Despite all the attention and hype for the Super Bowl, two no-nonsense football teams with two knowledgeable, football-focused fan bases might get just what they deserve Sunday -- a no-nonsense broadcast.In fact, for the Fox Sports broadcast team, the gameday approach sounds similar to what the on-field teams inevitably preach at this point.
"We have to do what we've been doing all season long, the same thing we've done every week," said director Rich Russo. "Joe (Buck) and Troy (Aikman) drive the ship and we support them. They know the pace of a good broadcast and they know football.
"Joe's really good at not over-talking a moment -- he has a great feel for that -- and Troy makes his football points clearly and quickly. They're really good at what we do, and our entire team is good at what it does. So that's what we'll do.
"We're not going to pull back on our football focus. For the casual fans who are watching, I think they'll pick things up without us going out of our way."
If the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers cooperate by staging a competitive contest, Super Bowl XLV might end up as the most-watched program in TV history. (A close game would keep more viewers until the end.)
Honestly, though, that "most-watched" thing could happen no matter what the result. Based on the general popularity of the teams and the TV ratings dominance of everything NFL throughout the season, it should be another super audience for the season-ending game.
Last year's game, with the New Orleans Saints (and their rags-to-riches/underdog storyline) vs Indianapolis Colts (with charismatic QB Peyton Manning) was the most-watched TV show of ever, attracting 153.4 million total viewers. Each of the past three Super Bowls has set a record for average audience.
While Russo and his team have more bells and whistles for this broadcast (42 cameras compared to 15 for a regular-season game), he said nothing really changes about the job.
"We have all we normally have and more, so each of those additional cameras has a specific purpose," he said. "They're just ways to enhance what we do and in the end our job is to get the right shots at the right time."
Regular meetings with each of the teams earlier this week (the Steelers on Wednesday and the Packers on Thursday) helped with final preparation, and the broadcast team has worked several games at Cowboys Stadium so they're familiar with the surroundings. Russo said the stadium "shoots well."
The broadcast team should be especially familiar with the Packers because they've handled the team's past six games. Buck-Aikman with Russo-producer Richie Zyontz also worked the 2009 regular season game between the two teams that resulted in a 37-36 Steelers victory.
While he always worries about things he cannot control, Russo has the utmost confidence in his team and its preparation.
"Our team puts in hours and hours of preparation so they're able to react, immediately, to what happens," he said. "Is it a two-receiver set? A five-receiver set? What are a team’s tendencies? In terms of directing, I do equate it to playing -- being able to adapt or react to what happens as soon as it happens. And we’re all competitive. We want to produce the best broadcast possible."
A football-first approach represents be a big step toward making that happen.
Interesting interviews among pregame fare
The separate pregame show on Fox (Russo and his team do not take over until 6 p.m. for the 6:29 p.m. kickoff) features two potentially interesting interviews.
For the casual fan, there's President Obama with Bill O'Reilly of Fox News sometime after 4:30 p.m. Probably not many fireworks, but the master of no spin might attempt to spin it that way. And, any interview with a sitting president could prove newsworthy.
An hour later, analyst and former Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw sits down with Ben Roethlisberger.
Bradshaw has been publicly critical of Big Ben several times in the past few years and they were actually were given 10 minutes alone (with no Fox officials and no team representatives) to talk before the interview was taped earlier this week at Cowboys Stadium.
A Saturday night selection show, good radio and "Glee"
- The NFL Network has the live announcement of the latest Pro Football Hall of Fame class at 7 p.m. Saturday. While the show had an NFL Draft feel last year, it also felt a little more voyeuristic in the past because a first-round draft pick who falls must wait only one more day, at most, to be picked while a former player who misses out on the Hall misses out for a year, at least. Hopefully that will be different this year.
- "Mike and Mike in the Morning" kicks things off for ESPN Radio on Sunday morning with their usual show from the game site beginning at 6 a.m. Sometimes it's not as strong as what they've done during the week, but it does give talk radio's best national tandem a prominent presence the day of the game. Plus, with ESPN's power they'll have good guests.
- One of Fox's strongest shows, "Glee," gets the post-Super Bowl slot for an hour-long show starting at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday. While the winning fan base might be ready so sing along, the engaging show might even make it easier for fans of the losing team, too.
Nope, not about to forget the commercials. It's the Super Bowl, after all.
Ads cost as much as $3 million for a 30-second spot this year, and many of the usual big names return -- Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, E-Trade and movie studios with trailers for summer movies (including "Captain America"). Newcomers include online coupon company Groupon, HomeAway (vacation home rentals) and a supposedly racy Kardashian-related commercial for Sketchers sneakers.
Some companies have already promoted "banned" ads online, and the connection between TV and online could limit some advertisers, who might try to hard to push people to their sites rather than sell their products. It is a delicate balance.
As always, though, expect that balance to tip in favor of humor. The Clydesdales are slated to return again, too.
Here's a look at a Volkswagen commercial that was posted online in advance of the game and drew more than 5 million hits during its first 24 hours on the web. If there others meet this standard (even if you know where the commercial is going), the breaks in the game Sunday should be fun.