Sunday Morning News

Atlanta Prepares to Host Super Bowl XXXIV

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In case you've been in a cave, it is Super Bowl Sunday and our home town of Atlanta is hosting Super Bowl XXXIV. And weather will not affect the game. It is played indoors at the Georgia Dome.

CNN's Brian Cabell is on the scene for us -- Brian.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, we've got some good news and bad news out here at the Georgia Dome with the weather. We have slightly warmer weather than we had yesterday, but it's also a little bit wetter. There were some blackouts in northern Georgia yesterday, but isolated. Nothing like last week when we had about 500,000 customers out.

Traffic once again very slick. Highway 85, an interstate that goes north and south through here, was closed, virtually closed down for much of the morning. Traffic is getting through but trucks were trying to get some gravel down, trying to get some salt down, as well.

A number of cancellations over the last week, Super Bowl events canceled because people simply couldn't get downtown. But a tailgating party that is scheduled for later today is still on as far as we know. They were hoping to have something like 10,000 people. That's very doubtful given the weather that we have.

Now, if you have been able to get downtown in Atlanta the last few days, there's something called the NFL Experience that people have been able to enjoy, both adults and children. You can test your skills, you can show off your skills at passing the football for accuracy, running the football and also catching the football. Not as well attended as might have been hoped and expected, but still a pretty good crowd, this just across the street from the Georgia Dome.

For another type of partygoer, the Leigh Steinberg party, he is the super agent, represents a number of football players, big name football players. He entertained a number of people, politicians, football players and some of the other social types here in town yesterday and as you might expect, they talked about football.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-MO), MINORITY LEADER: We're so happy to be here with the Rams and St. Louis is all really excited about this game. So we're just thrilled to be here. The rain will go away but we'll remember this Super Bowl. This is going to be fun.

KEVIN GREEN, RETIRED NFL PLAYER: The game's still going to go on. It's still going to be played. So I mean if you've got a ticket, you don't make the trip, I mean the roads aren't that bad, you know? Come on, see the show.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABELL: One other event scheduled for this afternoon, a protest, as you might expect. The Reverend Jesse Jackson and a number of other civil rights leaders will be protesting the Georgia state flag, which contains the confederate battle emblem on the flag. They would like to have that removed and, in fact, they will be calling for a tourism boycott after the Super Bowl until that emblem gets removed.

So today we have football. We've got some weather and we have some political protest.

I'm Brian Cabell, CNN, live in Atlanta.

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