With Georgia on His Mind, Ice Is Left Behind

My Super Bowl diary: Day 1

NEW ORLEANS--The last thing Sports Editor Bill Dwyre told me before he began another vacation was not to write about Georgia Frontiere every day at the Super Bowl, or he would force me to return to L.A. before the end of the week.

Now ordinarily I would just write Georgia Frontiere, Georgia Frontiere and Georgia Frontiere, stick a thumb in each ear, wiggle my fingers, have someone take a picture, send it to Dwyre, get on the next plane, find the golf course where Dwyre is playing and take my punishment like a man by finishing the round with him.

But as you know, the NHL All-Star game is in L.A. this week, which is even a better reason than a Super Bowl to leave town, so I intend to be on my best behavior and make no mention of Georgia Frontiere.

Now had Dwyre not made such a stern point about not writing about Georgia Frontiere, I would probably have chronicled Georgia Frontiere’s appearance on stage at the awards ceremony after Sunday’s NFL championship game when she told everyone she played every play in the NFC championship game, adding that she was “feeling weak in the knees.”

(I know what you’re expecting here--but no way am I going to put myself in the position of having to go to that All-Star hockey game.)

Since I can’t write about it, I can only hope you were watching when Georgia Frontiere showed the national TV audience the Super Bowl ring the Rams won two years ago, which Georgia Frontiere had designed to cover two fingers at the same time.

As you know, she gave the fingers to all of America to see, holding them high in the air while trying to explain how the ring can expand and do other wonderful things, before Fox broadcaster Ron Pitts cut her off. I guess we know who husband No. 8 won’t be. (Sorry--old habit).

Anyway, I’m here for the week--the whole week--and there’s so much more important stuff to tell you about, so I promise--no more Georgia Frontiere.

Did you know that St. Louis Coach Mike Martz’s dog is a dachshund named “Buddy”? The St. Louis Post Dispatch, in what had to be an exclusive, reported Buddy will not be making the trip to New Orleans, which is certainly going to disappoint reporters who regularly cover the Chargers and Lions, which would have given them an edge on everyone else trying to interview the dog.

That reminds me, as soon as I left town the Dodgers scheduled a get-acquainted media session Monday with Brian Jordan. I don’t bite.

I can even be downright friendly. I called New Orleans-area resident Steve Rosenbloom to catch up on old Ram times and to ask if he’ll be getting together with his stepmother, you know, Georgia Frontiere.

“I hope not,” Rosenbloom said, and I asked if he was under similar orders from Dwyre not to talk about Georgia Frontiere, and he said he was free to do as he pleased, so it wasn’t as if I could stop him.

Rosenbloom, son of Carroll Rosenbloom, who owned the Rams and was married to Georgia when he died in a drowning accident, was fired a short time after by his stepmother.

“I don’t have any relationship with her,” Steve said. “I talk with my half-brother and half-sister because none of this is their fault. We can’t help who our parents are.”

On that uplifting note, I made my way to the media center to officially begin the week of hype, and the first person I ran into was Jim Rome, L.A.’s very own Jim Rome on the run from the NHL All-Star game just like me. I agreed to go on his radio show because the folks in Nebraska listen, and I wanted to ruin their day.

And I’ll tell you this, if Barry LeBrock ever has one of those bad hair days, my first pick to replace him as host on “The SIMERS Show” will be Rome. I think it would be a good boost for his career.

After leaving Rome, I ran into Steve Brener, L.A.’s very own Steve Brener on the run from the NHL All-Star game just like me. Brener does public relations work for the NFL, and while he’s the guy who could probably get me close to national anthem singer Mariah Carey at Thursday’s press conference, it probably wouldn’t look good on his resume if that prompted Carey to have another nervous breakdown.

As part of my job, I read some of the NFL’s press releases--happy to see fans will not be allowed to bring “weapons, explosives or strollers” into the Superdome. The NFL, however, is allowing 22 cannons inside to blast four million pieces of confetti on the winners. The losers have to pick up the confetti.

I noticed the cannon-confetti folks are based in Van Nuys, so I called spokesman Kerry Millerick, and you guessed it, about six Artistry in Motion employees intend to get out of town before the NHL All-Star game, and join me at the Super Bowl.

There’s so much security here you can’t go anywhere without being patted down, which should make the walk down Bourbon Street later tonight very interesting. A good reporter goes where the news is, and from what I can tell here there’s more interest in the opening of Gennifer Flowers’ new night club in the French Quarter than the arrival of the Rams and Patriots.

I’d still rather interview Mike Compton or Adam Timmerman and learn more about offensive line play in the big game, so that’s why I’ll be going to the bar now being run by Bill Clinton’s former mistress--figuring that’s where the players will be.

I’m told Flowers’ barroom was once the location of a restaurant staffed entirely by Asian transvestites, and before that a brothel. That’s not how I remember it the last time I was here, but maybe I just wasn’t paying attention.

*

T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com