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5:52 am

Sat February 2, 2013

For New Orleans, Superdome A Symbol Of City's Spirit

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Credit Charlie Riedel / AP

The San Francisco 49ers play the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII at the Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday.

Credit David J. Phillip / AP

The Superdome provided shelter for victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but was described as a "hellhole."

By KEITH O'BRIEN

Originally published on Sat February 2, 2013 2:07 pm

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The Superdome in New Orleans has hosted heavyweight fights, papal visits, and — after this weekend — seven Super Bowls, an NFL record. But no event looms larger in the dome's history than Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 storm that turned the stadium into a teeming shelter of last resort.

During the storm, reporters spared no hyperbole when describing scenes of human suffering. The Superdome, in particular, was described as a "hellhole" and "apocalyptic," and it was sort of true.

Super Bowl XLVII

4:01 pm

Fri February 1, 2013

Inside the Super Bowl's Social Media Command Center

Credit Jason Saul / WWNO

Volunteers monitor goings-on at the Social Media Command Center.

By Jason Saul

Deep inside the Convention Center, well away from the throngs of journalists that have descended on the city and behind a false wall protected by a security guard, is a group of tech-savvy people manning the Super Bowl Host Committee's social media command center.

The Picture Show

12:00 pm

Fri February 1, 2013

The Super Bowl No One Cared About

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Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Quarterback Len Dawson in the Chiefs' locker room, Super Bowl I, 1967

Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Kansas City's Fletcher Smith, with the Green Bay Packers massed behind him, prior to the start of Super Bowl I, Los Angeles, 1967

Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Chiefs linebacker E. J. Holub, Super Bowl I, 1967

Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Packers head coach Vince Lombardi, Super Bowl I, 1967

Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Quarterback Len Dawson in the Chiefs' locker room, Super Bowl I, 1967

Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Jim Taylor, Super Bowl I, 1967. Packer lineman at left is the great Fuzzy Thurston

Credit Bill Ray/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Kansas City's injured Fred "The Hammer" Williamson is carried off the field.

Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

The Packers' Herb Adderley and Kansas City's tight end Fred Arbanas head to the lockers after Green Bay's 35-10 victory in Super Bowl I, Los Angeles, 1967

By editor

Originally published on

It's hard to imagine a day when the Super Bowl wasn't a spectacle of all things over the top.

It's harder still to imagine that the first-ever Super Bowl really wasn't that super. It wasn't even called the Super Bowl. It was known as the First AFL-NFL World Championship Game. Played in Los Angeles in January 1967, the Green Bay Packers versus the Kansas City Chiefs, it remains the only Super Bowl that did not sell out. The most expensive ticket, according to the NFL, sold for a mere $12.

Super Bowl XLVII

6:52 am

Fri February 1, 2013

Player's Mom Caters To Baltimore Ravens Team

By Steve Inskeep

Originally published on Fri February 1, 2013 12:09 pm

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Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.

The San Francisco 49ers are the favorites to win the Super Bowl, but the Baltimore Ravens have a special source of fuel. Raven Jacoby Jones is from New Orleans, where the game will be played, and his mom made the team 150 plates of food. Jones describes the feast as, quote, "gumbo, jambalaya, potato salad, bread pudding, macaroni - the whole nine yards."

Finally, somebody used that cliche in a sport where it makes sense.

Features

3:19 am

Fri February 1, 2013

A Thousand Feet Up In The DIRECTV Blimp

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Credit Jason Saul / WWNO

The DIRECTV blimp comes in for a landing at Lakefront Airport.

Credit Jason Saul / WWNO

Pilot Jeff Capek is breifed before the flight.

Credit Jason Saul / WWNO

A blimp's eye-view of the city.

Credit Jason Saul / WWNO

Capek brings the blimp around for another pass.

Credit Jason Saul / WWNO

Overlooking the CBD.

Credit Jason Saul / WWNO

Canal Street, looking towards the lake. That's Harrah's casino on the bottom left.

Credit Jason Saul / WWNO

The blimp's instrument panel.

Credit Jason Saul / WWNO

The lakefront, as the sun begins to set.

Credit Jason Saul / WWNO

Tying off to the "mast." The blimp's mast is its anchor point to keep it on the ground.

By Jason Saul

The DIRECTV blimp is never deflated.

With much of its crew of eighteen following along in a van, the blimp travels from site to site across the eastern half of the country by flying. It really only touches down for more than a few hours at a time once a year, to get a tune up at a hangar in Smyrna, TN.

The rest of the time, the blimp is above some of the most major sporting events in the country, including this year's Super Bowl here in New Orleans.

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