MNF mainstay gearing up for start of NFL season

ORLANDO, Fla.—Standing on a makeshift football field atop a soundstage in the middle of flashing lights, dancing cheerleaders and screaming fans, Hank Williams, Jr. lifted his cowboy hat and belted out the words that for more than 20 years have become synonymous with the start of the NFL season.

Hank Williams, Jr., the man who popularized the lyrics "Are you ready for some football?" was in Florida on Thursday recording the opening promo an upcoming season that, right now at least, is still in limbo, with owners and players trying to strike a new labor deal.

Williams said he has sympathy for both the fans who are crossing their fingers that the season begins on time and those around the negotiating table. In more than two decades associated with the league, he said he feels like a man in the middle of a fight between his friends.

"We were in there recording the audio and I said, `Why are we doing that, they aren't gonna play it,'" Williams joked. "But I know a lot of people in the football world -- the owners, the players, the marketing directors, and some of the great retired (players). So I see where they're coming from. I said, `Well if we're going to Orlando to shoot this thing, I guess they're gonna play.'"

Whether or not Williams is right, what can't be disputed is that as much as famous broadcasters like Howard Cosell and Don Meredith were identified with "Monday Night Football," now too is the 62-year-old country star, who originally signed a one-year contract to be a part of the production in 1989.

His song "All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night," is a remixed version of his 1984 hit song "All My Rowdy Friends are Coming Over Tonight." The retooled version of the song won him four Emmy Awards in the early 1990s as the opening theme to Monday Night Football.

"You think about it, 22 years, there's a whole generation of kids that are just getting out of college that don't know Monday Night Football without Hank Williams, Jr.," said Bob Toms, an ESPN vice president who was with ABC when Williams was initially hired. "That song has become an anthem and that line has become the catchphrase that says Monday night. Hank's face and outfit, etc., kind of says `Monday Night Football' to a lot of people."

ABC last produced the show for network television in 2005 before handing it over to fellow Walt Disney Company property ESPN full-time for the 2006 season. It was a seismic shift for a show that thrived outside of cable television for 35 years.

"I'm the only one, everybody else is gone. The true ABC Monday Night Football -- they're gone," Williams said.

He said he hasn't always been a fan of all the bells and whistles that have been tried during his tenure.

"I'm not gonna name any names, but when they used some of those other things...some of the hosts they had -- it didn't go over," Williams said. "But it's still great, no matter if they have Frank (Gifford) or Al or Mike Tirico hosting."

Dozens of extras were hired to be the background fans in Thursday's promo shoot. Wearing jerseys of NFL stars like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, among others, they ranged in age from children to seniors.

Toms said it isn't lost on anyone involved with the production of the show that the sight of Williams in front of the cameras wearing his black and white cowboy hat enlivens their football spirit.

"I think the line `Are you ready for some football' means a more this year than it has in a lot of years," Toms said. "And when he says `Are you ready for some football?' I think a lot of people are ready to stop the business discussion, and start talking about teams, games, talent and get into the fun part about football and the part we all love about it.

"I know we're excited about it...and we'll keep our fingers crossed that it'll all be worked out and we'll be on the air soon enough."

No matter when the next Monday night game is broadcast, Williams said he will be watching from the comfort of his couch at one of his homes -- in Montana, Alabama and Florida. He said he plans to keep enjoying his job, for as long as he has it.

"I don't run to the TV anymore, I just wait for one of my kids to say `Daddy, you're on!'" Williams said. "The people I've worked with over the years, they know where I'm coming from and it's been a wonderful ride. And hopefully it's been very good for the game.

Squash unveils Olympics guru to mastermind 2020 Games bid success

The sport has fought a long battle to garner enough votes from the International Olympic Committee's executive board having missed out on inclusion to the 2012 and 2016 Games.

Last week squash was shortlisted again by the IOC for a potential place in 2020 alongside seven other sports, including baseball and softball, karate and roller sports.
Now, the World Squash Federation has turned to Vero Communications, run by public relations strategist Mike Lee, who previously worked on the successful summer Olympic bids for London 2012, Rio 2016 and the Qatar 2022 football World Cup bid. Squash clearly feels it can't afford to miss out at the final hurdle for a third time.
"Mike Lee is hugely respected by the Olympic fraternity and his incredible success rate on behalf of bid teams in various sporting contexts speaks for itself," said WSF chief Andrew Shelley. "After helping to bring the 2018 Winter Olympic Games to PyeongChang in South Korea, we hope he can sprinkle some magic our way next.”
At an IOC vote in Singapore six years ago, squash was one of two sports put forward for 2012 after baseball and softball where ejected from the Beijing Games.
However, squash and karate failed to obtain a two-thirds majority vote. The IOC then amended its 2004 charter for the 2016 vote where only a single majority was deemed necessary for golf and rugby sevens’ recommendation. Lee will also be aware of squash's position having played a role in rugby's successful bid for Rio.
Lee, who set up Vero in 2006, said: "Our aim is to help squash put forward a compelling case to the IOC programme commission and wider Olympic Family."
Squash insiders say the sport ticks most of the boxes when it comes to assessing the sport's Olympic credentials. As the great Jahangir Khan put it this week: "It will be the biggest honour [i.e. the highest accolade] for squash players to feature in an Olympic spectacle."
However Lee's biggest hurdle will be convincing the IOC - who will make their decision in late 2013 - of the sport's global appeal, TV exposure and economic benefits.
Lee added: "There is a long road ahead in the campaign but we are excited by the challenge."

Tom Hanks: 'Hollywood is like high school

In Larry Crowne, Hanks plays an amiable ex-Navy man who is "downsized" out of his job at a big American store.

One minute he is skipping into work to ELO's Hold on Tight, and the next he is shown the door by his superiors.

"Timing's a bitch," says one of them, with a crocodile smile.

Burdened by a mortgage, and with time on his hands, Larry Crowne signs up at the local college to get some qualifications and re-invent himself.

"What we try to deal with is the fight against cynicism," says Tom Hanks, when we meet during his recent visit to London for the Larry Crowne premiere.

"Cynicism and sadness and bitterness can enter into the fray particularly when you've lost your job and when you've done everything right, and you still find yourself in these kind of straits."

Rom-com reunion

Although there is much in Larry Crowne that chimes with today's tough economic times, Hanks began developing the story years earlier with Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding).

He also drew on his own experiences of attending college as a teenager in the 1970s.

"I only went to three years of college and two of them were at a community college much like the one that Larry goes to," recalls Hanks.

"I started when I was 17, and there were people in class who were twice as old as me and had families and once had businesses."

Larry Crowne reunites Hanks on-screen with Julia Roberts, who plays college lecturer Mercedes Tainot. The pair had previously worked together on 2007's Charlie Wilson's War.

Both actors had starred in some of the biggest romantic comedies of the 1990s. In Larry Crowne, Hanks's character develops a crush on on Roberts's public-speaking teacher - just as her marriage is falling apart.

"I'm in my 50s so that's not exactly fertile territory for romantic comedy," laughs Hanks.

"In Larry Crowne we do it in the way it happens in real life - you just happen to bump into somebody and it turns into one of the greatest things that ever happens to you.

"It's not so much boy meets girl, it's more a man meets woman story - not exactly the nature of old school rom-coms."

This is Hanks's second shot at movie writing and directing after 1996's That Thing You Do!

His breakthrough movie was in Ron Howard's Splash and he went on to to star in '80s comedies The Money Pit, Bachelor Party, Big and Turner & Hooch.

He won an Oscar in 1994 for Philadelphia and again the following year for Forrest Gump.

Other key films include Sleepless in Seattle, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away, Road to Perdition and the Toy Story series.

He most recently reprised the roles of Woody in Toy Story 3 and Robert Langdon in Angels and Demons.

After such a long career, I ask him, what is Hollywood really like?

"Hollywood is exactly like high school," Hanks says. "With money!"

He adds: "It's filled with just as much pettiness, sadness and jealousy as well as fun and senior proms and parties."

And how has he survived more than three decades in showbiz? "I laugh more than I shake."