JERSEY CITY, N.J. – With five former University of Wisconsin players taking part in this Super Bowl, the school dispatched a videographer to media day Tuesday to interview the former players for posterity.
"You're always trying to sell yourself to recruits, so it's free advertising that just gives us more credibility when you do it on a big stage like this with two of your most prominent [former] players," Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said Wednesday.
Alvarez was referring to Seahawks second-year quarterback Russell Wilson and Broncos rookie running back Montee Ball. Wilson's teammates include safety Chris Maragos and linebacker O'Brien Schofield, reserves who played at Wisconsin. And his offensive coordinator, Darrell Bevell, left college in 1995 as Wisconsin's career passing leader.
The last time Ball and Wilson shared the spotlight came at the podium after the 2012 Rose Bowl loss to Oregon. Wilson had just completed a wildly successful, whirlwind season after coming from North Carolina State and adjusting quickly enough to be named co-captain. Ball had led the nation in rushing yards as a junior.
Cheering from prison
Demaryius Thomas' mother and grandmother will cheer for the Broncos receiver around the prison TV Sunday, both wearing No. 88 jerseys they crafted with strips of tape.
Thomas was 11 when police burst through the door of their home in Montrose, Ga., and arrested both in 1999 on drug charges.
Now Katina Smith is at a minimum-security prison in Florida, sentenced to 20 years. Her mother, Minnie Pearl Thomas, who had two previous drug convictions, received two life sentences with the possibility for parole after 40 years.
Smith could have gotten a lighter sentence by testifying against her mother, but she refused.
