Watchdog

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...

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...

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...

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...

Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick will call Sunday's Seahawks-Falcons game, a development that caused quite a stir when Newsday first reported it, what with Fox having leaped them over the presumed No. 2 team of Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa.

But Fox Sports co-president Eric Shanks insisted Wednesday that the news was not quite as newsy as the rest of us thought it was.

"It...

A complete transcript of an interesting conversation I had with CBS analyst Bill Cowher Tuesday at an event to promote the network's coverage of SB47:

First, I asked Cowher whether with all of the openings around the league he was tempted by any of them. He said this:

"No, no, no, no. Hey, we have the Super Bowl. All these coaches are trying to get there. I know I'm going to be...

Ray Lewis announced Wednesday that he plans to retire after this season, so it came as no surprise Thursday when SI.com reported the future Hall of Fame linebacker is bound for ESPN’s cast of a thousand former jocks.

All good. Lewis is almost as compelling as a talker as he has been as a player, complete with smoldering intensity and deep thoughts. Therein lies what should make his studio...

It’s going to be a long month for readers and editors whose eyes glaze over when I write about NFL ratings. (Brady vs. Peyton for the AFC title?! CBS can’t wait!)

But first let us wrap up the regular season, in which the NFL did show signs of finally hitting a plateau, albeit at an extremely high altitude.

Since Labor Day, 31 of the 32 most-viewed programs have been NFL games, topped...

The professional football schedule for Week 17 includes nine games with direct playoff implications for the NFL and two that present a visual anomaly for New York-area television viewers.

The Jets and Giants both play at 1 p.m. this Sunday -- and not against each other -- thereby splitting the nation's No. 1 media market in two. The 6-9 Jets play at the 5-10 Bills on CBS, and the 8-7 Giants...

On Wednesday, Rob Parker took to his Twitter account (@RobParkerESPN) for the first time since Dec. 13 and issued this apology for his comments about Redskins rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III"

"I blew it and I’m sincerely sorry. I completely understand how the issue of race in sports is a sensitive one and needs to be handled with great care. This past Thursday I failed to do...