The Associated Press

The first phase of a public art project to install the work of Southern sculptors around New Orleans was completed in time to be seen by visitors in the city for the Super Bowl.

The Ogden Museum of Southern Art said Thursday that the first phase includes seven sculptures placed along the busy Poydras Corridor and Convention Center Boulevard. The Ogden is curating the exhibition along with the "Sculpture for New Orleans" organization, founded in 2008.

Eventually, the exhibition is to feature 25 sculptures from Southern artists.

The entertainment leading up to the Super Bowl is so A-list, Beyonce may not have the most anticipated performance surrounding Sunday's big game in New Orleans.

Justin Timberlake is scheduled to give his first major musical performance in four years. Stevie Wonder will perform at an outdoor concert. CeeLo is reuniting with his old hip-hop clique, Goodie Mob, and Rascal Flatts will team up with Journey for a concert. And that's only a fraction of the all-star events.

Indeed, much of the emphasis in the days leading up to the big event has very little to do with the game.

Beyoncé is expected to face the media Thursday as she previews her halftime performance at the Super Bowl. But the focus will likely be on her performance at that other big event earlier this month.

The superstar hasn't spoken publicly since it was alleged that she lip-synched her rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at President Barack Obama's inauguration. Since she hasn't addressed the controversy, it's expected the topic will be the main focus of her afternoon press conference in New Orleans.

Heading back to his hometown, Jacoby Jones couldn't afford to tell the truth.

The All-Pro kick returner for the Baltimore Ravens got 15 tickets for the Super Bowl as a participating player. The demand from family and friends in New Orleans was way beyond that.

No Big Easy there.

Each Raven and San Francisco 49er player and coach had access to 15 tickets: two complimentary, the rest for purchase. Prices range this year from $800 to $1,200, the same as last year in Indianapolis.

When the game was last played in New Orleans 11 years ago, every seat cost $400.

Two of the league's most imposing inside linebackers both happen to wear No. 52.

This story is about the other one.

Patrick Willis of the San Francisco 49ers already has done plenty to prove his is the dominant 52 on the left coast and beyond, having been an All-Pro in five of his six NFL seasons. After enduring years of losing, he finally gets to flaunt his talent on the NFL's biggest stage at Sunday's Super Bowl, where he'll meet up with ... you guessed it. ...

No. 52 of the Baltimore Ravens, retiring Ray Lewis.

Tyrod Taylor is the forgotten quarterback at the Super Bowl.

Everyone knows the starters, of course, Baltimore's Joe Flacco and San Francisco's Colin Kaepernick.

They even know about Alex Smith, who started for the 49ers until he was sidelined with a concussion in November and Kaepernick stepped in.

And Taylor? His resume can be summed up on the top half of an index card: Two years, no starts and 30 passes — 25 of them in the Ravens' meaningless regular-season finale against Cincinnati last month.

New Orleans officials are expecting big crowds in the downtown area around the Superdome days in advance of Sunday's Super Bowl, so they are shutting down the nearby City Hall building on Friday.

City officials extended the hours at City Hall on Monday through Thursday to make up for Friday's planned closure.

Preparations for the game have already been causing traffic congestion in downtown New Orleans with lanes on heavily traveled Poydras Street in front of the Superdome closed to traffic.

When the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers meet in the Super Bowl on Sunday, two complete seasons will have come and gone without a single HGH test being administered, even though the league and the NFL Players Association paved the way for it in the 10-year collective bargaining agreement they signed in August 2011.

Since then, the sides have haggled over various elements, primarily the union's insistence that it needs more information about the validity of a test that the Olympic sports and Major League Baseball use to detect the banned performance-enhancing drug.

The chorus from Sandy Hook Elementary School will sing "America the Beautiful" before Sunday's Super Bowlbetween the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens.

The chorus features 26 children from Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., where 20 first-graders and six adults were killed in a Dec. 14 shooting rampage.

The performance will be part of CBS's pre-game show, and will be broadcast live. Alicia Keys will sing the national anthem.

Bubba Watson wants no part of deer-antler spray. The name alone makes the Masters champion a bit squeamish.

When asked about it Wednesday at the Phoenix Open, Watson said: "It sounds like something I would never want near me."

Days after a Sports Illustrated article on Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis put deer-antler spray in the news at the Super Bowl, Vijay Singh admitted he used the substance.

The 49-year-old Fijian first revealed he used the spray in an interview for the Sports Illustrated story.