'Mean' Joe Green has high praise for Indy

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A Super Bowl icon says Indianapolis is doing a great job as a host city.

24-Hour News 8 anchor Scott Sander sat down with "Mean" Joe Greene Friday morning on Daybreak. Green has been to dozens of Super Bowls - first as a player, then as an advertising star; one of the most famous commercial spots ever showed him tossing his jersey to a young fan who had offered Mean Joe a Coke.

We asked him, compared to the many places he's traveled to watch the big game: How is our city doing?

"You’re doing wonderful," he said. "The presence is there when you land at the airport. It's there when you drive through the city streets. And that's great. I've been to a lot of Super Bowls, as you stated, and sometimes as you enter the Super Bowl city, you're not aware that the Super Bowl is going on."

Greene will star in a commercial during this year's Super Bowl, too. It's a take-off on the 1979 Coke spot - but the pitch is for a fabric softener instead of soda, he said.

As for the original, Greene got a wide grin when we showed it to him again.

"I've been seeing it for over 30 years now,” he said, “and it still brings a smile to my face!"