NEWARK — On the annual sports calendar, Super Bowl Media Day takes the cake in terms of weirdness. Sports and entertainment clash, which doesn't feel healthy. Awful Announcing was there to document the shenanigans and find the 7 Biggest Characters of Media Day in the throng.
Character 1: Um, is that Hank Azaria?
That was actually him, yes, but in character for Rich Eisen's podcast. Hank did not appear to be in a good mood, but maybe it was just the character.
Hank Azaria’s #SB48 pick: “Uhhh… *walks away*” pic.twitter.com/2cg9KtK1qK
— Jesse Spector (@jessespector) January 28, 2014
Character 2: Mozart
(Photo via Amanda Rykoff)
In what might have been the most random Media Day demonstration of all time, a reporter from a Czech television station dressed as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the 18th century composer.
"I thought it would be a fun idea," said Phillip Hajszan, "to bring one of our famous people here."
Character 3: We'll let the pictures do the talking…
This is Brad conducting the most important interview of his journalism career…
(Photo via Amanda Rykoff)
"I'm getting a lot of attention," TV Azteca entertainment reporter Mariana Gonzalez told us. "I'm very happy."
Mission accomplished.
Character 4: Waldo
(Photo via Amanda Rykoff)
Tommy Kjaersgaard from TV3 in Denmark dressed as Waldo in this case. In fact, Champ Bailey was propositioned to find him in the Media Day crowd and failed to do so.
"We’ve been here for the last five or six years doing the journalist’s job covering the media day," he said, "and we saw all these kind of goofy people and we decided this year we were going to be goofy."
"We had a brainstorm, different characters came up and Waldo seemed like the best idea. It’s really international, isn’t it?"
Character 5: Kid reporter!
(Photo via Amanda Rykoff)
What would be Media Day be like without child labor?
Character 6: Superhero!
That's Nickelodeon's Pick Boy, who refused to give us his real name.
Character 7: Ugly sweater guys
Local Denver sportscasters Arran Andersen and Lionel Bienvenu have been wearing these puppies since the regular season concluded.
"We get nasty emails from people if we don't wear them," said Anderson. "Folks in Denver were mad at me because I didn't wear it on Saturday."
However, amazingly, they're not sure if they're going to wear them at Sunday's game.
Oh, and among the thousands of fans in attendance, there was this guy…
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About Brad Gagnon
Brad Gagnon has been passionate about both sports and mass media since he was in diapers -- a passion that won't die until he's in them again. Based in Toronto, he's worked as a national NFL blog editor at theScore.com, a producer and writer at theScore Television Network and a host, reporter and play-by-play voice at Rogers TV. His work has also appeared at CBSSports.com, Deadspin, FoxSports.com, The Guardian, The Hockey News and elsewhere at Comeback Media, but his day gig has him covering the NFL nationally for Bleacher Report.
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