NFL FILMS’ “ROAD TO THE SUPER BOWL” DEBUTS ON CBS AT 12:00 NOON ET ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
40TH Anniversary of Most-Honored Annual Sports Special
One-Hour Special Culled From 1.7 Million Feet of Game Film & 400 Hours of Game Audio from 133 Coaches & Players

How did the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts advance to Super Bowl XLIV in South Florida? Re-live the journey as only NFL Films can present it on “Road to the Super Bowl” on Super Bowl Sunday, February 7 at 12:00 Noon ET on CBS.

“Road to the Super Bowl” begins with Kickoff Weekend and chronicles the 2009 NFL season utilizing NFL Films’ signature captivating video and sound from on the field and in the locker room from exclusive player and coach wirings.

“For those who love football, this show is red meat,” said NFL Films president Steve Sabol. “No interviews, no talking heads, all action.”

“Road to the Super Bowl” celebrates its 40th anniversary this year as the longest-running and most honored (28 Sports Emmys) annual sports special. “Road to the Super Bowl,” which debuted following the 1969 season, was culled by NFL Films producers from more than 1.7 million feet of game footage to 980 feet for the one-hour special. In addition, more than 400 hours of audio were captured from 133 exclusive coach and player on-field wirings. Original orchestral music, including a 60-person choir, was used in producing the show.

Source: NFL Press Release

"PHIL SIMMS ALL-IRON TEAM: SUPER BOWL EDITION" HIGHLIGHTS ALL-TIME SUPER BOWL TEAM TO BE UNVEILED ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY, FEB. 7 ON CBS SPORTS

CBS Sports lead NFL analyst, New York Giants Super Bowl XXI MVP and 15-year NFL veteran Phil Simms, along with his play-by-play partner, Jim Nantz will unveil the PHIL SIMMS ALL-IRON TEAM: SUPER BOWL EDITION on Sunday, Feb.7 (1:00-2:00 PM, ET), prior to THE SUPER BOWL TODAY on the CBS Television Network.

Hosted from Miami, Fla., home of Super Bowl XLIV, this year’s All-Iron Team highlights the All-Time Super Bowl Team. These men make up Simms’ All-Time Super Bowl team that best represent the qualities of Iron Men and have defined their roles in their teams winning a championship.

Traveling all over the world from Hawaii to Ireland, the PHIL SIMMS ALL-IRON TEAM includes the first broadcast interview in 20 years with Jake Scott, a safety from the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins team and Super Bowl VII MVP, who now lives a simple life in Hawaii. The show also looks at a day-in-the-life of Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who is currently serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.

In addition, the one-hour special also includes an in-depth look at legendary defensive guru Buddy Ryan, architect of the famed "46-Defense" which led the Chicago Bears to victory in Super Bowl XX and father of New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan.

The All-Iron Team consists of six Hall of Famers, 37 combined Super Bowl wins, 46 combined Super Bowl appearances, seven combined Super Bowl MVP Awardees and four combined NFL MVPs.

CBS Sports showcases all 12 All-Iron players, coaches and owner with their game highlights and up close and personal profiles, both on and off-the-field.

The All-Iron Team trophy is an old fashion cast "iron" signifying Simms’ obsession with ironing. According to Simms’ mom, Barbara, "As a child Phil even ironed his football and baseball uniforms." To this day, he is still committed to his creases.

Steve Karasik produces and Pete Radovich directs. Mark Wolff is Coordinating Producer of the All-Iron Team.

Source: CBS Press Release

John Czarnecki
foxsports.com

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: These are two evenly matched teams, and many believe the hometown noise in the Superdome will take the Saints to their first Super Bowl. In fact, the Vikings plan to wear ear plugs, especially the offensive linemen and QB Brett Favre, knowing how loud the dome will be.

Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams plans to blitz Favre as much as possible, hoping to put him on the ground as his unit did Kurt Warner last weekend. Of course, the big hit on Warner was Bobby McCray’s block when Warner was chasing one of his interceptions.

However, too much blitzing could open up running lanes for Adrian Peterson, who has been a marked man for opposing defenses. Peterson has gone eight straight games without reaching 100 yards, and his longest run during that span was 23 yards against a horrible Giants defense. The Saints allowed 122 yards rushing a game this season and aren’t known as a good tackling team.

But the Saints do feast on turnovers, +11 on the season in the takeaway department; the only problem there: Minnesota was the NFL’s third-best team protecting the ball this season with just 18 turnovers in 17 games.

On offense, New Orleans plans on using an up-tempo style, maybe even going no-huddle occasionally. There is no doubt New Orleans has a better group of receivers than the Cowboys, and Drew Brees wants to exploit a shaky Minnesota secondary.

The Vikings sacked Tony Romo six times last Sunday, but DE Ray Edwards has a sprained knee. Yes, he will start, but he probably won’t last and he won’t be as quick off the ball. Still, the Saints must protect LT Jermon Bushrod from being dominated by Vikings DE Jared Allen. Look for TEs Jeremy Shockey and David Thomas to help against Allen.

When the Saints lost veteran FB Heath Evans in October, they lost their best blocking running back. The Vikings want to force the Saints’ running backs to block by collapsing the middle of the pocket with Kevin and Pat Williams. If that happens, Brees may struggle to find his passing lanes.

To combat the rush, Saints RB Reggie Bush needs to be a factor like he was against the Cardinals. Getting Bush the ball in open spaces is critical to the Saints in their early possessions. In that regard, Brees wants to exploit Minnesota rookie MLB Jasper Brinkley, who is a liability in pass coverage, and also SS Tyrell Johnson.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/C…untdown-012410

John Czarnecki
foxsports.com

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: The Rex Ryan formula has been working thus far, and the Colts will see plenty of controlled passing from Jets rookie Mark Sanchez and a lot of running from Thomas Jones and rookie Shonn Greene, who obviously has fresh legs for the playoffs. Yes, the Colts stuffed Baltimore’s running game last weekend, but New York’s offensive line is a tad stronger, especially as run blockers. Guard Alan Faneca has made a career out of stoning defensive linemen.

If the Colts can’t stop the running game, look for backup QB Brad Smith to get some snaps out of the wildcat formation. Smith has game-breaking speed; remember, he returned a kickoff for a touchdown the last time the Jets won in Indianapolis.

It looks like Colts rookie CB Jerraud Powers (foot) won’t play, and he’d be replaced by fellow rookie Jacob Lacey.

The Jets defense has been playing very well of late, and you can expect CB Darrelle Revis to take either Reggie Wayne or Dallas Clark out of the game. Expect MVP Peyton Manning to attack New York with formations where the receivers are in bunches, forcing New York to play man-to-man and for Manning to find the open receiver off that triangle type of look. Manning is an extremely accurate passer, and he can fit passes into tight areas. In fact, the Colts may junk their running game, knowing how ineffective San Diego’s was against Ryan’s defense. Many NFL coaches believe Norv Turner stuck with his running game a tad too long in last week’s loss.

The Jets secondary is capable of switching expertly from zone to man coverage, but the concern is the pass rush won’t get to Manning, who makes quick decisions and rarely takes a sack. Manning is also very good at making play adjustments at the line of scrimmage, something Philip Rivers didn’t do well last Sunday.

Jets DE Shaun Ellis broke his left hand against the Chargers. He will play today, but Mike DeVito will see more rotations.

This is the first time in AFC championship history that two rookie head coaches, Ryan and the Colts’ Jim Caldwell, have met, one game away from the Super Bowl. You have to wonder which one will blink first under the pressure; Ryan didn’t last week, and Caldwell didn’t either when the Ravens were playing well late into the first half.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/c…back-the-colts

2010 could be the year for 3D with 3-dimensional at-home TV

By Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY

LAS VEGAS — The flat, familiar, two-dimensional television image at the center of your home theater is about to take on the lifelike illusion of depth. At least that’s the way the future looks through the spectacles of Hollywood studios, TV networks and consumer electronics manufacturers as they prepare to launch a massive effort to bring 3D from the silver screen into your living room.

"2010 will be the year in which 3D is brought to the home," DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg says. He’s so bullish on the technology that he’s committed his studio to make 3D versions of all of its future movies.

Now there’s a stampede to 3D TV. Vizio just announced a 47-inch 3D-capable set for $1,999. Consumers will spend $17 billion on 3D TVs in 2018, research firm DisplaySearch forecasts. And manufacturers — and entertainment producers — are scrambling to tie themselves to the technology as it takes center stage at the massive Consumer Electronics Show, which opens here Thursday.

Discovery, Sony and Imax said Tuesday that they’ll jointly create the first full-time 3D cable channel, which could be available as early as the end of this year.

It initially will be heavy with science and nature programs from Discovery and Imax. The mix will change as the partners produce, and license, 3D versions of general entertainment movies and shows.

"Two years ago, people were still saying that 3D (TV) probably won’t work," says Sony CEO Howard Stringer. "The momentum of 3D in the last six months alone has been quite striking. And even though there are not hundreds of movies (in 3D), there’s a kind of rolling rhythm to this. The more success we have, the easier it is for us to upgrade movies to 3D, and there are events that can be exciting, like 3D concerts and video games."

This week, ESPN announced plans to launch an all-sports 3D network on June 11, starting with World Cup soccer and eventually including the Summer X Games (extreme sports) and college basketball and college football. ESPN 3D will have at least 85 live 3D sporting events, the Disney-owned network promises.

Billionaire Mark Cuban says his cable channel HDNet will soon shoot most of its prime-time and weekend shows in 3D. The top-quality versions will initially appear on cable and satellite on-demand services.

"We hope to really grow this part of our business," Cuban told USA TODAY in an e-mail. "There won’t be a ton of 3D ready sets out for a while, but that’s OK. As we grow our content base, the market will come to us."

Cuban is also owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. Some NBA games will appear on the new ESPN 3D channel.

"3D is like putting somebody in the Jack Nicholson (courtside) seat," says Steve Hellmuth, the NBA’s executive director for technology and operations.

The NFL is also experimenting with 3D. The Dallas Cowboys issued 80,000 pairs of 3D glasses at a home game this season so fans could watch a few plays on a 72-foot-high Mitsubishi video board.

The push for 3D in the home goes beyond TV. Acer and Asus have unveiled computers that display 3D. There’s broad interest in 3D video games.

"Everybody is excited about the potential of moving 3D onto virtually every platform that has video in it," Katzenberg says.

You’ll need a brand new TV, though, to watch shows in 3D. Cable, satellite and phone company TV customers also may need a new set-top box.

Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, Mitsubishi, Vizio and LG are among the manufacturers poised to unveil 3D-capable televisions and Blu-ray players this week at CES.

Some analysts say the new sets will be a hit. By 2014, 45% of all U.S. households will have a TV that can handle 3D, up from just 3% this year, research firm Futuresource Consulting forecasts.

The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that nearly 2.2 million 3D TVs will be sold this year.

Movies have helped to prime potential buyers. About one in four adults surveyed online recently have seen a 3D movie or event in the past year, the CEA says. And 53% said they want to watch 3D television shows at home. One in four said they plan to buy a 3D TV within the next three years.

Following the migration from black-and-white to color, and analog to digital high definition, "3D is the final frontier for television," says Panasonic Vice President Bob Perry.

For now the various 3D technologies all involve wearing glasses. You’re typically watching two separate images; the technology tricks your eyes into seeing depth. Efforts are underway to permit you to watch 3D without glasses, but it’ll likely take years before the technology is ready for prime time.

With profit margins that are thinner than a flat screen, it’s no wonder TV manufacturers are banking on 3D as a way to get consumers to open their wallets. Still, it may be difficult to persuade people to embrace 3D. The critical challenges include:

•Selling the technology. Many consumers only recently bought a new HDTV and Blu-ray player. So they might not be exactly thrilled about replacing those models so soon, especially if it costs a lot to do so.

In-Stat analyst Michelle Abraham found that 25% of consumers would not pay extra for a 3D TV over a non-3D TV. Another 43% indicated they’d only pay a premium of less than $200. Just 11% would spend $400 to $999 extra and only $3% would plunk down an additional $1,000 or more.

TV manufacturers aren’t expected to price sets in the stratosphere, compared, say, with when HDTVs first became available. "You won’t need to take out a mortgage or home-equity loan," says Panasonic’s Perry.

But 3D will go into higher-price sets, at least initially.

And some of the latest 3D glasses aren’t cheap. For example, high-tech XpanD glasses cost about $50, and you’ll probably need a pair for each family member. You can probably expect TV makers or third parties to sell glasses in bundles.

Retailers and TV makers are left with another problem: how to show off 3D in stores. For example, it may prove difficult for stores to hang on to the pricey glasses shoppers will use to judge the pictures, and to keep them clean. "We have to make sure we have a good consumer experience at retail," says John Revie, senior vice president for visual display marketing at Samsung.

As the half-billion dollar epic Avatar has shown, it can be expensive to produce 3D movies. Broadcasting live sporting events also isn’t cheap. ESPN, for example, has to hire a whole new crew and set of announcers to broadcast in 3D.

How such costs get passed to the consumer remains to be seen. It’s unclear whether your TV provider will charge a premium to watch a 3D channel or pay-per-view event, or give it away to drum up interest in the new technology.

•Content. 3D televisions are only as useful as the material you have to watch on them, of course. Pieces of the content puzzle are coming together, albeit slowly, with movies, sports and possibly concerts leading the charge.

The industry is buoyed by the appetite consumers have shown for 3D movies at the local multiplex, even at the cost of a few extra bucks per ticket. "They all thought it was more than worth it," Katzenberg says. "Everybody is winning in this."

But gee-whiz 3D effects aren’t enough.

"You can no longer take a bad movie, add 3D and make it passable," says Rick Heineman a vice president of RealD in Beverly Hills. "Instead of trying to thrill people by putting the movie in their lap, you use 3D to draw them inside the movie." RealD recently integrated its technology in products from Samsung, Sony, JVC and others.

Hollywood is set to release a slew of new 3D flicks in the coming months. Katzenberg says Avatar, made in 3D from the rival Fox studio, is the "afterburner to push this (3D) rocket ship into orbit."

Last month, the Blu-ray Disc Association adopted an industry standard that studios can use to release 3D fare on the popular discs, possibly beginning this summer at yet-to-be-determined prices. The discs will be backward-compatible, so you’ll be able to play them on conventional Blu-ray players, too, albeit in regular HD, not 3D. And the newly agreed-upon 3D "specification" allows every Blu-ray 3D product and movie to deliver the high-definition "1080p" standard to each eye.

"We don’t have six ways to do 3D Blu-ray. We have one," says Andy Parsons, the chairman of the association.

Hollywood may go back to the future to come up with fresh 3D content. The studios are testing the waters to see which older films that were released in 2D could be converted to 3D, as Disney is doing with the Toy Storyfranchise. You can only imagine what The Wizard of Oz or Indiana Jones might look like in 3D.

But the 2D to 3D process "is not perfect, and (it’s) labor intensive," says Ahmad Ouri, chief marketing officer of Technicolor. Ouri believes the conversion process will take off if 3D Blu-ray discs prove to be a hit.

HDTV didn’t happen overnight, and neither will 3D TV. But 3D TV has one huge thing going for it. As Maria Costeira, CEO of 3D glasses maker XpanD, puts it, "Life is in 3D."

Contributing: David Lieberman in New York

Television Begins a Push Into the 3rd Dimension

By BRIAN STELTER and BRAD STONE

Ralph Kramden can finally buy a television.

It was more than half a century ago, in a 1955 episode of “The Honeymooners,” that Kramden, the parsimonious bus driver played by Jackie Gleason, told his wife, Alice, that he had not yet bought a new television because “I’m waiting for 3-D.”

The wait will soon be over. A full-fledged 3-D television turf war is brewing in the United States, as manufacturers unveil sets capable of 3-D and cable programmers rush to create new channels for them.

Many people are skeptical that consumers will suddenly pull their LCD and plasma televisions off the wall. Beginning at around $2,000, the 3-D sets will, at first, cost more than even the current crop of high-end flat-screens, and buyers will need special glasses — techie goggles, really — to watch in 3-D.

But programmers and technology companies are betting that consumers are almost ready to fall in love with television in the third dimension. In part, it could be the “Avatar” effect: with 3-D films gaining traction at the box office — James Cameron’s “Avatar” surpassed the staggering $1 billion mark last weekend — companies are now determined to bring an equivalent experience to the living room.

Anticipating this coming wave, ESPN said Tuesday that it would show World Cup soccer matches and N.B.A. games in 3-D on a new network starting in June, and Discovery, Imax and Sony said they would jointly create a 3-D entertainment channel next year. The satellite service DirecTV is expected to announce its own 3-D channels at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where every major television manufacturer is planning to announce 3-D televisions and compatible Blu-ray DVD players on Wednesday.

“The stars are aligning to make 2010 the launch year of 3-D,” said John Taylor, a vice president for LG Electronics USA. “It’s still just in its infancy, but when there is a sufficient amount of content available — and lots of people are working on this — there will be a true tipping point for consumers.”

At that point, the question becomes whether consumers — many of whom have only recently upgraded to costly new high-definition sets — will want to watch in three dimensions enough to pay for the privilege. “I think 90 percent of the males in this country would be dying to watch the Super Bowl and be immersed in it,” said Riddhi Patel, an analyst at the research firm iSuppli.

But will the experience translate to other entertainment? Ms. Patel said, “You don’t necessarily want the ladies of ‘The View’ sitting around you when you watch them.”

For most consumers, 3-D is still far in the distance. With the announcement this week, the media companies are trying to place themselves at the forefront of an emerging technology, much as they did for HDTV a decade ago.

It took high-definition television about a decade to catch on — to the point where it has become part of the entertainment mainstream, with an adequate stock of HD programming and the sets now cheap enough to entice middle-class buyers. Analysts expect 3-D television to go through the same curve, initially attracting first adopters for whom price is little or no object and gradually moving out to other affluent and then middle-class homes as sets become cheaper and programmers create enough 3-D fare.

Or, of course, the technology could be a total flop.

For decades 3-D was a gimmick for B-movies and occasionally on television (in bad quality with flimsy paper glasses), but newer technology has largely erased those memories. Peter M. Fannon, a vice president at Panasonic, called the new sets “totally different than what one had seen over the last 20 to 30 years.”

In 3-D, television makers see an opportunity to persuade households that have already bought HDTVs to return to the electronics store. Though television sales jumped 17 percent in 2009, the industry needs new innovations to keep the cash register ringing.

“Three-D is an effort by the industry to come up with something that will motivate consumers to trade up,” said Van Baker, an analyst at Gartner Research.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief of Dreamworks Animation, said producers were preparing “an enormous surge in 3-D content, with images that are truly beautiful on these new monitors.”

Leading the charge to television, the pioneering sports network ESPN said it would show at least 85 live events on a 3-D channel starting in June. “The sports genre is probably the best suited to exploit this technology,” said Sean Bratches, an executive vice president at ESPN. The company has held preliminary talks with Comcast and other operators about gaining distribution; the 3-D channel could come at an added cost to subscribers. It will go dark when not showing live events.

The joint venture among Discovery Communications, Sony Pictures Entertainment and the Imax Corporation will be a full-time channel featuring natural history, movies, sports, music and other programming.

New 3-D televisions, like the 3-D screens in theaters, work by dividing picture images into two sets, one for each eye. A viewer must wear special glasses, so each eye captures a different image, creating the illusion of depth. Filming entails two connected cameras, one for the left-eye image and the other for the right.

Manufacturers have developed two technologies for 3-D glasses in the home. In so-called polarized glasses, which can cost under a dollar, each lens blocks a set of images transmitted in certain types of light. “Active” glasses, which are better suited for LCD screens in particular, have battery-powered shutters that open and close rapidly, so each eye sees different views of each frame. These glasses can cost up to $100, but television makers are expected to package at least two pairs with each monitor.

On the horizon is technology that allows people to watch 3-D without glasses, but that has severe limitations, like forcing viewers to sit at a certain distance.

Mike Vorhaus, the managing director of new media for Frank N. Magid Associates, a media consulting firm, said 3-D was many years away from widespread adoption. For now, he said, it is “one more appetizer” for consumers who “already have a lot to digest.”

Indeed, a number of hurdles remain, including a lack of production equipment and dueling 3-D transmission standards. But backers like David Zaslav, the chief executive of Discovery Communications, say 3-D is bound to gain attention because consumers and producers are always striving for what looks “closest to real life.”