MONDAY Generally a big fan of Air Canada, but fly to Phoenix on Air Canada Rouge. Patriots Jerseys China . I always thought Rouge meant red, but apparently it means Seats only kittens can fit comfortably in. Need to work on my French. Arrive at hotel and front desk clerk hands me a large warmed delicious chocolate chip cookie with my key. This is brilliant check-in bribery. I could find a dead body in my room now and be hesitant to complain. Walking through downtown Phoenix, a scalper asks us if we want to buy tickets to the Pro Bowl that night. I laugh like hes Louis C.K. I prefer my football with tackling. TUESDAY The last Super Bowl Media Day I covered was in Jacksonville in 2005. My lasting memory is of two Mexican reporters from Azteca Deportes who asked questions with hand puppets. I arrive at Media Day in Phoenix and among the first people I run into are the same two reporters, with different hand puppets. I quietly wonder if the original puppets got a better offer and jumped to Telemundo. The problem with Media Day is that half the reporters dont seem to actually work in the media. There must be radio stations who hand out passes to contest winners. A couple of guys in the Gronkowski scrum are wearing Patriots T-shirts and asking probing questions like, Gronk, why are you so awesome? Though that is actually better than many of the questions real media ask. I am standing with Seattle punter and Canadian boy Jon Ryan when a reporter sticks his mic in and says: Reporter: You are Canadian, right? Ryan: Yes. Reporter: Do you like pontoon? Ryan: What? Reporter: Do you like pontoon? Ryan: Poutine? Reporter: Yes, poutine. Twenty-nine reporters ask Marshawn Lynch questions, all getting the exact same answer, Im only here so I dont get fined. I want to ask the 29th guy if he thought his question was so good, it would make Lynch sit up straight and say, Brilliantly posed sir! This one I must answer, thoroughly and eloquently! I am impressed (confused?) with the fans who buy tickets to sit in the stands during Media Day to watch...scrums. There are a couple of hundred Seahawks faithful who cheer madly every time Russell Wilson has a good answer. Some even scream during the Patriots availability, making me wonder if they are trying to affect Brady and his offences ability to hear the questions. They take this 12th man thing seriously. WEDNESDAY Fourteen more questions without answers for Lynch. Give up the dream people. You are not getting him to open up about his childhood and cry for you. Eat dinner at Lo-Los Chicken and Waffle House in Scottsdale, highly recommended by Deion Sanders. I assume the name means waffles for breakfast, and chicken as a specialty for dinner. I am wrong. It means fried chicken and waffles, together, for every meal. Broccoli is not allowed within 10 miles of the place. It is a bylaw, I believe. I order the Tre-Tre because it sounds like it gives me street cred. It has two drumsticks and one giant waffle with an ice-cream sized scoop of butter. It is delicious. I have no regrets. THURSDAY I have quadruple bypass surgery. FRIDAY NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell holds his annual State of the Union news conference. The union has issues. Goodell sidesteps every question like a Russell Wilson scramble. One reporter asks, roughly, Any other employee who had a year like you did would have been fired or resigned by now. Why havent you been fired or resigned? Boom. I cant see the reporter who asks it because there are about 1,000 people in the room, but I quietly hope it is one of the Mexican hand puppets. Goodell just keeps digging himself a deeper hole. I have had numerous issues with Gary Bettman over the years (cough...TV rights...cough), but he makes himself available much more than once every four months. Plus he answers questions, even if you dont always like the answers. A Roger Goodell interview is the same as a Marshawn Lynch interview, just with more and fancier words. SATURDAY I am standing in the bleachers behind the 16th hole at the Phoenix Open, the craziest golf tournament the planet has ever known. The most fruitless job in sport belongs to the volunteers who ask the crowd for silence before players hit their tee-shots on 16 at Phoenix. They scream, cheer, boo, chant, and mostly drink, through every shot. You hit one tight, its a football stadium celebrating a game-winning touchdown for the home team.You miss the green, its the same crowd after the ref called the touchdown back. PGA Pro Jon Rahm wears an Arizona State football jersey for his tee-shot. The crowd goes nuts. Then he hits it long to the back of the green, and they boo him relentlessly. The 16 Bleacher Creatures chant every chant ever used in American sport. Examples: -USA! USA! for every American player, and some Euros who they believe are American because they have had 17 Budweisers. -The Atlanta Braves Tomahawk Chop chant...for no explicable reason. -Bald spot! Bald spot! As Phil Mickelson strolls towards the green. You need to put 16 bleachers on your bucket list. Just dont bring your kids. This tournament is basically the worlds largest nightclub. Except it opens at 7am. Women show up in heels and cocktail dresses. And leave covered in mud. There are more than 100,000 people on the course the day Im there. I figure about 10,000 are watching golf. I always thought the Phoenix Waste Management Open is a terrible sponsor name. But in my three hours there, I see two fights, a couple of guys throwing up, and one young lady (in heels) passed out in the mud. The sponsor name, in retrospect, is perfect. SUNDAY The Auxiliary Press Box is one of the sections at the top of the stadium. We are in the last row of media, with an entire section of Patriots fans right behind us. Chris Schultz makes a point of telling them he picked the Pats to win. Which he did, though he would have told Seahawks fans the same thing if they were behind us. Avoiding getting beer poured on his head is one of Schultzys many strengths. The game is great, but you all saw that, so Ill skip the details. Im a mile from the stage for the halftime show. In fact, from my vantage point it almost looks like Katy Perry is dancing with sharks! Lol. As if. No choreography would be that drunk. (Unless they were at the golf tournament all weekend.) When you cover the game, you always watch the end from the bowels of the building, in a Disney ride-like line-up to get on the field. I have never seen a group of media gasp the way they did when the Seahawks threw on that last play. Even the hand puppets said, Holy S***! (In Spanish) We interview Patriots corner Brandon Browner, who says...what we all are saying, What were those guys thinking? When my alarm goes off at 4am for my flight home, I ask the same thing of myself. By the way, I have now covered three Super Bowls. All Patriot victories. I should really get a ring. J.C. Jackson Jersey . After a tight first half, the Croatians took command in Reykjavik after Skulason was dismissed for a professional foul in the 51st minute, but couldnt find a way past Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson and his packed defence. Eduardo had a weak shot cleared away from near the goalline after barely a minute for Croatia, whose substitute Ivica Olic forced a fine reaction save from Halldorsson in the 55th. Corey Dillon Jersey . Chile applied pressure in midfield right from the beginning, challenging aggressively and continually surging forward. Eduardo Vargas beat the offside trap and fired home a stinging shot for Chiles opening goal in the fifth minute. https://www.patriotsjerseysale.com/321p-ted-karras-jersey-patriots.html . An in-person hearing allows for Garbutt to be suspended for five games or longer as per the leagues Collective Bargaining Agreement. Garbutt delivered a high hit to Penner in the second period of Sundays game.MILWAUKEE -- Chase Headley gave the best bullpen in baseball a lift. There was no doubt about the solo shot he hit over the wall in right-centre to break a deadlock in the 12th inning. The struggling San Diego third baseman hit a 447-foot homer to back six shutout innings by relievers, and the Padres beat the Brewers 2-1 on Tuesday night to snap Milwaukees four-game winning streak. "It was big for me personally but it was big for our team. The way our guys pitched today was phenomenal," said Headley, who was hitting .180 coming into the night. Huston Street retired the side in order in the bottom of the 12th for his seventh save after Donn Roach (1-0) allowed just one hit over two scoreless innings. Headleys homer to centre off a 1-0 fastball from Alfredo Figaro (0-1) was one of the few mistakes from the mound among teams with two of the best staff ERAs in baseball. Padres starter Ian Kennedy laboured through his first three innings before settling down his final three innings. Brewers counterpart Yovani Gallardo went seven strong innings before the bullpens took over. The Padres bullpen was a little better and allowed three hits and struck out eight. Street capped the night capped by catching slugger Ryan Braun looking while leaning back on a slider for a strikeout to end the four-hour contest. Padres relievers had a major league-best 2.00 ERA coming into the night. "The pitching was the story tonight. All of our guys did a fantastic job," manager Bud Black said. Both teams squandered earlier scoring opportunities. With a runner on second, first baseman Mark Reynolds went to his knees to pick up a hard bouncer down the line from Everth Cabrera for the third out in the top of the 10th inning. Milwaukees Khris Davis left runners on first and second to end the bottom of the 10th after flying out against Roach. An inning earlier, reliever Dale Thayer left runner Jean Segura stranded on second after striking out pinch-hitter Rickie Weeks and getting Carlos Gomez to fly out softly to centre. "When you let those runs get away, its tough," manager Ron Roenicke said. Nick Buoniconti Jersey. "Play those close games and you always look back -- what could you do better to score that run?" This is the type of close game that the Brewers have been winning in building the best record in baseball at 15-5 entering Tuesday night. Their three previous games were one-run victories. Against the Padres, one mistake by Figaro cost them. The righty called up Monday to help out an already taxed relief corps allowed just two hits and struck out three in three innings. "Figaro was good. The one pitch he left out and over the plate," Roenicke said. The Brewers only run came after Scooter Gennett homered to right on a 3-1 fastball to tie the game in the fifth, a couple pitches after Kennedy called for the trainer after pointing to his right leg. Kennedy suffered a cramp, but stayed in the game after taking a few warm-up tosses. "I babied a couple of pitches to Gennett and Im mad at myself for that. Then I said, forget it, its just going to be there," Kennedy said. It was an active inning for Kennedy, who squeezed home Yonder Alonso from third in the top of the inning after Gallardo couldnt cleanly field a bunt down the third-base line with the runner charging home. The fifth was the only blemish in an otherwise stellar outing for Gallardo, who lowered his ERA to 1.42 but got his third straight no-decision. Notes: The Padres acquired INF Tyler Greene on Tuesday from the Atlanta Braves for a player to be named. Greene was assigned to Triple-A El Paso. He was hitting .200 with one homer and four RBIs in 12 games at Triple-A Gwinnett in the Braves system. ... RHP Johnny Hellweg, one of the top prospects in the Brewers farm system, has been diagnosed with an ulnar collateral ligament injury after leaving Sundays game for Triple-A Nashville. He is scheduled to see Dr. James Andrews for a second opinion next week. ... Tyson Ross (2-2), who turned 27 on Tuesday, will get the start Wednesday when the Padres wrap up their three-game set in Milwaukee. Kyle Lohse (3-1) starts for the Brewers. ' ' '