Super Bowl Blitz: News and notes from Tampa
 
Cup o' Joe: Getting back to business
 
Cup o' Joe: My day with the Ravens
 
Cup o' Joe: Media blitz
 
Cup o' Joe: Good memories of Tampa?
 
Saturday, January 27
TGIF? Sometimes, Friday means trouble
By Joe Theismann
Special to ESPN.com

TAMPA, Fla. -- From a player's standpoint, Friday is the biggest day of Super Bowl week. Now they start to get some time for themselves. But what do the players do with their time -- go out to dinner, spend time with your just-arriving families? Players have to deal with reservations for mom and dad, or babysitters for the children.

Michael McCrary
Michael McCrary and his Ravens teammates must stay out of trouble this weekend.
The players can feel like prisoners in their hotel. They can't go out to dinner -- or anywhere -- without being bothered. And if they go out, there is the potential for something bad to happen.

At the beginning of the week, I guaranteed that one of the players would get in trouble. But I really thought something would happen on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm thrilled that I have been wrong -- so far. It tells me how much these players care about this football game and their teammates.

Eugene Robinson didn't care about his Atlanta Falcons teammates two years ago in Miami. His arrest on the charge of soliciting a prostitute was one of the disappointing stories in Super Bowl memory. This year, though, it looks like every player cares about his teammates and wants to do everything they can to not distract the organization. Now, I don't think a player will get in trouble.

A Giant gathering
I attended a dinner party Thursday night for Giants coach Jim Fassel hosted by Richard Cohen, president and chairman of Zegna, at Caf� California in Clearwater. More than 100 people attended, including some Giants players -- Ron Stone, Tiki Barber, Jason Sehorn (with his fiancée, Angie Harmon) -- and John and Janet Elway. Harmon was sort of the hit of the party.

Fassel also had his high school coach from Anaheim and his junior-college coach from Fullerton, Calif., at the party. I was honored to be there and be considered among his closest friends. Admittedly, though, I felt awkward walking into the party. It had been reported that I completed four of six passes at the Ravens practice on Wednesday and had later addressed the team.

“ I read you were 4-for-6 (passing). I might have to rethink the game plan if you can thrown against that defense. ”
— Jim Fassel, Giants head coach

Jim said, "I read you were 4-for-6 (passing). I might have to rethink the game plan if you can thrown against that defense."

I said, "If you want, I'll come out and throw at your practice. Just tell me when." And he laughed. The rest of the time we didn't talk about football. It turned out to be a wonderful night to honor a terrific coach.

Still, I felt uneasy because Fassel and Ravens coach Brian Billick are such good friends of mine. Because I have picked the Ravens to win the Super Bowl, it was almost like I had picked a friend. I wanted to say to Fassel, "Even though I didn't pick you to win, please be my friend. Gee, I hope you still like me."

Like Fassel, the Giants players made no mention about predictions. They know I picked them against Minnesota anyway, and they are tickled to be in Tampa.

Staying active
The Super Bowl week has been a lot different than last year's in Atlanta, when it was 30 degrees and icy everyday. If you are going to be somewhere at the end of January, you should be someplace where there is a solid guarantee of outside activities. It might be unfair to a city like Minneapolis. But I'm not an indoor guy. You can only lift so many weights, play so much racquetball, watch so much TV, and eat so much food. What else are you going to do in late January in Minnesota? Because I love golf, part of being at a Super Bowl is being able to get outside.

I played golf on Friday morning at Old Memorial and played lousy, shooting an 83 -- 38 on the front nine, 45 on the back. There was an hour-and-a-half frost delay, so my 8:30 a.m. tee time was delayed until 10. I played with Bob Bashem, one of the principal owners of Outback Steakhouses, and some friends from San Diego. The greens at Old Memorial are double cut and rolled, which makes them a lot like Pinehurst No. 2 for the U.S. Open. The fairways and greens are like concrete, so you have to leave your shots short of the green.

On Friday night, I planned to finish the day with a cocktail party for NCR. I was going to meet with top executives from 50 of the Fortune 500 companies around the world. I will talk about what will happen in Sunday's Super Bowl and about my experiences playing in two of them. I will bring some of the executives up and put them in formations, like one with two tight ends and also the bunch formation. I love audience participation. I want them to have a visual of what the game will look like.

I have been running on adrenaline all week, sleeping on only about six hours a night. If I want to play golf, I leave the hotel by 6:30 or 7 a.m. I thrive on all the activity and never tire of it. I appreciate it when people think enough of me to ask for an autograph or talk to me about the Super Bowl.

As one of only 21 Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks, I'm lucky to have accomplished something few people could ever dream of. So if there is a week to get busy, this is the one. This is bigger than Mardi Gras -- it's like Mardi Gras every day.

Former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann works as a game analyst for ESPN's Sunday Night Football. He will give his thoughts each day from Tampa in the Super Bowl version of his "Cup o' Joe" feature.

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