TRIMMING THE FAT
Courtney Lenz (left), a veteran Ravens cheerleader who has been barred from performing at the Super Bowl on Sunday, told Inside Edition she believes her displacement had to do with her gaining roughly two pounds.
The Ravens, however, said they are only allowed to bring half of their cheerleading squad to the Super Bowl, and the criteria to attend are seniority, performance ability and personal conduct through the year. Lenz told Inside Edition she has more seniority than some of the women attending.
“They say whoever they had to take disciplinary action toward was automatically disqualified from attending the Super Bowl,” Lenz, a five-year veteran of the squad, told Inside Edition. “The only disciplinary action they took toward me was … I was benched for my weight. … I was consistent at 124, and went up to about 125.6, so 1.6 pounds.”
Lenz plans to retire after this season.
J-HUD TO SING WITH HOOK KIDS
Jennifer Hudson will join the chorus from Sandy Hook Elementary School to sing “America the Beautiful” before Sunday’s game. The Grammy and Oscar-winning singer will join the chorus, featuring 26 children from the school in Newtown, Conn., where 20 first-graders and six adults were killed in a Dec. 14 shooting rampage.
TUNE IN, AMERICA!
Even though only 3 percent of Americans identify as fans of the Ravens (1 percent) or 49ers (2 percent), 66 percent of Americans are likely to tune in to Super Bowl XLVII, including 42 percent who say they seldom or never watch sports, a new survey finds.
Nearly 3-in-10 (27 percent) Americans believe God plays a role in determining which team wins sports events, according to the January Religion and Politics Tracking Survey, conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute.
PHONY EXPRESS
Investigators have confiscated more than $13.6 million worth of phony sports merchandise over the past five months and expect to seize more in New Orleans, a federal law-enforcement official said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton said authorities also have shut down more than 300 websites selling counterfeit goods as part of an enforcement effort dubbed “Operation Red Zone.”
ANOTHER ‘BOWL’ OF AVOCADO?
Americans are expected to consume 79 million pounds of avocados around the Super Bowl, according to the Hass Avocado Board. For those keeping score, that’s roughly 158 million avocados. And that’s roughly 10 times the avocados eaten during the Super Bowl in 2000.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
After 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver made anti-gay remarks on Super Bowl media day, Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs was asked if he or his teammates would have any problems having a gay teammate.
“Absolutely not. … We wouldn’t have a problem with it. We don’t care. Our biggest thing in the locker room is to just have fun and stay loose. We don’t really care too much about that. We’re a football team. I said it yesterday, everybody deserves a certain amount of privacy. Who cares? Whatever a person’s choice is, it’s their choice.”