Well, at least one team playing in the Super Bowl has arrived in Houston.
The Atlanta Falcons, making their first appearance in the NFL championship game since 1999 and second overall, arrived Sunday afternoon to little fanfare at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
That was quite the contrast to the sendoff the NFC champs received when they left Atlanta, where thousands of fans lined the streets in midtown, chanting “A-T-L, A-T-L” and other slogans of encouragement. The Falcons’ motorcade went from the team’s facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia, to the airport.
The Falcons beat the Green Bay Packers to qualify for their first Super Bowl since losing to Denver 18 years ago.
PATRIOTS FANS will have one more chance to see the team and wish the players luck before they leave for Houston.
The team is inviting fans to a Super Bowl send-off rally Monday morning at NRG Plaza outside The Hall at Patriot Place.
Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft, Coach Bill Belichick and team captains Tom Brady, Devin McCourty, Dont’a Hightower and Matthew Slater will talk to the crowd before the buses leave Foxborough for Logan International Airport.
The Patriots won their ninth conference championship with a 36-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Jan. 22.
FOOTBALL FANS in the United States will be able to listen to the Super Bowl in eight languages.
SiriusXM will carry the Westwood One national feed in English, plus the local broadcasts of the Falcons and Patriots. And if you speak Spanish, French, Japanese, Mandarin, German, Hungarian or even Flemish, there will be a channel on satellite radio for you.
“It kind of reflects the international nature of the game as it continues to grow both home and abroad,” says Steve Cohen, SiriusXM’s senior vice president of sports programming. “It’s a wonderful thing to be able to give our subscribers who want to hear people talk about the game in their own language.”
Since 2006, SiriusXM has carried broadcasts of the Super Bowl in up to 10 languages. Cohen will be sitting in the stadium on Sunday listening to each of them on the Sirius XM app just to hear how they sound.
One thing always stands out to him: the passion.
“To hear the styles of the broadcasters in the difference languages, I might not be able to understand what they are saying, but I can understand passion and understand excitement,” said Cohen.
“With that excitement comes a cadence where you as the listener figure out when I should start getting excited. The broadcasters get excited before the listener/viewer does if they are doing their job properly.”
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