to the same point at Super Bowl media day on Tuesday.
“Every test I have ever took in the NFL, there has never been a question of me taking anything,” Lewis said.
Lewis said that he had no help in rehabilitating from his injury and dismissed links to SWATS as old news.
“That was two years ago. It was the same report,” Lewis said. “I wouldn’t give that report any of my press. Why would I give that any press?
“Everybody here has a past and it is what you do with your future that is the most important.
“I don’t look back. I look forward. Everything that is behind me is supposed to be behind me.”
