A Snowmobile Could Come In Handy

Forecasts call for four to nine inches of snow in Detroit before the Super Bowl today.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning Saturday, and snow began falling in the afternoon. About 250 snowplows and hundreds of shovel-toting volunteers were on standby to ensure that football fans can get to the Pittsburgh-Seattle title game at Ford Field, which has a steel roof.

“We’re not worried,” said Ron Brundidge, head of the city department of public works street maintenance division. “One thing that puts us at ease is the fact that we’ve been planning for this for so long.”

The NFL, Super Bowl Host Committee and city crews have been preparing for a possible Super Bowl snowstorm for more than a year. Detroit residents have basked in unseasonably warm weather the last few days, with temperatures in the 40s.

Forecasters expect wind up to 29 mph, with the snow ending about midday Sunday. The game starts at 6:15 p.m. EST.

Brundidge said crews planned to salt major roads before the snow sticks. After it accumulates, they will plow and salt roads. The crews will concentrate on roads leading to downtown and adjacent areas.

From the Associated Press

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Jerome Bettis, already the toast of the town in his native Detroit, only added to his immense popularity when he played host to a bowling fund-raiser Thursday night that reportedly raised more than $100,000 for his The Bus Stops Here Foundation, which benefits inner-city children in Detroit and Pittsburgh.

“We’re in the hotel all day,” Bettis, who was joined by several Steeler teammates, told the Detroit Free Press.

“This gives me a chance to get out of the hotel and show my team what Detroit is all about. And it gives me a chance to help my foundation. The only way you’re able to go out and help the kids is to raise money.”

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Sixty-eight points have been scored in the Super Bowl by former Penn State players, the most from any school and four more than ex-Notre Dame players, perhaps giving Bettis extra incentive to reach the end zone today.

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The lowest-priced tickets for today’s game are $600. The highest-priced tickets for the first Super Bowl, at the Coliseum in 1967, were $12.

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Ariko Iso, in her fourth season with the Steelers, is the first -- and only -- female trainer in the NFL. She is an assistant to head trainer John Norwig, and her father planned to fly in from Tokyo to be with her this weekend.

Her presence in the locker room “provides things like gender diversity, ethnic diversity or age diversity that helps all of the players,” she said.