SUPER BOWL XXXVIII | Notes from around Reliant Stadium

Coin-toss practice: The NFL knew Gene Upshaw well enough to stick a special note on his schedule Friday as he prepared to be part of the Super Bowl's coin toss team. "It says on our itinerary 'coin flip practice,' " said Upshaw, one of six NFL Hall of Famers from Texas involved in the ceremony. "And they put on mine, 'We're not kidding.' " Yes, the precision choreography of all things Super Bowl extends even to the usually routine task of determining which team chooses to receive the opening kickoff. "I kept thinking, 'How do you practice the coin flip?' " Upshaw said. Upshaw, paid to be skeptical as chief of the players' union, will be joined at midfield Sunday by fellow Texans Earl Campbell, Don Maynard, Ollie Matson, Mike Singletary and Y.A. Tittle. Exactly who will do the flipping is a secret.
Good deeds: Chiefs offensive guard Will Shields' long-standing commitment to disadvantaged children in the Kansas City area earned him the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award Friday. The honor is based on both service and playing excellence. Shields paved the way for record-setting Chiefs running back Priest Holmes this season and made the Pro Bowl for the ninth consecutive time. His Will to Succeed Foundation works on a number of fronts, including a day care center that hosts more than 500 children. Shields credits his college coach, Tom Osborne, for inspiring him to become a youth mentor after his freshman year at Nebraska.
No comment: With the Panthers in the Super Bowl, several news organizations have tried to interview former Carolina receiver Rae Carruth, who is imprisoned on a murder charge for his girlfriend's death. "Rae's answer has been the same for all of them -- no," said Keith Acree, spokesman for North Carolina's prison system. Acree noted that interest in talking to Carruth never totally waned after he was sentenced in 2001 to at least 18 years for conspiring to murder 24-year-old Cherica Adams. She was eight months pregnant with his baby when she was shot in November 1999. Doctors saved the baby, but Adams lapsed into a coma and died the following month. The wide receiver, who is appealing his conviction, is incarcerated at the Nash Correctional Institution near Rocky Mount. Saundra Adams, Cherica's mother, said she's not surprised there's interest in Carruth. "This should bring more realization to him about how he messed up," she said. "He could be at the Super Bowl."
-- Associated Press