The center of the sports world will veer from the Meadowlands of New Jersey to a Russian resort in the next week.

There were dire predictions and considerable criticism about locating the Super Bowl outdoors in a cold weather area. Both are being realized, according to CBS:

On Tuesday afternoon, there were still 18,000 tickets available for the Super Bowl, CBS 2′s Emily Smith reported.

The NFL’s biggest game of the season draws fans from around the world to its host city, but this year the game is in New Jersey, the forecast is frigid, and thousands of tickets are still available.

Tri-State area residents said that without the Jets or Giants playing on Sunday, the big game isn’t a big deal. Especially in New York where residents are used to hosting big shows and seeing celebrities walking around.

“It’s just aggravation. Going there, getting there. I’d rather sit in my living room,” one New Yorker said.

Ticket prices have fallen to $1,500 and haven’t stabilized so they could fall even lower. But it still may not be enough to get some local residents to Metlife stadium.

The fact that former Badgers Russell Wilson and Montee Ball are playing for the two teams doesn’t particularly interest me.

More interesting are the comments from Super Bowl XLV-winning coach Mike McCarthy, as reported by Monday Morning Quarterback:

We completed our game-plan work in Green Bay during the off week, preparing right up until our flight for Dallas on the Sunday before the game. Upon arrival, we were given an amazing welcome on the tarmac by two fire trucks that shot water over our plane. An ice storm hit Dallas that night, which in hindsight, I believe helped us. The storm created travel limitations, and as a result, our young team was doing a lot of things together that fostered bonding and camaraderie. …

Once Friday arrived, from a scheduling standpoint, the next 48 hours were pretty normal for us. I knew Sunday was going to be a long day, and as I had done in the past with night games, I pushed my themed talk to the team from Saturday night to Sunday morning. On Saturday night, we had a motivational speaker, Dr. Kevin Elko, speak with the team. Prior to his presentation, many of the guys were hanging out around the meeting rooms where they found a baby grand piano.

C.J. Wilson started playing while Greg Jennings and a number of guys sang spiritual songs for a good 25 to 35 minutes. It was special and something I’ll never forget. That moment gave me a lot of confidence that the guys were dialed in and ready to play. I always look for stress points in our team’s behavior and that was a very confident moment. Dr. Elko had a great talk that evening and after that meeting broke, the players walked out and were measured for their Super Bowl rings. The players really enjoyed the opportunity to see what they were playing for, not to mention the timing of that message. Like all nights before games, Saturday night concluded with a team snack. I’ve never heard so much hooting and hollering; the camaraderie, energy and confidence were through the roof. Dr. Elko and I were talking that night about the week and the interaction he observed among the players. He was amazed and I very clearly remember him telling me, “Mike, you’ve already won this game.” It’s easy for me to say it now, because we won the game, 31-25, but I felt very confident Saturday night.

The opportunity to speak to the team on Sunday morning is something I’ll always cherish and remember. My message was simple; it was about the “Power of ONE.” Our team was unified in the pursuit of ONE goal, and like the three letters in the word one, our team was made up of three units—offense, defense and special teams. Additionally, our team’s identity was characterized by three components—discipline, toughness and being fundamentally sound. Finally, I left the players with the reminder that they carry the history and tradition of the Green Bay Packers with ONE mind, ONE heart, ONE purpose and ONE goal. We were playing that night to take the Lombardi Trophy back to the ONE city where it belongs. It was our time to take it home. …

I did make one mistake surrounding the game, and it’s something that I regret to this day. I was not prepared for the postgame atmosphere after our Super Bowl victory. I had heard other coaches talk about postgame after they won and, frankly, I forgot all about it. That’s the only thing I wish I could change about my Super Bowl experience. We all work tirelessly for that moment and our families make sacrifices and support us, and I didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy it with them or the team the way I would have liked to in the immediate aftermath of the game. …

Overall, I really treasure the entire Super Bowl experience, but it’s easy to get consumed in the preparation for such a big game and everything surrounding it that you forget about the little things. Except when you look back, those things aren’t so little. A good friend of mine was coaching for the Ravens last year and I told him, “Whatever happens, make sure you get your family on that field after the game and enjoy that moment with your family and players. Don’t let that slip away.” When the Green Bay Packers win their next one, I’ll be much better prepared for that part of the experience.

Thanks to the outdoor setting, this game may well be determined by the weather. (Sunday’s East Rutherford, N.J., forecast: Cloudy, 30 percent chance of rain before noon, then a slight chance of showers after noon, high near 48, low 27, west wind 5 to 9 mph.) If the weather forecast is accurate, the conditions shouldn’t affect Peyton Manning much. If it’s more windy (and Giants Stadium was known for infamously swirling winds) and he can’t throw accurately, Seattle will win.

The Olympics got off to a Vinko Bogataj-like start, at least from the perspective of patriotic Americans, thanks to, of all things, a women’s hockey goaltender mask (from In Goal magazine):

The good news is the real gold can stay on Jessie Vetter’s new mask for the upcoming 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Unfortunately, the image of the United States constitution had to go, along with her name.

Those were among the biggest changes to Vetter’s new Vaughn Custom Pro’s Choice mask, which debuted on InGoal just last week, as mandated by International Olympic Committee rules. Artist Ron Slater of Slater Lettering and Graphics was also forced to repaint the chin of Vetter’s mask, removing Olympic rings similar to the ones Ryan Miller wore on his chin without a problem at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics (Miller did have to remove his long-time “Miller Time” tag line from the backplate, however).

“No writings of any kind to promote the country is allowed,” Slater explained in an email to InGoal. “A sort of ‘our country is better than your country” kind of thing that the IOC frowns upon. Her name had to come off because they see it as self promotion. They wanted everything to be team based. … Our original idea was ‘land of the free, home of the brave,’ and that would have had to have been removed as well.”

This should not be surprising from the famously hypocritical and, among other attributes, anti-Semitic IOC. (See 1936 and 1972.)

This Olympics, really unlike any other before this, has the scepter of terrorist threat over it, and heavy-handed response to said terrorist threat over it, to the point that U.S. athletes have been telling their families to not come to Sochi. That would seem an overreaction in this country, but Russia is not the U.S.

The sports part of the Olympics is difficult to predict. No one thought that a group of college hockey players would win gold in 1980. Unfortunately, the Olympics has metastasized far beyond mere athletic competition, which makes it less worth your while.