Around the perimeter of the Atlanta sports world.
The general Super Bowl commercials population will be better served by visiting SB Nation's 2011 Super Bowl commercials StoryStream, where video of each of this year's Super Bowl ads will be posted and critiqued almost immediately. They actually already have a few of them up in advance of the game. Impress your friends by quoting Super Bowl commercials as they air!
But we're here to talk about Super Bowl commercials in the context of Atlanta. Which means Coca-Cola commercials.
Instead of getting into a list of Coke's many Super Bowl commercials, because that's pretty much all we have to offer the world (and they're super easy to find), I'd like us to consider this one, a 2007 Chevrolet ad that features T.I., the College Gameday cowboys, and a NASCAR driver, all moved to song by their vehicles. If that doesn't sum up Atlanta for you, well:
Oh, and here's the highest-rated commercial from the Super Bowl that the Atlanta Falcons played in, a Budweiser thing with sad dogs or something:
Your Atlanta sports TV time and channel schedule. All times ET. As always, click on any team's name for complete schedules, scores, and previews, plus an active community devoted to your team. And check ESPN3, too.
Super Bowl XLV
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Green Bay Packers, 6:29, FOX: Actual kickoff time, the time the Super Bowl starts, is listed as 6:29 pm EST. Whether that's the time Christina Aguilera starts going RRRRRRR all throughout the national anthem, Joe Buck starts nagging us for wishing Ben Roethlisberger would cease his rapes, the referee previews the nine-step Organic Spicy Ranch Fritos Coin Flip process that is much better than just flipping an actual coin, or toe actually meets leather, who knows.
We have some locally relevant Super Bowl stories here, .com will be covering the game and everything else (commercials, recipes, videos, the scene in Dallas, live score updates, and so on) to such a degree that I'll just point you somewhere as vague as here for total Super Bowl bombardment, Packers fans should head to Acme Packing Company, and Steelers fans should take their business to Behind The Steel Curtain and SB Nation Pittsburgh.
Super Bowl Pregame, Pre-pregame, IT'S ALREADY HAPPENING GO GO GO, Postgame, O'Reilly-Obama
NFL Gameday Morning, 9 am, NFL Network (If you really, really want to, you can watch absolutely nothing but Super Bowl from this point on today. In fact, you already missed a Super Bowl edition of NFL Total Access! Why did you miss it! Time's a-wastin'!)
Sunday NFL Countdown, 10, ESPN
Road to the Super Bowl, noon, FOX
Troy Aikman talks about quarterbacks or something, 1, FOX
Super Bowl Pregame Show, 2, FOX
2011 All-Star Football Challenge, 4, ESPN2
Bill O'Reilly interviews President Obama, 4:30ish, FOX
NFL Gameday Final, 10, NFL Network
NFL Primetime, 10:30, ESPN
Basketball
Michigan St. Spartans at Wisconsin Badgers, 1, CBS
Alabama Crimson Tide at Georgia Bulldogs, 1, SportSouth (Women)
Florida St. Seminoles at North Carolina Tar Heels, 2, Fox Sports South
Ohio St. Buckeyes, at Minnesota Golden Gophers, 2, ESPN
Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics, 2:30, ABC
Hockey
Pittsburgh Penguins at Washington Capitals, 12:30, NBC
To get daily Atlanta sports TV schedules (and so much more!) delivered to your door, follow @SBNAtlanta on Twitter, Like SB Nation Atlanta on Facebook, or subscribe to our RSS feed.
Atlanta's Usher will contribue a surprise performance to [SPOILER ALERT] the Super Bowl XLV halftime show, scheduled to feature the Black Eyed Peas, according to an AP report. Slash of Guns 'N Roses fame is also reportedly set to walk around and play a crammed-in guitar solo for money, as he remains to this day the only guitar player besides Carlos Santana that any currently popular musician has ever heard of.
Congratulations, Atlanta, you're now partially responsible for the most OK part of what's expected to be among the most embarrassing Super Bowl halftime shows ever.
Usher features one of the various Peas as a guest on his hit "OMG," an otherwise all right song that I assume will be performed. The North Springs High alum may also join in on a special and timely Super Bowl version of "Where Is The Love," updated to include a line about how Mike Tomlin could fix Egypt if we'd let him, but that's just pure and wild speculation on my part.
The good news is we're one step closer to Lil Jon performing the national anthem.
Now here's something: ESPN analyst Desmond Howard is tweeting as we speak that CBS' Phil Simms has threatened him with physical violence over Howard's claim that Tennessee Volunteers QB Matt Simms is among the SEC's worst quarterbacks. Howard apparently slammed the younger Simms before this season's game between Tennessee and the LSU Tigers, which stuck in Phil's mind until today.
Howard:
At NFL-Xperience and Phil Simms just threatened 2 hit me b/c I said his son was 1 of the worse QBs in the SEC. I told him "LET'S GO!" I am DEAD serious about the Phil Simms thing. We all thought he was joking, but he kept going and said he wanted 2 take a swing at me!! During the season we talked about the Tenn v LSU game and I said "u will see 3 of the worse QBs in the SEC" That's what Phil did not like. It ended w/police stepping in between so I could continue my appearance w/fans.
Howard is likely still in decent shape and is a much younger man, but Simms has a drastic height, weight, and reach advantage here. Who ya got?
Based on passer rating, Matt Simms was No. 8 of 12 eligible SEC quarterbacks in 2010. Freshman Tyler Bray took over as Tennessee's starter late in the season, a job he's the clear frontrunner for heading into 2011. So Simms isn't quite the worst, at least.
The CBS color commentator and former New York Giants great is developing a reputation as football's most overprotective dad. Simms also got into it with Steve Young a few years ago over criticism of Matt's brother Chris, who was then a passer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Your Atlanta sports TV time and channel schedule. All times ET. As always, click on any team's name for complete schedules, scores, and previews, plus an active community devoted to your team. And check ESPN3, too.
NFL Football
Pro Football Hall of Fame Finalist Announcement Show, 7, NFL Network: Watch as Atlanta Falcons Ring of Honor member Deion Sanders is announced by his employer as a future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee. Brief Falcon Chris Doleman is also up for the vote, though he's not quite the sure thing Sanders is. You'll excuse me if I'm making too big a deal of this -- Sanders is my favorite athlete ever.
Coverage here on Sanders and Doleman, here's a complete list of finalists, and SB Nation's NFL hub will have coverage of all the non-Falcons.
NBA Basketball
Atlanta Hawks at Washington Wizards, 7, SportSouth: Al Horford's status is still up in the air after the hit the All-Star took from Blake Griffin last night. Check out our AHawks-Wizards coverage for more.
Chicago Bulls at Golden State Warriors, 10:30, WGN
Hockey
Atlanta Thrashers at Carolina Hurricanes, 7, Fox Sports South
College Basketball
West Virginia Mountaineers at Villanova Wildcats, noon, ESPN
Providence at Georgetown Hoyas, noon, ESPN3
Clemson Tigers at Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, 1, WATL Coverage here
Samford at Georgia Southern Eagles, 1, SportSouth
Auburn Tigers at Georgia Bulldogs, 1:30, WPCH Coverage here
Baylor Bears at Texas A&M Aggies, 2, ESPN
UNLV Runnin' Rebels at BYU Cougars, 4, Versus
Kansas Jayhawks at Nebraska Cornhuskers, 4, ESPN3
Washington Huskies at Oregon Ducks, 4, SportSouth
Mississippi St. Bulldogs at LSU Tigers, 4, WPCH
Memphis Tigers at Gonzaga Bulldogs, 4, ESPN
Iowa Hawkeyes at Indiana Hoosiers, 4, ESPN2
Alabama Crimson Tide at Tennessee Voluteers, 5, Fox Sports South
N.C. State Wolfpack at Duke Blue Devils, 6, ESPN
Mississippi Rebels at Arkansas Razorbacks, 6, ESPN3
Connecticut Huskies at Seton Hall, 7, ESPN3
Kentucky Wildcats at Florida Gators, 9, ESPN
Texas Tech Red Raiders at Texas Longhorns, 9, ESPN3
To get daily Atlanta sports TV schedules (and so much more!) delivered to your door, follow @SBNAtlanta on Twitter, Like SB Nation Atlanta on Facebook, or subscribe to our RSS feed.
The ending of the Atlanta Hawks-Los Angeles Clippers games was one of the more intense games of the season for both clubs.
Atlanta trailed by one with 3.3 seconds remaining when Joe Johnson found Al Horford with the inbound pass. Horford faked the pass back to Johnson and drove down the lane, where he met Clippers rookie sensation Blake Griffin. Griffin put a smacking on Horford that was as hard as anything you'd ever see in the NBA.
The rookie from Oklahoma was whistled for a flagrant-1, while Horford writhed on the Philips Arena court in obvious pain. After spending some time with Atlanta's trainer, the gutty Horford shook off the pain, headed to the line and nailed a pair of free throws with 0.6 seconds left to seal a thrilling 101-100 Atlanta win.
Big Al loves to watch the fights and used the film of the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" clash between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman to motivate his team in the playoffs against the Boston Celtics a few years ago. On Friday night, Horford showed that he too has the heart of a champion.
Georgia Bulldogs mascot Uga VIII died today, a month after being diagnosed with lymphoma. He was Georgia's on-field mascot only since only October, 2010, when he took over for interim mascot Russ during UGA's homecoming win over the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Russ will again resume mascot duties until a new Uga can be named.
Uga VIII is the school's second white English bulldog mascot to die in the past year-and-a-half. During his time on the job, the football team went 4-3, certainly a better mark than its seasonal total. Funeral ceremonies have yet to be announced.
PETA will now surely once again insist the school begin using an animatronic bulldog as its mascot, dog-lovers will lament the strict breeding that leads to animals prone to illness, and the search will begin for a new dog fit to take over as Uga IX.
To join a discussion on the matter of the deceased Uga VIII, visit Dawg Sports.
Yeah, it's been snowing in Dallas all throughout Super Bowl XLV week, though temperatures are forecasted to rise above freezing for tomorrow and game day. Jerry Jones' thunder is being stolen, Peter King needs a hug, and the media is terrified of covering a Super Bowl in New York City.
Meanwhile, Atlanta would like an apology for everything you said about Super Bowl XXXIV, please 'n' thanks.
The Thrashers are in the midst of a collapse of their own, but it's always disconcerting to see a player do it. Ondrej Pavelec collapsed just a few minutes in to the first game of the season on October 8th, and was out nearly a month due to an undiagnosed reason.
Fortunately, there was a diagnosed reason for this last night (collapse is at the fifteen second mark):
Freddy Meyer was hit earlier by Calgary forward Tim Jackman, and then was hit again shortly afterward by Curtis Glencross. Meyer said that he felt dizzy and was trying to make it to the bench, but obviously he did not make it. He left the ice under his own abilities, but was out for the rest of the game with an "upper body injury." He'll presumably undergo tests to make sure he is concussion-free.
With Tobais Enstrom also out due to a broken finger on his right hand, the Thrashers are operating with just five healthy defensemen. Expect a call up, possibly in the form of Arturs Kulda, before Saturday evening's game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
I ran across this piece from Kevin Seifert bringing to light a remarkable accomplishment the Green Bay Packers are on the verge of completing. The article notes the Packers could become the first team in 48 years to finish a season having never trailed by more than seven points at any point in a game. That's impressive but I wanted to go further.
I wanted to see which teams in 2010 played the highest percentage of games in which they led at any point. Whether it's a first quarter field goal that gave that team a three-point lead or a fourth quarter touchdown, a lead is a lead. The results were not surprising.
Follow the jump for the rankings.
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Photographs by coka_koehler used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.
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