The halftime show news conference always is one of the biggest – and strangest – of Super Bowl week, as fawning entertainment writers and grouchy sportswriters vie to ask pertinent questions of famous musicians.

But Thursday’s Beyonce presser was an all-timer, from the moment she began by belting out the national anthem in a clever in-your-face to critics of her Inauguration Day lip-sync.

She... » more

Sometimes it’s best to just quote Super Bowl news releases verbatim, allowing them to speak for their wacky selves, rather than trying to think of something clever to say about them.

For example, one from CBS about, well, this:

"CBS Sports, home of Super Bowl XLVII, Queens and Helmut VonLichten have teamed to re-mix the iconic rock classic “We Will Rock You” with “The NFL on CBS”... » more

Ray Lewis will play his last game on Sunday in Super Bowl XLVII, and in the weeks and year afterward, folks will talk about his legacy.

That's nice.

But let's talk about the here and now for a moment -- and that is the pregame speech he recorded for Madden 13.

Watch below and enjoy.

(Newsday app users can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HsDZULKFm2I... » more

Dressing up notoriously drab MetLife Stadium will be among the challenges Super Bowl XLVIII organizers face, but they are off to a good start with an early gimmick that actually looks pretty cool – literally and figuratively.

MetLife this week installed a 25-foot high “snow globe’’ outside the stadium, complete with real snow, as the Jets’ Joe McKnight and Giants’ David Wilson demonstrated... » more

Beth Hirschhorn is chief marketing officer for MetLife, but as she talked about Super Bowl XLVIII on Thursday, she sounded more like an advanced analytics geek as she broke down the cold, hard facts of winter weather and offense.

“The thing I’m hearing from people that is a little off-kilter is that the score is much lower in cold-weather games, and the statistics don’t bear that out,’’ she... » more

The YES Network announced a multi-year contract extension with Michael Kay, its Yankees play-by-play voice since the network launched in 2002.

Kay also will continue hosting the "CenterStage" interview show. Kay re-signed last fall with ESPN Radio, for which he hosts the afternoon drive time show in 98.7-FM.... » more

Monday night's episode of "Costas at the Movies" on MLB Network features "A League of Their Own," with Commack Bob interviewing director Penny Marshall and actress Geena Davis.

MLBN was nice enough to send some excerpted quotes along, especially the first one.

Penny Marshall on Demi Moore almost being cast as Dottie Hinson:

“Demi Moore, I liked, but by the time... » more

It's fair to say that Al Michaels probably is the only network NFL play-by-play man who would have the guts to use the terms "piece of crap" and "Pro Bowl" in the same thought - even though he actually was defending the honor of the game.

Here is what Al said with about two minutes left in Sunday night's game:

"I like what Jared Allen had to say and [Chris] Snee... » more

WFAN's Mike Francesa flew from LaGuardia to New Orleans on Sunday along with a number of other local sports media scribes, including Newsday's own Tom Rock.

But soon after he boarded, word began to filter onto Twitter and blogs - including one of the biggest, Deadspin.com - and finally onto WFAN's own morning show that Big Mike had received an escort to the gate from uniformed police officers.

Boomer... » more

As a guy who misspent his adolescence in East Northport, it’s not every day I receive a news release about a nationally televised sports event near my hometown. So, naturally, my typing fingers perked up when I learned Showtime’s “ShoBox: The New Generation’’ series was coming to Huntington tonight.

The card is set to go live at 10 p.m., with the main event being a junior middleweight bout... » more