44,000 Affected by Blackouts. Those power outages? Those aren’t rolling blackouts. Technically they’re called planned blackouts. Huge difference. Unless you’re shivering in the cold. Then they feel like the same thing.
The Ice Won’t Cost Dallas (or Arlington) Another Super Bowl. That’s what Peter King says. He writes for Sports Illustrated and knows what he’s talking about. It’s all about the size of the stadium and the revenue that can be generated for the NFL owners. But player-turned-analyst Warren Sapp had a different take: “I think y’all need to get a couple more plows. Because if it snowed last year a week later than this date — at the All-Star game where there were 100,000 people — y’all might have wanted to get a couple snow plows in. Y’all don’t have a five day forecast around here or something?”
DMN Editorial Board Tackles Tough Weather Topic. There ought to be a rule: no editorials about the weather. At least not cheeky editorials that begin, “Welcome to North Texas, Super Bowl fans! Cold enough for ya?” No, no, no. If Dallas gets hit by a tornado and our emergency response effort requires comment, then fine. Write about the weather. But not this way. It just seems — I don’t know — weak.
What Super Bowl Cities Are Saying About Dallas. Let’s check in with the newspapers representing the Super Bowl cities’ teams. First up, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The paper actually sent a staff cartoonist to Dallas. But Rob Rogers may as well have stayed in Pittsburgh if he was going to draw stuff like this. Maybe that’s funny in Pittsburgh. I don’t know. Over at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Steelers receiver Hines Ward is calling our own Gromer Jeffers Jr. a liar. Jeffers reported that Ward hit a strip club shortly after the team landed in Dallas. Ward says that’s not true. Finally, Thomas Rozwadowski of the Green Bay Press-Gazette writes of media day: “It was loud, it was crazy, it was a buffet of insanity. But everywhere you turned, there was something to see and capture. Bottom line: it just felt BIG.” Not exactly Red Smith, but probably accurate.