Super Bowl: Media Day is a Jersey thing

NFL • Interview sessions take the cold and the home state into account.

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Newark, N.J. • As a concession to what likely will be the coldest Super Bowl in history, the annual Media Day was staged indoors Tuesday.

The event was held at the Prudential Center, home of the NHL's New Jersey Devils, instead of nearby MetLife Stadium. The biggest change was having most players — the ones not assigned to their own podiums — standing behind a barrier, instead of milling around with the media, as was the case on the sideline of stadiums in past years.

"I feel like a farm animal," said Denver Broncos offensive guard Zane Beadles, from the University of Utah.

Super Bowl XLVIII organizers are trying to give New Jersey — the site of the game, after all — its due in what's widely characterized as New York's Super Bowl. The Rutgers University band and a Bruce Springsteen tribute group played during the break between interview sessions. Some 9,000 fans attended the event, with in-house radio access to selected players and coaches.

Disappearing Lynch

Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch showed for Media Day, as scheduled, but did not give much of an effort. He walked away from the 60-minute session after about six minutes, although he later granted an interview to the NFL Network's Deion Sanders. Not much was revealed. Lynch said his approach this week is to "mind my own business, stay in my own lane. … Come game time, though, I'll be there."

Prior to Sunday, however, Lynch faces two more mandatory media sessions at the team's hotel in Jersey City, N.J.

Second chance

As an Arizona cornerback five years ago, Denver's Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was in the frame — along with former BYU safety Aaron Francisco — when Pittsburgh's Santonio Holmes caught the winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl.

"Does it haunt me? Yeah," Rodgers-Cromartie said. "Because every time the Super Bowl comes around, they show that one play with Santonio Holmes catching the ball in the back of the end zone. And you see yourself right there. I was that close to getting a ring. It's always been on my mind. It wasn't my play, I was in the area."

kkragthorpe@sltrib.com