Super Bowl Notebook: Gould’s kicks, Robinson’s honor, inside halftime and more
Some odds, ends and items of interest for fans from central Pennsylvania from Kansas City’s 31-20 victory over San Francisco on Sunday in the Super Bowl.
How the Penn Staters did
Penn State had more players on the two rosters, five, than another other college — and one had a particularly good night.
One of the NFL’s most reliable kickers throughout a long career, Robbie Gould held steady despite the pressure of kicking in the Super Bowl. Gould made all of his kicks for the 49ers, connecting on field goals from 38 yards and 42 yards while also going 2-for-2 on extra points. While it wasn’t the result Gould wanted, his eight points were the most points any 49er scored Sunday night.
Stefen Wisniewski saw plenty of action for the Chiefs, getting the start at left guard.
Jordan Lucas played a key role on special teams for Kansas City, while Anthony Zettel also saw special teams action as well as a few snaps on defense for San Francisco.
Kevin Givens was among the inactives for the 49ers.
Robinson honored to have been Bears’ Man of the Year nominee
Allen Robinson appreciates the weight Walter Payton’s name carries around Chicago better than most.
The sixth-year wideout out of Penn State has spent the past two seasons with the Bears, but it’s his most recent one that brought him closer to “Sweetness” than many people, including his current teammates.
The Pro Bowler and two-time 1,000-yard receiver was the Bears’ nominee for the 2019 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, given annually to the player who demonstrates excellence in the community and on the field.
“It means a lot, just knowing the Payton family and as much work as they put in, this is such a big honor,” Robinson said. “When you see everybody coming out and the lives the NFL impacts through this and everyone’s foundations, it’s a tremendous honor to me, to my family, to my foundation, to the people on my board and everybody.”
Though Robinson didn’t win, his foundation — the Within Reach Foundation — which focuses on providing educational opportunities for inner-city and low-income students in the Chicago area, still received $50,000.
Despite not taking home the $250,000 awarded to the winner, in this case Robinson’s former teammate and current Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Calais Campbell, Robinson is going to put the $50,000 he got for being a finalist to good use.
“It’s just going to continue to go to the stuff we want to do. We want to continue to install reading rooms in Boys and Girls Clubs. We just launched our inaugural reading room in the city of Chicago in the Boys and Girls Club,” Robinson said. “We want to continue to do that so that kids can have a nice comfortable place to go down and get help with their education and have a comfortable place to sit and read and have books and things like that.”
Super Bowl or Uber Bowl?
People in Miami were constantly on the go this weekend preparing for the Super Bowl, but traffic was stopped.
With events scattered around downtown Miami, Miami Beach and more, reporters and locals groused all week about extended travel times. By Saturday night, a ride from the airport to entertainment-tourism district in Miami Beach, about 20 minutes in light traffic, had become 90 minutes.
Football fans weren’t the only people that traveled to Miami for the big game — Uber and Lyft drivers seemed to make the trip as well, according to one driver.
Uber driver Alex Carvalho said he saw several out-of-state license plates, including New Jersey and Tennessee, with Uber stickers throughout the week. Carvalho, who has lived in Miami for three years, said he’s never seen the traffic as bad as it was this past week. He believes the number of people who came to town to drive for rideshare services contributed to the clogged roads.
“Everywhere you go is packed with Uber drivers, and it makes it worse because you can’t get through,” Carvalho said late Saturday. “Everybody is just waiting to pick up their passengers and nobody moves.”
Halftime show from the inside
Jennifer Lopez and Shakira had the Super Bowl crowd jumping during halftime Sunday, but there were some moments inside Hard Rock Stadium that viewers did not get to experience at home.
Right before the break, in-arena host Scott Hanson instructed fans to put on the bracelets placed on their seats prior to kickoff. He announced that these wristbands would be crucial to the experience of the Latina superstars’ performances.
Each wristband was designed specifically for the seat it was placed on, and was synced to a computer system beforehand. After about eight and a half minutes of setting up the stage, the wristbands began to light up in different colors. It didn’t take long to figure out that they were carefully choreographed across the stadium.
Once the performance was over, everyone was ushered off the field and the stage crew rushed to breakdown the equipment, which took just over six minutes and 45 seconds to do.