Super Bowl XLIV Media Day Blog

Reggie Bush was popular among the press during the Saints portion of media day. David Bergman/SI Related Links GALLERY: All-time dumbest Super Bowl questions

Embrace it. That was Steelers defensive end Aaron Smith advice to his fellows players last year for the annual orgy of inane questions (and questioners) that Super Bowl Media Day has become. "It's a little headache for us but you come out here and have some fun," Smith said. "You get some wacky questions, some off the wall stuff. But you go with the flow. It's part of the job."

Indeed, it is, and it's also the lone occasion where traditional NFL media mix with beauty queens from Mexican television, Peruvian bloggers, and reporter wannabes from the Leno and Letterman shows. The NFL announced this week that more than 4,500 working credentials had been issued for this year's Super Bowl in Miami, including media from 22 countries. Some of the more interesting non-traditional outlets: The Golf Channel, ET and the Funny or Die Web site. They'll all be at Sun Life Stadium today -- indoors, on the club level, due to the rain -- for what one salty NFL writer called an "immense cluster-****."

The Colts are scheduled to go from 10-11 a.m., and the Saints will follow from noon-1 p.m. Rarely does breaking news occur from these sessions but we'll be here in the event it does, as well as capture all the flavor and nonsense from the NFL's most excessive publicity event not named Chad Ochocinco:

PHOTOS FROM SUPER BOWL XLIV MEDIA DAY

1:48 p.m.: Well, it's over, and we check back in with Don Banks to wrap up a spectacularly uneventful day.: "It was a really by-the-book, say-the-right things kind of Super Bowl Media Day. I don't know if being indoors curtailed some of the bizarro world antics but it certainly seemed like it did."

1:30 p.m. SI's Jim Trotter just got into a quick back-and-forth with a reader on Twitter. "@AlfieCrow @SI_JimTrotter c'mon, Caldwell was handed the keys to a Ferrari." Responded Trotter: "I'm sorry, but do Ferraris drive themselves?"

1:26 p.m. I just called Mariucci's questions of Smith "mind-numbing," prompting colleague Jimmy Traina to ask if I would write that in this blog.

1:23 p.m. Mariucci just let us know the Saints defensive end Will Smith was not the Will Smith from The Fresh Price of Bel-Air. Thanks, Steve.

1:21 p.m.: The NFL Network has given Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey about six minutes of air time, which was about four minutes too many.

1:16 p.m.: At this point, I think the most important question that can be asked is this: What time is Lost on?

1:13 p.m.: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston on the most ridiculous question he's been asked: "Someone just asked me who my favorite Kardashian sister was. I wouldn't know how to answer that one."

1:05 p.m.: Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma: "I think we made tremendous progress, especially in the turnover department. I think that was the biggest stat for us as far as improving from last year. Last year we might have been middle of the pack or the bottom of the pack. This year we were first or second, the top tier in the league. We feel like we see a direct correlation to us creating turnovers, getting the offense the ball back and putting the points on the board and winning games."

1:01 p.m. In the spirit of today's Academy Award nominations, here are the Top 5 nominees for the most ridiculous people ever to attend Super Bowl Media Day:
1. Downtown Julie Brown
2. Gilbert Godfried
3. Tom Arnold
4. David Blaine
5. Deion Sanders

12:57 p.m.: Bush said Fox's (and former Giant) Michael Strahan gave him advice on how not to get caught up with the distractions of Super Bowl week.

12:54 p.m.: Deion Sanders just blasted the press around Bush and pronounced, "This is a real question." He then asked Bush, "How big is this game for you personally? Thanks, Mike Wallace.

12:44 p.m.: Saints quarterback Drew Brees on Freeney: "We're planning on that he's playing." On what the Super Bowl means to the people in New Orleans: "It means so much. I know season-ticket holders that have had tickets for 42 years. For so many of them just to have waited so long, and to have been through so many tough times in order to get to this point, and not only them but what people have gone through in New Orleans post-Katrina, it is so much more a game to us. It's a feeling that we have the opportunity to give them so much hope and lift their spirits and give them something they deserve."

12:38 p.m. A media mob has formed in front of Reggie Bush's podium.

12:31 p.m.: Tweets Ochocinco: "Please mainstream media don't be mad at me for doing the job you guys have failed to do correctly, giving the fans what they really want." (I'd argue plenty of media have given boring tweets like this one, Chad.)

12:28 p.m.: The Saints are now posing for a team picture on the Sun Life Stadium field.

12:25 p.m.: The Houston Chronicle's Richard Justice tweets: "Ross the intern is also here. Someone should tell him his shtick was funny about four years ago. Now? Not so much."

12:10 p.m.: Banks reports that he did not see Colts general manager Bill Polian today at Media Day. Surmises that he might be running around with Bryant McKinnie. (Banks soon to be banned from the city of Indianapolis.)

12:08 p.m.: One of my favorite Media Day lines comes from Banks who three years ago wrote: "The clown quotient in the reporting ranks seems to be at an all-time low. Well, that's not entirely true. I did see Chris Berman giving interviews." I believe Banks is now officially banned from the city of Bristol, Ct.

12:00 p.m.: The Saints media session will begin in 30 minutes.

11:52 a.m.: Chris Cooley said he had a conversation with Redskin coach Mike Shanahan recently and reports Shanahan is "really excited about being the head coach of the Washington Redskins." That's the easily the most amusing thing I've heard during Super Bowl day given Washington's roster.