MIAMI – The NFL kicked off the Super Bowl week with its Opening Night media session here Monday. It came complete with cheerleaders, marching bands and flashing lights inside a baseball stadium. The annual event is meant to get the party started.
For once, it didn’t really work.
The players and coaches for the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers are preparing for the biggest game of their lives Sunday, but like just about everyone in the American sports world, the pall of Kobe Bryant’s death on Sunday seemed to hang over everything.