| |  There's something for everyone on Media Day
By Joe Theismann
Special to ESPN.com
NEW ORLEANS -- Media Day offered no surprises, except that I almost felt like I needed a podium to conduct interviews. Especially during the Patriots' media session, I ended up answering question after question because the media was moving around, looking for someone to talk to.
When the Cowboys used to play in the Super Bowl, they used to have eight or nine star players. The media would gravitate toward them. But the Patriots really only have Drew Bledsoe, Tom Brady and Troy Brown on offense, and Lawyer Milloy, Ty Law and Bryan Cox on defense. There isn't the same star quality.
While there was a newness to the Patriots, the Rams looked comfortable. They seemed familiar with the questions they were asked, based on their Super Bowl experience two years ago. The player who seemed to draw the biggest crowd was Aeneas Williams, and rightfully so, because he is sort of the new kid in town. People want to know how he feels, moreso after being the defensive star in the Rams' last two games.
|  | | Rams cornerback Aenea Williams drew a big crowd on Media Day. |
I like talking to the young players who are experiencing their first Super Bowl. They seem wide-eyed, like "Holy Mackerel!" For the Rams who played in Atlanta two years ago, Sunday's game is a job. Media Day is part of the process. I asked Ricky Proehl if he gets tired of the questions, and he said, "Nah, not really." I remember talking to him two years ago, though, and there was an excitement to everything. This week is like anything else; once you have done it, you get more comfortable. And New Orleans so far is a more comfortable environment than Atlanta was for the Rams.
Don't take "comfortable" to mean "complacent," though. Comfortable on Tuesday doesn't mean anything on Sunday. I don't think the Rams will fall into that trap. They let the season get away from them last year. Had they come back to the Super Bowl for a third consecutive year, maybe there would be some complacency. The Rams are a blue-collar group and single-minded in purpose. I don't see the Rams having an overconfidence. Plus, the Patriots played them very well earlier in the season.
The Patriots, in their one-hour session, acted like they belonged, like they had been here before. The Patriots' previous game against the Rams is critical to their confidence. I have heard the Rams say no one can appreciate their speed until they play them. I asked Patriots safety Lawyer Milloy about the Rams' speed, and he said the first time he lined up against them, he went, "Wow." But now he knows how fast Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt and Az-Zahir Hakim are and how they come out of their routes. He knows how quickly Kurt Warner gets rid of the ball.
Psychologically, the Patriots have an advantage over other teams. Not only have they played them before, but they played them well. It wasn't like they played the Rams and lost 45-0. It was a good, close football game.
I waved hello to Bill Belichick, whom I have known for 20 years. He was answering questions about whether or not he ever played the game, and he said he got into coaching because he wasn't good enough to play.
Our relationship is borne out of respect. I respected the way he designed his defenses, and he respected the way I played against them. Bill is a great guy and funnier than people are led to believe. He is quiet, though, and it takes a while for someone to warm up to him and get comfortable. If you asked someone to pick a music group Belichick would like, someone might say The Lettermen, or something like that. Heck, he likes Bon Jovi.
When he became a head coach in Cleveland, he asked me to spend time with his coaches and to talk about what we did offensively. He felt like I threw the fade as well as anyone in football, and he wanted to know how and why. I worked with the Browns' quarterbacks and ran defensive drills for him.
The Super Bowl setting is good for other people to see Belichick in front of the media and in press conferences. People need to find out more about him. He is more than just "nattily clad," as Chris Berman refers to him in jest. Belichick will come out in a sweatshirt and he doesn't care about having his hair or his suit right. He's a football coach.
I thought his firing in Cleveland was unjust, and it was great to see him get another chance in New England. I told him when he got a head coaching job again he would have to give the media more than short answers. It doesn't matter how good you are; if you don't give them something they want to hear, they won't like you.
I heard Rams coach Mike Martz speaking to the media, and he was talking more about game specifics and the usage of personnel. He is such an X-and-O type of person. At the same time, he was very respectful of what the New England Patriots had accomplished.
It's different for the Rams. They expected to be here. Not that the Patriots are surprised, but there are so many more AFC teams that were capable of being in New Orleans instead of New England. In fact, if the Rams weren't at the Super Bowl, it would be a bigger story. If the Eagles made it instead of the Rams, they would be ticked off because every question would still be about the Rams, not the Eagles.
I got to talk to reporters from Venezuela. They asked how people could get more interested in football in Venezuela, and I told them they needed to start playing at a younger age, like at the high school or the Pop Warner levels. They tried to ask me in Spanish, but I couldn't understand a word.
One German reporter tried to ask me a question in German. Now, my heritage is German, and I took German in high school and in college. But I can only count in German. When he wanted to do the interview in German, I said I would only do it if he had a translator.
Most people wanted to know what I thought about Martz's offense, about Brady and Bledsoe, about how accurate Kurt Warner is, about what it takes to be a Super Bowl quarterback. Oddly enough, though, only two reporters asked me for predictions -- one from Mexico and the other from Germany. It's funny -- that is generally one of the most popular questions. But I won't offer my answer anyway until the end of the week.
A game analyst for ESPN's Sunday Night Football, former NFL QB Joe Theismann won a Super Bowl and a league MVP award. He will contribute a Cup o' Joe for ESPN.com each day during Super Bowl week.
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