Sorry, Manning, no 'Seinfeld' for you

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jan 20, 2008 | by Associated Press

MILWAUKEE -- For a show that was about nothing, the hubbub around it has certainly turned into something.

A Green Bay television station decided to have some fun this week after employees discovered that Giants quarterback Eli Manning's favorite show is "Seinfeld." Station officials decided to pull the episode scheduled for Saturday afternoon and replace it with a different program chosen by viewers.

Manning and his New York teammates will be in town to play the Green Bay Packers in the NFC championship game Sunday afternoon.

News of WLUK-TV's decision apparently reached Jerry Seinfeld himself.

"I'm going to send Eli a complete collection of 'Seinfeld' DVDs and a partial collection of 'Hogan's Heroes' for inspiration," the comedian told the New York Post this week.

"You think I'm going to take that sitting down?"

Jay Zollar, the Fox station's general manager, joked that the offer actually plays into the station's master plan of preventing Manning from being master of the domain on Sunday.

"Now he (Manning) will be up all night watching 'Seinfeld' -- there will be no sleep for you," he said.

WEATHER REPORT: By Green Bay standards, the weather for the AFC championship game at New England will be downright balmy.

The forecast for Sunday's game between the San Diego Chargers and Patriots called for a temperature of 24 degrees, a wind chill of 13 and a slight chance of flurries. Kickoff is 3 p.m.

The weather in Green Bay for Sunday's NFC title game between the New York Giants and Packers was supposed to be much worse. The forecast called for a temperature around zero at kickoff at Lambeau Field.

Manning said Friday the whole affair was amusing.

"Yeah, it's pretty funny," he said. "You've got to enjoy it."

Manning added that he already has the entire "Seinfeld" collection.

"I've seen every episode anyway, so I'm not going to miss anything on it," he said. "Again, you take it all in, you smile at it and you don't really give it a lot of thought."

A message from The Associated Press relayed to Seinfeld's publicist through his lawyer was not immediately returned Friday.

The station let viewers vote on the show to replace the pulled "Seinfeld" episode.

Of about 3,700 votes cast, some 60 percent were for a 30-minute special about former Packers coach Vince Lombardi called "God, Family and the Green Bay Packers."

The other choices included a rerun of "The Donald Driver Show" from Monday, "M A S H" and an infomercial starring former Dallas Cowboy Emmitt Smith.

The pre-empted "Seinfeld" episode is "The Mango" from Season 5. In the show Cosmo Kramer gets booted from a fruit store for trying to return a bad peach, George Costanza suffers impotence, yada yada yada.

Zollar said most people realized his station's move was in jest, but some thought the station should be treating the Giants better.

"Some people think we're mean," he said. "Some say we're not welcoming, that we should be gracious hosts, we should invite them in and be nice to their quarterback."

He said he doesn't understand how people could interpret the move as a sincere attempt at sabotage.

"Obviously, Eli coming to Green Bay, coming to watch a TV show at 5:30 p.m. the night before the game, it's pretty unlikely," he said.

Heat wave: low 20s for AFC title game

Downright balmy: forecast of low 20s for AFC championship game

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) -- By Green Bay standards, the weather for the AFC championship game at New England will be downright balmy.

The forecast for Sunday's game between the San Diego Chargers and Patriots called for a temperature of 24 degrees, a wind chill of 13 and a slight chance of flurries. Kickoff is 3 p.m.

"I'm from Florida. I can handle the weather. They'll handle the weather," Patriots fullback Heath Evans said this week. "I've said it before, sometimes we wish we could play the weather because that's pretty easy to beat -- you can get warm."

The Chargers went through a 30-minute walkthrough at Gillette Stadium on Saturday and reported no problems.

The weather in Green Bay for Sunday's NFC title game between the New York Giants and Packers was supposed to be much worse. The forecast called for a temperature around zero at kickoff at Lambeau Field.

Mike Carey to referee Super Bowl, first black to do it

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) -- Mike Carey will become the first black referee in Super Bowl history.

Carey, in his 18th year as an official, was notified by the NFL office this week that he had the assignment for the Feb. 3 game in Mesa, Ariz.

The officials at the Super Bowl are chosen on merit, with the highest ranked at each position getting the assignment. Carey, who in his private life runs a skiing accessories company, has been among the NFL's top crew chiefs for a decade and has been a Super Bowl alternate, but has never been the referee.

Black officials have been increasing in number over the years. This season there were 26 on the 17 crews, a single-season high.

Blacks also have been well-represented in the Super Bowl at other positions, starting with Burl Toler, a former player, who was involved of several of the early games>

Ex-NFL player Stubblefield pleads guilty in BALCO case

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield pleaded guiltytype:italic; Friday to lying to investigators in the BALCO steroids case, making him the first football player charged in the long-running federal investigation.