INDIANAPOLIS — By 8:30 on Thursday morning, there already was a sizable crowd milling around the third-floor ballroom at the JW Marriott. We’re about to hit the tipping point when Radio Row goes from busy media center hub to a senses overload of celebrities, NFL greats, famous media personalities (and hacky ones, too).

The end of the week is when Radio Row truly becomes a madhouse. (Alix Drawec/NFL)

NFL.com blogger Marc Sessler and I are stationed in a cramped but ideally located table next to NFL Network’s set. This allows us to a) see Rich Eisen‘s every-man charm up close, and b) get in prime position to annoy outrageously famous people.

Right behind me, SI swimsuit model Chrissy Teigen is being interviewed by a Houston radio station. She’s being asked about her upcoming wedding with R&B star John Legend. They ask if she cooks a lot. They’re also asking her something about Yankee Candles. Us sports guys aren’t the smoothest.

(As an aside: It feels especially creepy doing a Google image search of an uber-famous swimsuit model when she’s seated five feet behind you.)

Madonna is expected to visit the NFL Network set later today. I won’t have the opportunity to speak with the Super Bowl halftime act because you have to have nuclear launch codes or something to break through a wall of Madonna handlers that likely outnumber my senior class. I’d definitely ask her about “Body Of Evidence,” one of the great late-night cable classics of my adolescence.

In a related story, no one should ever let me talk to Madonna.

– Dan Hanzus

Posted in: Super Bowl  |