ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman were great on-field leaders for the Dallas Cowboys, winning a combined five Super Bowls.
They’ve turned into great civic leaders, too, helping lure the Super Bowl to Cowboys Stadium and working behind the scenes to get things ready – from raising money to being lead singers.
Yes, lead singers.
Bad ones.
“That’s kind of why we did it,” Aikman said.
Staubach is board chairman and Aikman vice chair of the host committee for the Super Bowl set for Feb. 6 – six months from Friday.
The group has raised $25 million toward a $40 million budget that’s easily the biggest by any host committee. They need it to pay for their “Texas-sized dreams,” as described by Frank Supovitz, the NFL’s senior vice president for events.
Highlights so far include concerts by Faith Hill in Fort Worth and Sting in Dallas; that’s where the warbling quarterbacks come in.
Before Hill took the stage, a video played of local sports celebrities each singing a few lines of her song, “This Kiss.” Staubach went first, followed by the likes of Nolan Ryan, Dirk Nowitzki and Tony Romo. (It’s on YouTube and the committee’s website.)
Before Sting played, Daryl Johnston showed a video he supposedly just took of Aikman, in his dressing room, singing “Roxanne” – by Sting’s former group, The Police – in the emphatic, off-key way Eddie Murphy does in the movie “48 Hours.”
These QB karaoke schticks are typical of the way people are cooperating with the host committee. Bill Lively, president-CEO of the committee, raved about the way elected officials and business leaders have put aside differences and worked together. That hasn’t happened since the building of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, “and that was federally mandated,” Lively said, laughing.
“Everybody just really wants to make this thing work,” Staubach said.
team considered among the favorites to play in the game. No team has ever played in a Super Bowl in its home stadium.
“I could not imagine anything that could’ve galvanized the region as effectively as the Super Bowl – not the World Cup, the Olympics or anything,” Lively said. “I think one of our biggest challenges has been managing expectations. People want to be doing something with it. They want to volunteer for us, they want to work for us, they want to get tickets, they want to be by the celebrities, they want into the action itself. We can only make some of that happen.”
The Super Bowl is the NFL’s show. The league handles tickets and picks the anthem and halftime singers (Staubach and Aikman need not apply), and everything related to the game itself.
The host committee oversees the rest.
Staubach and Lively have set two main goals: To put on such a great show that the NFL wants to come back, perhaps for the 50th Super Bowl in 2016, and to leave the region a better place.
The legacy will be in the form of $1 million-plus donated to food banks through the Taste of the NFL event; a community service program featuring 20,000 kids; and a “YET,” a youth education town the league requires every host to build. Organizers have come up with a new concept and new business model, but aren’t releasing specifics until next month.
As for doing it all again, Lively’s crew is keeping copious notes (“building a template for the next host committee,” he calls it) while Staubach is working on wooing NFL owners. For instance, each can expect a handwritten welcome note in their goodie baskets.
With football season arriving, events are about to ramp up.
Time is running out for fans to vote on a “Century in the Making” campaign to decide the 100 greatest moments in North Texas football history, from the first game at Fair Park (site of the Cotton Bowl) in 1912 to the Super Bowl in 2011. The list will be revealed in October.
There’s also the finale of the concert series, on Sept. 10 at Cowboys Stadium.
Van Cliburn will play the national anthem, accompanied by a 90-piece symphony orchestra. The orchestra will then play the soundtrack for a video tribute to Cowboys history, broken up by former star players introducing segments focused on each of the team’s Super Bowl titles and capped by a spotlight on Emmitt Smith for his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A gospel choir comprised solely of former NFL players (but not Aikman or Staubach) will perform, too. Country star Tim McGraw will play for an hour, with a fireworks show to close it.
Tickets will cost $25. Local corporations already have been buying blocs of 1,000 tickets and donating them to soldiers and schools.
“People that can’t afford to go to big concerts and football games out there, much less the Super Bowl, can afford to go to this,” Lively said. “This is almost a gift from the host committee to the community.”
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AP Sports Writer Jeff Latzke in Oklahoma City contributed.
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Online:
http://www.centuryinthemaking.com
http://www.northtexassuperbowl.com
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