BY DAN SPEHLER

What an experience covering Media Day! Players and coaches from both teams are given one hour on the field with thousands of reporters from across the country, and around the world. It’s a bit of circus and, as always, reporters from outlets like Nickelodeon and Azteca made the event that much more interesting.

As a reporter from Cincinnati, my main assignment during the Patriots session was getting an interview with former Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco – who is always at the center of attention. It wasn’t easy to find Chad at first – he’s not very tall and there were dozens of cameras surrounding him. We finally saw him, and after several minutes of elbowing our way into the crowd, we were able to get close enough to put our microphone and camera into the cesspool of news crews. Even Chad was a bit overwhelmed by all the attention, and somewhat subdued by the many questions about his lackluster statistical performance this season.

During the Giants session, we spoke with two players from Ohio – tight end Jake Ballard (Springboro) and line-backer Greg Jones (Cincinnati Moeller). Both were excited to be playing in the Super Bowl so close to home, and both are inviting scores of friends and family to the game.

Be sure to watch our clip from Media Day, and I’ll be back to post our wrap-up from Super Bowl week in a few days!