Super Bowl Boasts Most Media Credentials Ever -- Web Gains Respect

By: Joe Strupp Sunday's Super Bowl will have more credentialed media than any previous NFL championship game, according to the NFL. At least 4,800 media passes are being issued for the game, with 3,500 for outlets not connected to the NFL Network, NFL.com, or Fox Sports, which is broadcasting the game.

"This will be the most media we have credentialed in Super Bowl history," said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, who spoke from the media center next to the University of Arizona Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.

He said the 3,500 non-NFL credentials are up from 3,300 for last year's game in Miami, Fla. McCarthy credited several things for the demand for press coverage of this year's game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants.

"This year is a perfect storm of two large markets, the Patriots pursuit of perfection and an exciting storyline with the [wild card Cinderella] Giants," he told E&P Monday. "The Hollywood writers on strike could not have come up with these storylines."

McCarthy added that more online credentials are being issued than ever before, but had no exact count. He noted that the increased online presence was indicated, in part, by the fact that the Pro Football Writers of America are now headed by a Web writer, Alex Marvez of FoxSports.com. He had previously written for the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

"They are becoming real news outlets," he said of the Web sites receiving Super Bowl credentials. "You are seeing a proliferation of Web sites hiring print reporters."

In choosing to grant a credential to a Web site, however, McCarthy said the league still requires proof that it is a legitimate news outlet with regular readership and coverage. "We look at online reach of a particular Web site. Does it cover the NFL?" he explained. "Is it a newsgathering source?"

The number of press conferences, meanwhile, is also at an all-time high, McCarthy said. "We will end up doing 25 to 30 at the media center alone, and that does not include those for each team," he said. "It has increased. It ranges from security with secret service and the FBI and Department of Homeland Security to [halftime entertainer] Tom Petty on Thursday."

McCarthy pointed out that last year's most well-attended press conference was that of halftime performer Prince. "He didn?t even say anything," McCarthy recalled. "But he performed, which a lot of the press seemed to like."