FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — New Orleans is a Super Bowl city again.
NFL owners voted Tuesday to play the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans, the first time the championship will be played there since Hurricane Katrina shredded parts of the Louisiana Superdome. The hurricane caused 1,600 deaths and devastated the Gulf Coast four years ago.
New Orleans beat out Miami, which sought a record 11th Super Bowl, and 2008 host Glendale, Ariz. This is the 10th time New Orleans will be the Super Bowl site.
“We’re just thrilled about what’s going on,” Saints owner Tom Benson said. “We’re getting a new Superdome. Now we’re going to get a Super Bowl on top of that. It couldn’t be any more exciting than that.”
New Orleans last hosted in 2002, when Adam Viniateri’s 48-yard field goal as time expired lifted New England over St. Louis.
Louisiana lawmakers are debating plans to spend $85 million in Superdome upgrades, which would be completed in time for the 2013 NFL title game.
NFL extends TV deals
NEW YORK — The NFL has extended its deals with broadcast partners CBS and FOX through the 2014 season.
The separate two-year extensions give CBS, which televises AFC games, the rights to broadcast the Super Bowl from New Orleans following the 2013 season.
Fox will continue to televise NFC games and was awarded the rights to air the Super Bowl after the 2014 season.
The NFL also reached a deal with Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable TV operator, to air the NFL Network on its second-most popular digital tier of service.
Humane Society, Vick to join forces
RICHMOND, Va. — Michael Vick wants to work with an unlikely ally — the Humane Society of the United States — on a program aimed at eradicating dogfighting among urban teens.
Society president Wayne Pacelle said he recently met with Vick at the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., and that Vick said he wants to work with the group once he’s out of federal custody.
“He indicated that he’s tremendously remorseful about this, and now he wants to be an agent of change, to work to end dogfighting and to specifically get young kids to cease any involvement in these activities,” Pacelle said.
Vick is serving a 23-month prison sentence after his 2007 dogfighting conviction. He is scheduled to return to Virginia this week to serve the final two months of his term under home confinement in Hampton. Vick is expected to be released to supervised probation July 20 after receiving two months off his term for good behavior.
Footnotes.
The Jets signed offensive lineman Matt Slauson, their sixth-round pick out of the University of Nebraska, to a four-year deal.
• The Bengals moved guard Andrew Whitworth to left tackle for the start of the team’s voluntary offseason workouts, while top draft pick Andre Smith will line up at right tackle — a position he has never played — when he reaches a contract agreement.
The Associated Press
