Sports Radio Interviews

New York Likes Its Chances to Host Super Bowl XLVIII

The city of New York has officially put in its bid to host Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014.  Boththe New York Giants and New York Jets are working collaboratively to bring the NFL’s most prized game to the Big Apple.  The NYC seems like a perfect fit for the game and it makes a lot of sense for both the city and the two franchises.  The New Meadowlands Stadium has not been able to sell the naming rights as of yet, but one would think that if they were to win the bid, there will be corporations lining up at the door wanting to bid for the naming rights. 

In reality, Super Bowl week is just one big party and what better place to host it than in New York City.  For those that like to party, there are plenty of restaurants and nightclubs for everybody to go out and be seen, and if you want to bring the family along, there are plenty of museums and sights to see in the Big Apple.  If New York City were to host Super Bowl XLVIII, this would be the first time that the Super Bowl would be played outside in cold weather and just the fourth time the game would be played in a northern city because the NFL has a rule that a host city must have a minimum temperature of fifty degrees in February, or a domed stadium.  May 25^th is when the city of New York and other bidding cities will learn their fate, but I would be surprised if the NFL doesn’t select New York.   

Eli Manning joined ESPN Radio in New York to talk about whether he thinks New York has a chance at getting the Super Bowl in 2014, whether he would be concerned about bad weather during the Super Bowl, how his offseason has been, and whether he is chomping at the bit ready to go.

Whether he thinks New York has a chance at getting the Super Bowl in 2014:

“I think so.  I think that it would be interesting.  It is something different.  To bring a Super Bowl to New York I think it would be pretty fun…  Besides the two teams that are actually playing in the game, for everyone else it is an event.  That is all it is.  It is a big party to do and be seen.  There is no better place to host a huge event and a party than New York City I would say.  I think it is attractive to the fans and an excuse for people to come up to New York and enjoy all of the hotels and restaurants and nightlife and everything that the city has to offer, Broadway plays and do whatever you want.  So from a fan’s perspective I think that it would be very fun and from a player’s and team perspective, obviously the team’s would probably stay out in New Jersey where you would have two, the Giants and the Jets practice facilities, that are brand new to practice at and have your week full of practice and do everything in there.  The stadium has two home locker rooms.  It is not like one team would get the visiting locker room.  A lot of times when you play in the Super Bowl the team with the visiting locker room gets kind of the smaller, worse locker room.  In this case you both have state-of-the-art brand new locker rooms to deal with also.  So I think there are a lot of attractive facts for fans and both teams.”

Whether he would be concerned about bad weather during the Super Bowl:

“No, I mean just because you could be in a playoff game and an NFC Championship game like we were and be in terrible, cold weather and both teams have to deal with it and both teams have to play with it.  That is football.  Sometimes games are played outside, sometimes you get bad weather and that is just part of it, no matter what it is going to be cold.  Come February in the northeast and New York and New Jersey it is going to be cold.  Whether it is cold or those types of conditions you never know.  You never know what you might get and I think that just kind of makes it interesting.  If you look at every Super Bowl film everybody is in short sleeves.  It is warm out, it is not cold.  Sometimes you get rain and it is just the same.  A few years ago the Colts played in Miami supposed to be great weather.  It poured and it rained the whole time.  I don’t know if that is any better than having cold weather.  I would rather play in cold weather than pouring down rain or an entire game.  So I think obviously that is going to be the issue, the circumstance but a lot of games before there were Super Bowls, you look at some of the greatest games ever played, the Colts vs. Giants was played in outdoors and cold weather.  That is kind of old school football and what it is all about a little bit.”

How his offseason has been and whether he is chomping at the bit ready to go:

“Yeah the offseason has been going really well.  We have had great commitment from all of the guys and have been going at it since we reported back March 15.  It has been good.  We have been kind of doing some on the field walkthroughs and different stuff as a team and throwing as receivers just by ourselves and getting ready.  We start OTA’s, which are our practices.  That is when we start our practices with the whole group next week.  So it will be fun to get back out there and start competing and get the whole team and running plays and doing seven on seven and doing some of these team drills.  We just wear helmets so it is more kind of like a spring training, a spring warm-up.  Start getting the rookies in here and everything that is going on.  It is exciting and I am kind of looking forward to getting back into practicing and see where we can improve.”

Whether he thinks the offense will be good despite very few tweaks this offseason:

“Yeah I think our offense is good.  A lot of it is just getting guys back healthy.  Getting Brandon (Jacobs) and Ahmad (Bradshaw) back healthy at the running back, getting Hakeem Nicks back at healthy at receiver, guys who were, last year Kevin Boss…  A lot of these guys, they were playing but they were playing hurt.  We were getting away with it for a while but it kind of just wore over the season.  We kind of felt that our draft and our additions, on the offensive side, were just getting guys healthy and back up to speed.  I think we should be great.  We feel very confident in our guys…  We have talented, young people all around us.  It is just getting everybody to play at their potential.”

Eli Manning on ESPN Radio NY with the Michael Kay Show

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