The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dalls hopes draft party brings Super Bowl back
The Dallas Cowboys want a do-over on hosting the Super Bowl after horrid weather and a seating fiasco ruined their first try seven years ago.
While the wait will easily be more than a decade and with no indication the big game is coming back soon, last weekend’s draft at least showed the NFL that what is becoming its spring Super Bowl went off without a hitch in North Texas.
“Obviously we’ve got a little chip on our shoulder about that one because we had a snowstorm and it didn’t go perfect,” executive vice president Stephen Jones said last week, referring to the 2011 title game. “There’s a big school of thought in the league that these things should go to kind of vacational-type spots, South Florida and Southern California and Phoenix and New Orleans. I get that. We’d still like a redo there.”
The Cowboys hosted the first draft in an NFL stadium, and the league said about 100,000 people showed up in and around AT&T Stadium in Arlington, half
between Dallas and Fort Worth, for the first round Thursday night. Crowd size was limited by the league to about 20,000 indoors, using just one end of the 80,000seat stadium with a retractable roof, which was closed. The largest screens of the giant video board that hangs over the center of the field were mostly out of view.
The theater setup is still preferred by the NFL for an event that spent many years at Radio City Music Hall in New York before back-toback drafts in Chicago and last year’s popular stop in Philadelphia on the steps of the art museum in front of the Rocky statue. This larger venue allowed officials to
try something they’d been thinking about for a while. Groups of seats designated for fans of each team on the field in front of the stage were a hit. The idea derived from political conventions fed what officials thought was an energetic setting.
“It exceeded our expectations in terms of the energy down here,” said Peter O’Reilly, who oversees special events for the NFL.
Vikings: Re-signed cornerback Terence Newman, bringing the NFL’s oldest active defensive player back for a 16th season that will begin five days after he turns 40. Newman, who has played the last three years with the Vikings, has 42 career interceptions to lead all active players in the league.
The Vikings also exercised the fifth-year contract option on cornerback Trae Waynes, and the NFL announced that practice squad wide receiver Cayleb Jones is suspended for the first four games of
the regular season for violating the performance-enhancing substances policy.
Steelers: Released veteran safety J.J. Wilcox just days after selecting a pair of safeties in the NFL draft.
49ers: Exercised a fifthyear option to keep defensive end Arik Armstead under contract through 2019. Armstead played just six games last year before a season-ending broken hand.
Jaguars: Cut veteran punter Brad Nortman and receiver Jaelen Strong.
Browns: Exercised the fifth-year option on defensive back Damarious Randall.
Health issue for Millen: Former NFL player and GM Matt Millen says he is being treated for a rare disease that robbed his heart of most normal function. Millen, 60, said he is diagnosed with amyloidosis, a life-threatening illness that may force him to seek a heart transplant. He said he has been receiving chemotherapy.