HOUSTON GOING GAGA OVER THE SUPER BOWL.
SUPER BOWL WEEK A VERY STRANGE RIDE
Terry Bradshaw stood up at the news conference for the Super Bowl LI halftime show and he stammered out the preamble to a question.
“You are the biggest star I’ve ever looked at,” he said to Lady Gaga. She smiled demurely. She probably gets that a lot.
And then Bradshaw, four- time Super Bowl champion, member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, analyst who appears on live national television for long stretches every week from September to February, told Ms. Gaga his favourite song of hers was Edge of Glory. Would she be playing it on Sunday?
Gaga refused to divulge the set list before saying that her grandmother is a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan. “She is wigging out on the couch right now,” Gaga said.
“Is she a single lady?” Bradshaw said. “Actually, my wife is right here. That’s just a funny line.” Laughter rolled through the room.
“She’s a widow,” Gaga said. No one was sure what the appropriate response was. Then Gaga asked Bradshaw to wish her grandma a happy birthday. He obliged. Big fan and all. And so, two questions in to the news conference, we had dipped into the surreal.
It was fitting, because although there are two teams here this week that insist they are trying to treat this like just another game, it rarely takes long before there is a reminder this is a week unlike any other in football. One minute Matt Ryan is answering a question about pass protection and the next he’s being interviewed by two guys from Austrian television dressed as Cinderella and the prince.
“Strong outfit,” he says to the prince.
One minute Papa John — the titular head of a pizza empire — is walking through the area of the media centre known as radio row and the next minute he is doing an interview on air as a large throng of onlookers forms around him. It is unclear why so many are interested in the football- related musings of Papa John.
One minute people are talki ng about that time the New York Giants beat Tom Brady in the Super Bowl by pressuring him in the pocket and the next minute one of those Giants, Osi Umenyiora, is standing up at a news conference to ask Lady Gaga the correct lyrics to Paparazzi ( it would seem Umenyiora is unfamiliar with Google).
It is all a very strange ride. The thinking here is the New England Patriots will have a tremendous advantage because so many of them have visited the circus before, but Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn is serving his third tour of Super Bowl week in four seasons after two appearances as defensive co- ordinator for the Seattle Seahawks.
Quinn, who utters a more or less constant stream of motivational phrases — he says he speaks in the language of bumper stickers — says he has been talking to the Falcons all week about the importance of sticking to the process they have used all year. As such, he said Thursday, they would continue their usual practice of dedicating the day to the football.
To be clear, they are not devoting themselves to the football like it is some kind of Old Testament false idol, but stressing the importance of not turning the ball over. So for the Falcons, who might be overwhelmed by the oddity of Super Bowl week’s many demands — the whole team had to be available for interviews and even the third-string quarterback ends up doing a long sit- down with a reporter — the routine of normal things is supposed to help them stay grounded. So Thursday is Football Day. Saturday is Movie Night, when Quinn chooses some sort of pop- culture item, makes the team consume it as a group and then makes it relate to football somehow.
Ryan, the star quarterback, has said the routines are helpful, but he ultimately thinks that once the game begins, football is football.
The game might be normal and to be honest it would be a welcome change. Before Lady Gaga spoke Thursday, it was country star Luke Bryan, who will sing the national anthem Sunday, who took to the stage. He said he doesn’t know if he will go long with his performance, frustrating the gamblers who want to know if they should bet the over — Vegas has it pegged at two minutes, nine seconds — and he said he has been watching a lot of clips of previous anthem performances. Which is wise, as anyone in football will tell you: film work is important. Bryan was asked if he would be thinking of the troops while singing the anthem and, wouldn’t you know it, he said he sure would. It is not particularly good business for a country singer to be soft on troops.
Thursday did have a brief respite from the goofiness when Lady Gaga was asked if she would be making any statements during her 13- minute show given, you know, things.
“The only statements that I’ll be making during the halftime show are the ones I’ve been consistently making throughout my career,” she said. “I believe in a passion for inclusion, I believe in a spirit of equality and that the spirit of this country is one of compassion and love and kindness, so my performance will uphold those philosophies.”
And it was suggested she might try to “unify America,” Lady Gaga, reasonably, demurred.
“I don’t know if I will succeed in unifying America,” she said. “You’ll have to ask America when it’s over.”
I suspect I already know what the answer will be.
I DON’T KNOW IF I WILL SUCCEED IN UNIFYING AMERICA.