Signals turn out to be really fuzzy in Detroit
There went the Steelers’ Immaculate Reception marketing blitz. Alas, Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field ranks only 15th out of the NFL’s 31 venues when it comes to fans’ ability to access wireless networks, according to a study by RootMetrics.com. (For the record, the 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium is the best and the Lions’ Ford Field is the worst.)
HEADLINES
•At SportsPickle.com: “Peyton Manning advises Tom Brady: ‘Just tell everyone your wife deflated those footballs.’”
•At TheOnion.com: “Andy Reid furious at self for poor clock management at end of 72-ounce steak challenge.”
PASS THE PRETZELS
What, you think Temple’s gymnastics team bus getting stranded for hours on the snow-gorged Pennsylvania Turnpike is any big deal? “We are a gymnastics team,” Owls’ coach Umme Salim-Beasley told ESPN, “so we can get into positions that most people won’t be able to get into.”
LIMITED LEGROOM
Also getting stuck overnight on the Pennsylvania Turnpike — at the opposite end of the size spectrum — was the bus transporting the Duquesne men’s basketball team. In hindsight, that was probably a bad travelling call.
HOLD YOUR SNICKERS
Cavs’ superstar LeBron James says he was “surprised and caught off guard” by the firing of coach David Blatt. So, no more nominations, please — the 2015 winner of the Steve Urkel “Did I Do That?” Award is in the bag.
NEED AN EXTRA YARD?
Chip Kelly’s five-bedroom home in Haddonfield, N.J., is back on the market for $1.2 million — less than two months after he bought it and was subsequently fired as Philadelphia Eagles coach. To no one’s surprise, real-estate agents predict it’s going to go quickly.
TALKO TIME
•Janice Hough of LeftCoastSportsBabe.com, on the Seattle Seahawks’ assertion that RB Marshawn Lynch is “leaning toward retirement”: “So Lynch wants to spend more time not talking to his family?”
•Brad Dickson of the Omaha (Neb.) WorldHerald, on a Seattle auto dealership teaming with Lynch on a new “Beastmode Jeep:” “I’m guessing this isn’t one of those talking cars.”
•Washington Capitals’ star Alexander Ovechkin, to D.C.’s WUSA-TV, when asked if he was prepared for the East Coast blizzard: “We’re from Russia.”
•RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com, after Maria Sharapova recorded her 600th career win, at the Australian Open in Melbourne: “Excited? On match point they heard her in Sydney.”
MEET HURRICANE DICK
Greenpeace claims that China’s worsening air quality is due to a windless winter there. Problem solved! We’ll just lend them broadcaster Dick Vitale for a few days.