[CBFF] Another Bears Media Day Blog

[mactbone]

This guy was actually there.
http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/Schrager

Media Day is here, and I opened the day by tracking down last year's college football receiver of the year, Mike Hass, and asked him what was a bigger thrill ... being the Biletnikoff Award winner, or playing in Super Bowl?

Hass: "Two completely different things ... one is the pinnacle for being the best individual player at your position in the college game, and the other is the pinnacle for being a team player in the pro game."

To Bears backups Dwayne Slay, Leon Joe and Rod Wilson: are you going to out to party tonight?

They responded in unison: "No comment." 

Then added: "We're hanging low. We're not doing anything."

To which practice squad receiver Brandon Rideau responded: "Tell him about Monica Lewinsky!"

Big inside joke, apparently ... bunch of LOLs. 

Receiver Justin Gage played collegiately at Missouri, so I asked him who had the better hair ... former Missouri basketball coach Quin Snyder or Lovie Smith? 

Gage: "Lovie Smith has better hair during the weekdays, Quin Snyder has better hair on the weekends."

Bears backup quarterback Kyle Orton sports a huge, disgusting beard, so I had to ask him when was the last time he shaved.

"Last April." 

"Do you keep that out of superstition?"

"No, out of laziness" 

Of course, the obvious follow-up question to Orton had to be about all the pictures all over the Internet last year, in which he was visibly drunk and with a number of members of the opposite sex. How did he take it?

Orton responded: "My friend sent him over a link to all the pictures ... what can I do, I'm a young guy having fun."

Rookie defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek is on injured reserve but still made the trip to Miami for Super Bowl XLI. I had to ask the former Sooner where he was when Boise State ran the hook and ladder, and later the Statue of Liberty play, to shock Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

Dvoracek said: "I was in the living room, flipped over my couch and couldn't believe my eyes."

I followed up with: "What do you think of Adrian Peterson? Will he be a good pro?"

"Adrian Peterson is going to be a Hall of Fame player. Mark it down in ink. He's going to be one of the best there ever was."

We're back with some of the absurdity from Super Bowl XLI media day.

Around the same time someone asked the Bears' Lovie Smith where he was when he learned his team was selected to play in the Super Bowl, another person asked the third-year head coach who his favorite American Idol contestant was.

Smith responded: "What is American Idol? But I think Paula is great, and I love her."

I was able to track down former Gator Alex Brown, whose school has won the NCAA championship in basketball and the NCAA championship in football. 

"What do you think of the University of Florida right now?"

Brown said: "Year of the Gator, baby! Year of the Gator!"

Later, I saw ESPN host Stuart Scott, and asked "Tar Heels this year?"

"Of course, Tar Heels every year."

I saw John Clayton of ESPN and asked him what he thought of Media Day. 

Clayton said, "It kind of is like going through security at the airport ... you know it's coming, you don't mind, you just do it. But what do I know? I've only done 30 of them."

Mo Rocca, who you might recall fondly from as a celebrity commentator on VH1's I Love ... series, asked practice squad tight end Richard Angulo who he thought was going to win.

Of course, Angulo said, "the Bears!"

Then Rocca responded, "What? No! I'm talking Helen Mirren (from The Queen) or Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada) for best actress at the Academy Awards?"

Super Bowl Media Day brings all sorts of surprises. So, those two kids who got kicked off American Idol in Seattle were here. I had to ask them what they thought of that Ian Bernardo guy from New York.

"No comment," they said. "We're only here to talk about football."

Bernardo, who goes to school in Miami and is working Super Bowl Media Day for Weekly Reader, is here. Since Weekly Reader was one of my favorite publications as a youngster, I wanted to talk to Bernardo and get an idea of what kids are reading these days. 

"What are the kids reading these days? Is it Judy Blume, or are they reading the Harry Potter books?"

Bernardo responded: "Neither, they're reading ESPN sports almanacs."

I told him: "That upsets me greatly."

Someone asked Bears offensive tackle John St. Clair, "Who would win a football game? The prisoners in The Longest Yard or the Cincinnati Bengals?

The reporter then laughed out loud at his own question. Nobody else found it funny at all. St. Clair didn't answer.

(Awkward silence)

I tracked down Bears kicker Robbie Gould, and asked him, "Burning question everyone is asking this week ... are you Jewish, or not Jewish?

"Not Jewish."

I responded in my best Adam Sandler voice, "Robbie Gould ... not a Jew!"

Warren Sapp is here in Miami working for the NFL Network, and I asked him if it would be weird playing for a coach (new Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin is 31 years old) who is three years younger than him.

Sapp looked at me, stared me right in the eyes, walked right past me, didn't answer and hugged one of the female correspondents for the Best Damn Sports Show Period.


 
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