For $28.50, the Lull of Super Bowl Media Day Awaits

NEWARK - Super Bowl media day has its traditions. Reporters and other credentialed people, some in character costumes, ask the teams' players serious and inane questions.

News is rarely made. And the event is held at the stadium where the game will be played.

The first two traditions stayed unchanged Tuesday as the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos each fielded questions for an hour and said little to alter the tectonic plates of the N.F.L.

But they were prattling on inside Prudential Center, home of the Devils, about a 14 mile-drive from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. Izod Center might have been a more logical location because it is MetLife's neighbor at the New Jersey Meadowlands. But the N.F.L. is preparing the arena to be a hospitality location on Sunday for buyers of premium ticket deals.

About 7,000 fans, some in Seattle and Denver jerseys, paid $28.50 (or more on the secondary market) to watch the media question players and coaches and to listen to their bon mots on radios. This is the third time the N.F.L. has sold tickets to media day - a way to serve fans who want to marinade a while in the Super Bowl universe if they cannot afford tickets with face values as steep as $2,500 each.

'We got robbed in 2005,' said John Chen, an exuberant Seahawks fan and entrepreneur who bought three MetLife suites and is selling 88 game, hotel and party packages for $30,000 each. 'We want to show the team is going to make it. That's right, go Hawks!'

Rocky Brougham, a red-bearded superfan dressed as a leprechaun in Broncos blue and orange, said, 'I'm here to see Peyton Manning win now.' Brougham, known as Rocky the Colorado Leprechaun, did not, at the moment, have earphones in his faux pointed ears to listen to the interviews. Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch seemed delighted that thousands of fans had paid to watch the media day spectacle that also included cheerleaders and a marching band.

'They came to watch people get interviewed,' Lynch said before he cut short his news media obligations after about six minutes. 'This is amazing right here, man.'

Later on, while wearing sunglasses and the hood of his warm-up jacket, Lynch let loose a mild profanity during an interview on NFL Network.

Media day is a way to measure fame. Stars like quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson and Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman were seated on one of four raised podiums; the horde around Manning was at least 15 or 20 deep (about double Wilson's crowd) and did not abate until he left. Sherman, whose attention-getting rant after the N.F.C. championship game, seemed so eager to talk that he showed up on his podium a few minutes before his teammates. A second group of players sat two-by-two in booths on the floor where Broncos linebacker Danny Trevathan hugged a teddy bear.

A third group stood behind stanchions in makeshift bullpens. Some did not have credentials or anything that said who they were. Some were rarely asked a question. Some milled about not looking to be questioned. Heath Farwell, a Seattle linebacker, did not mind ceding fame. 'I'm a behind the scenes guy,' he said. 'A special-teams player. This lets me hang with the guys.'

Sylvester Williams, a Denver defensive tackle, nodded toward Manning and Champ Bailey's exalted perches and said, 'When you play the game the way they do, you've gotta answer the questions.'

But all players were equal in one aspect: they had Gatorade towels visible to cameras, sometimes draped over their shoulders, thanks to the sports drink maker, which sponsored media day.

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The non-football celebrities at the first-ever Super Bowl media day in New Jersey did not include personages as diverse as Jon Bon Jovi or Paulie Walnuts.

But the comedian Joe Piscopo was there for the New Jersey Hall of Fame, schmoozing with Chris Berman of ESPN, and warning of Route 3 traffic on Sunday that he will not join.

'No one from New Jersey is going to the game,' he said. 'It's too expensive.'

Pickboy, a colorful Nickelodeon superhero character, with a cape and Long Ranger-like mask, was interviewing players for a Super Bowl kids' special. 'We're getting all access,' he said.

And Tommy Kjaersgaard, a Danish television reporter, came as the elusive children's book character Waldo, who is known in Denmark as Holger.

He had covered the Super Bowl several times and observed others wearing goofy, attention-getting outfits.

'So this year I went a lot goofy,' he said and took media day inanity to a new level. 'Another reporter asks players 'Where's Waldo?' while I'm hiding. And Champ Bailey couldn't find me.'

Brett Keisel, the longtime Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end renowned for his long, well-shaped beard, showed up as the hair correspondent for Head & Shoulders shampoo.

Holding a microphone with a Head & Shoulders tag attached to it, he was being interviewed more than he was interviewing players about their grooming and facial hair habits.

'Of course, I'd rather be playing,' he said. 'I'm asking players hair questions and about their hair superstitions.'

That's not strange, at all, by media day standards.

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