How American is Ricky Stanzi? Made in America, son:
Stanzi’s latest tattoo is positioned across his back; he prides himself on being extremely patriotic (His BlackBerry cover is the American flag).
"I had the idea to get ‘Made in U.S.A. 1987’ on my back," he said, smiling. "… That’s pretty much the story on that one."
Emphasis ours. So yes, it's really his tattoo, and that picture's really him; it came from the DI's photo essay on athletes with tattoos (conspicuously absent: Kirk Ferentz's Swayze centaur tattoo, but I guess he's not an athlete), and that was back in May of this year. So yeah. This has been going on for a while.
Not only that, friends, but it's going on right now. As those who've read the Stanzi/Leman poll thread already know, one of our commenters was at a hotel bar that Stanzi stopped by after the Orange Bowl. The shirt he was wearing? Like you even had to ask, lawya:
Obviously, you'd expect him to wear that shirt after giving that answer to Chris Myers and all that, but remember: they're all in Miami, and have been for at least a week. Thus, Stanzi had to have packed that shirt and planned to wear it.
So now things start coming into a little clearer focus. Obviously, we weren't in any closed rooms or meetings between media and players, but isn't it just a little odd that after winning the game, Chris Myers asked Ricky Stanzi (of all people) a question that prompted a patriotic answer*?
People: that's politics and PR 101. Of course the question was planted. It'd be crazier if it weren't planted. And it was planted for one very specific reason:
2012, baby.
*Technically, Myers' question--if answered properly--does not prompt a patriotic answer. However, he brings up America, and we feel safe in assuming that Myers simply botched his responsibility. After all, it's just Chris Myers.