Yesterday Alicia Landry and the boys (Roger Staubach, Bill Lively and Michael Morris) unveiled the “Tom Landry Super Bowl Highway.” Now calm down. It’s not permanent, mind you. But until Feb. 6, Interstate-30 from Dallas to Fort Worth will have that designation. Did you know that in October 2001, it was named “Tom Landry Highway”? Interesting since the Cowboys Stadium was just a gleam in Jerry Jones‘ eye back then.
And the Super Bowl crowd will continue tomorrow checking off another item off their “must do” list. The first of 13 tree-planting projects will take place at 1601 E. Randol Mill Road in Arlington. You can expect to see the likes of Jack Groh (Director of NFL Environmental Program), Leslie Nixon (Miami Dolphins/Super Bowl XLIV Host Committee), Tony Fay (North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee), Preston Pearson (former Dallas Cowboy), Mel LeBlanc (City of Arlington Council Member), Patrick Little and Betsy Orton (Texas Trees Foundation) and dozens of Pop Warner Football players. And, yes, there will be cheerleaders.
Those nice folks from the last Super Bowl in Miami are providing a gold shovel that was used in planting their final tree. South Florida is also supplying a Live Oak that is user friendly in Florida and Texas.
While you may think tree hugging and Super Bowls are a strange coupling, it’s been part of the NFL Environmental Program for the past six years resulting in more than 20,000 trees being planted in cities hosting Super Bowls.