Packers take spotlight: Patriots seek recognition
■ SUPER BOWL: Green Bay claims
it’s not overly confidant
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — One team has seized
the spotlight and enjoyed the glare. The oth
er is seeking both as an affirmation of its sta
tus.
How come it’s the team from that small
town in middle America that gets nearly all
the attention, and the guys from a north
eastern hub who can’t get noticed?
The Green Bay Packers, staking a strong
claim for replacing the Dallas Cowboys as
America’s Team, have the stars and the sto
ries, the heroes and the history.
Brett Favre is a two-time MVP who has
overcome an addiction to pain-killers and
a painful offseason of personal tragedies.
Reggie White is the career sacks leader and
an ordained minister whose church in Ten
nessee was torched a year ago. They have
led the famed franchise to its first Super
Bowl in 29 years, reviving tales of Lombar
di and Lambeau, of the Ice Bowl and 11
NFL titles.
They clearly have arrived at the center of
the sports stage.
“It seems like the whole world is watch
ing,” defensive tackle
Santana Dotson said.
“The whole world would
like to hear your views on
different situations and
what you’re thinking
about the game. I think
there are several million
people that would love to
trade places with me on
Sunday.”
Of course, those mil
lions couldn’t do the job
the Packers have done to earn the acclaim
they are receiving.
Or deal with it so well, offensive coordi
nator Fritz Shurmur said Thursday.
“Because of everybody anointing us as
the Super Bowl team — everybody hut us
— I’m impressed with how we’ve handled
SUNDAY
■ KICKOFF:
3:18 p.m. Fox (5)
■ PREGAME:
noon Fox (5)
it,” Shurmur admitted. “We’d hardly been
around the block, and all these people were
saying .we would be here.
“This team has done a marvelous job of
handling every situation and all the predic
tions. You talk about character and dignity
and doing their job with all these things go
ing on around them, it all applies to this
team.”
It’s all been written and broadcast, dis
sected and analyzed. Yet, the Packers
claim, no one is getting a big head or being
carried away on the stream of adulation. In
stead, they are sharing the praise.
“We have had an unselfish group for the
last two years, and I’m sure it has helped us
win games,” coach Mike Holmgren said.
While the New England Patriots seem to
get along just as well together, they do it in
relative anonymity. Except for coach Bill
Parcells, 2-0 in Super Bowls with the New
York Giants, and perhaps quarterback Drew
Bledsoe — for being the top overall draft
pick in 1993 and not for the kind of things
Favre has achieved as a pro — the Patriots
are a somewhat faceless bunch.
Bledsoe sees positives and negatives in
the situation.
“No. 1, we don’t have the same amount
of demands on us as the Packers do,” Bled
soe said, “and No. 2, we are using it as mo
tivation. If you’re a regular guy, all you see
and hear is Packers.”
The Patriots sure would like to get some
of that recognition, and they understand
the best way to do so is to win Sunday.
That, of course, is a king-sized challenge be
cause they are 14-point underdogs and the
AFC has lost 12 straight Super Bowls.
“It’s kind of frustrating that we’re not get
ting the respect that they are,” Patriots cor
nerback Ty Law said, “because we are a
good football team, too. 1 don’t think any
body has recognized that. 1 think a lot of
guys are going to take that personally and,
hopefully, that will help them fuel the fire
and make them drive to want to win this
thing.”
And win away the spotlight.
Don’t touch that dial;
halftime is half the fun
■ CELEBRATION: The NFL
is spending $1.2 million on
“The Blues Brothers Bash”
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — If you
think a halftime show is a
bunch of people tooting trom
bones and marching in precise
cadence, you probably think
football is just a game.
The NFL wants you to be
lieve that neither of the above
is true.
“Some time ago the NFL de
cided that the Super Bowl is
one of the great entertainment
spectacles,” said Dennis De
spie, president of Select Pro
ductions International, produc
ers of the Super Bowl halftime
show for the sixth time. “The
halftime show is just an exten
sion of the total extravaganza. ’ ’
This year the NFL is spend
ing $1.2 million on “The Blues
Brothers Bash” featuring James
Brown, ZZ Top, Dan Aykroyd,
James Belushi and John Good
man, the latest incarnation of
the singing group that started
on “Saturday Night Live.”
In these days of superstars
being delivered by helicopter,
booming fireworks, dancers by
the hundreds and sets that put
Broadway musicals to shame,
it’s hard to believe the Super
Bowl halftime show was pretty
standard stuff for the first 24
years.
Until 1990, the Super Bowl
halftime consisted of college
marching bands and maybe the
singing group “Up With Peo
pie” for a couple of uplifting
numbers for the folks in the
stands. Then Despie decided
the game, which also was in the
Superdome that year, needed a
little something extra to com
pete with the massive building.
Despie used a giant riverboat
as a stage and put entertainers
Pete Fountain and Doug Ker
shaw on board for halftime.
Since then, things have been
getting bigger and glitzier every
year.
The NFL got serious about
the halftime show after Fox
Network aired a live segment of
‘‘In Living Color” in 1992.
Fox’s effort got some viewers to
flip channels and made league
officials anxious to stop any fu
ture encroachments.
“It raised awareness that
more emphasis needed to be
put on the halftime show,” De
spie said. “Michael Jackson
was the headliner for the show
the next year, so you can see a
certain determination not to
lose the rating war.”
In the past six years, the half
time show has had higher rat
ings than the game twice, and
it has been within 0.5 of the
game ratings four times, Despie
said.
This year’s showcase of soul,
blues and rock & roll was con
ceived by Radio City Produc
tions. The 10-minute show will
have 1,000 performers and
more than 500 crew members.
It will be seen by almost 80,000
people in the Superdome and
an estimated 800 million tele
vision viewers worldwide.
rnitrnn
' 25% OFF SPEAKERS
15% OFF ELECTRONICS
(off reg. price)
For U of O Students/Employees
ONKYO • DENON • SONY • PIONEER • MIRAGE • JVC • JBL
Favre’s hometown celebrates
■ PLAYER: The small town is
now famous for producing
the Packers’ quarterback
The Associated Press
KILN, Miss. — The first time
Brett Favre brought his Southern
Mississippi roommate home for a
visit, Chris Ryals thought he had
stepped into a scene from “Deliv
erance.”
“There was one flashing light
and a sign,” Ryals recalled. “I said,
‘This is it?’ I thought I was from
nowhere. He’s from nowhere.”
Compared to Kiln — pro
nounced Kill, and called The Kill
— Ryals’ hometown of Purvis,
Miss., population 2,000, is a me
tropolis. Kiln has about 1,200 resi
dents, not counting the creepy
crawly ones. “There are snakes
and mosquitoes that can carry you
away,” Ryals said.
So what’s there to do in Kiln?
“The VFW had slot machines,”
he said. “There was not a whole
lot else to show off. There’s not a
lot of scenery there.”
Favre directed his buddy up a
side road through some brush and
pines to the family homestead.
When Mark McHale, the Southern
Miss coach who recruited the
quarterback, visited the house,
one thought crossed his mind. “I
said to myself, ‘Why do they live
back in here?’ ”
Because it’s home for Bonita
and Irvin Favre, that’s why.
“It’s kind of laid back here,
nothing flashy,” Irvin Favre said.
“There’s good hunting and good
eating places. If you live here, you
don’t want to leave.”
To get to Kiln, travel east of New
Orleans about 50 miles. Past
Slidell, where Wild Bill’s Fire
works is offering a buy-one-get
one-free sale, turn north on state
highway 603. When the road goes
from four lanes to two and you see
Rooster’s Restaurant and Deli,
you’re there.
The town library looks like a
one-room schoolhouse. The gas
station sells regular for $1.21 a gal
lon and premium for $ 1.37. Roost
er’s specializes in seafood, craw
fish etoufee and shrimp creole. If
you’re looking for a little down
and-dirty setting, head for The
Broke Spoke, decorated in alliga
tor and rat
tlesnake skins.
See? Ryals
wasn’t kidding.
Irvin and
Bonita raised
three boys in this sleepy town. All
of them played quarterback for Ir
win, who coached football at Han
cock North Central High School.
“That’s because I got tired of being
the quarterback myself,” Irwin
said. “I’d go out there and say
‘Where’s so-and-so today?’ and
they’d say, ‘Oh, he’s not here.’ So I
got to be the quarterback. I decided
to make my boys quarterbacks.
All three Favre quarterbacks
were also baseball pitchers. Brett
had three important things going
for him, according to his father.
“He has a strong arm. He's smart
with good football sense, and he’s
abigkid.”
That was what McHale heard
while recruiting for Southern Miss
a decade ago. So he moseyed over
to Kiln for a look-see.
“What I saw was an average,
slow, white boy, who kept hand
ing the ball off to the tailback,” he
said. "I think he threw two passes.”
Hardly enough to judge him by.
“1 told Irwin. He told me to come
back the next week and he’d open
it up,” McHale said. “I think he
threw four passes the next time.”
Irwin scratched his ’50s crew
cut when he was asked about Han
cock North Central’s offense.
"That’s how we got by in high
school,” he said. “We ran a misdi
rection offense at those big, slop
py kids. We’re not good enough to
win throwing the football every
time. I was out to win games, not
showcase Brett Favre.”
McHale arrived early enough to
watch warmups and decided the
kid from Kiln had a major league
arm. There wasn’t much recruit
ing competition for him, though.
“Not a lot of Division 1A schools
look at our kids,” Irwin Favre said.
Brett Favre spent his time at
Southern Miss much the way he
did at The Kill. He’d go on road
trips carrying nothing more than
his toothbrush, figuring he could
borrow the other necessities like
toothpaste and a hairbrush from
Ryals.
There were frequent battles for
the TV remote. “He liked the Dis
covery channel,” Ryals said. “I
guess those animals reminded
him of home.”
Favre is a T-shirt, shorts and
flip-flops sort of guy. “That’s
Brett," his father said. “He doesn’t
want to be anyone but Brett.”
The big money he earns as an
NFL quarterback has not changed
his buddy, Ryals said. One time,
they were attending a wedding of
a friend in Birmingham, Ala.
Favre said he needed some mon
ey and went to an automatic teller
machine.
“He came back with a $5 bill,”
Ryals said. “He had $67,000 in the
account and he comes back with a
$5 bill. He had to pay $2 to get that
$5. That’s Brett Favre.”
It’s unclear whether Favre ever
had any experience with ATMs in
Kiln. It’s unclear whether there are
any ATMs in Kiln.
“Hope you enjoy your visit," Ir
win Favre said.
Then he turned to one of the lo
cals and said, “Let’s go fishin’.”
Musique Gourmet
Catering to the
Discriminating Collector
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED
CLASSICAL MUSIC, OPERA,
BROADWAY & FILM SCORES
ON COMPACT DISC
CD’S FROM $5.95
In the Fifthpearl Building '^d'^-Qfinn
207 E. 5th Avenue
OPEN 7 DAYS Free Parking 1 e ' -s-i
Ski and
Snowboard
Rentals
Downhill..*10 flay
Cross Country....*7&vr
Snowboard.s25S;
& Boots
VERSONS
■PQBTINO UaoUU
■ALIM 'ALBANY
IB - CUQEUE
199 W. 8th Eugene • 484-7344