At the Fringe of Super Bowl Spotlight : Pro football: Many of the best stories on the season’s championship game occur off the field.

Now in its 26th year of existence, it’s pretty obvious that the Super Bowl knows no limits. They aren’t going to run out of Roman numerals, are they?

It’s sure to be another television extravaganza, seen in more than 50 countries. Plus, you should take into account a halftime show that looks fairly promising. Called “Winter Magic,” it stars Gloria Estefan, Dorothy Hamill and Brian Boitano. Presumably, Snoopy was booked.

A look back:

HOW DO WE BILL THIS THING?

‘MAD MAX’ OR ‘FIBBER McGEE’?

At 34, Max McGee was near the end of his career as a receiver, but he was still in his prime as a carouser. The night before his Green Bay Packers were to play the Kansas City Chiefs in the Coliseum, McGee risked a $5,000 fine from Coach Vince Lombardi for missing curfew and hit the streets of Los Angeles for a little action.

“Dave Hanner checked the room at curfew and I asked Hawg if he was going to double check later,” McGee wrote in the book “Lombardi,” edited by former Packer teammate Jerry Kramer. “ ‘Yep,’ he said. But then, as he started out of my room, he changed his mind for some reason. ‘Nope,’ Hawg said. ‘I won’t check your room later.’ That was enough for me. I practically ran over him getting out of the room. I met some blonde the night before, and I was on my way to pay my respects.”

McGee got back to the hotel at 7:30 a.m. He was secure in the knowledge that there was no chance he would play in the game; he had barely played all season, catching only four passes in 14 games.

“I could barely stand up for the kickoff,” McGee said.

Sure enough, Boyd Dowler was injured, Lombardi summoned McGee and the rest is history. McGee caught seven passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-10 Packer victory.

‘JUST ONE MORE QUESTION:

WHEN DID YOU STOP BEATING YOUR WIFE?’

Worst question in Super Bowl history (tie): To Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins before Super Bowl XXII in 1988: “Have you always been a black quarterback?” To Raider quarterback Jim Plunkett before Super Bowl XVIII in 1984: “Jim, let me get this straight . . . is it blind mother, deaf father?”

Next worst question in Super Bowl history, followed by possible best answer: To Dallas Cowboy running back Duane Thomas at Super Bowl VI in 1972: “Are you as fast as you appear to be?” Thomas’ answer: “Evidentially.”

WELL, SINCE IT’S A RECESSION, MAKE THAT THE ‘DOWN AND OUT’

Before Super Bowl VI between the Miami Dolphins and Dallas Cowboys, President Richard Nixon telephoned Dolphin Coach Don Shula and suggested a play. Nixon, a bench-warmer at Whittier College, recommended a down-and-in pass pattern to receiver Paul Warfield.

Dallas Coach Tom Landry didn’t get upset by Nixon’s interest in the Dolphins. “If the play succeeds, he should get a thrill out of it,” Landry said. “If it’s intercepted, I’ll get a thrill out of it.”

Former President Lyndon Johnson, not to be outdone by the Republican administration, sent a telegram to Landry: “My prayers and my presence will be with you in New Orleans, although I don’t plan to send in any plays.”

The Cowboys won, 24-3. Warfield caught four passes, none of them on down-and-in patterns.

THE JIM McMAHON STORY:

‘MOON OVER NEW ORLEANS’

Charles Barkley isn’t the only one whose autobiography should be called “Outrageous.” Don’t forget Chicago Bear quarterback Jim McMahon at Super Bowl XX in New Orleans in 1986.

First, there was the issue of McMahon’s sore bottom. He had taken a hard hit in the NFC title game against the Rams and wanted acupuncturist Hiroshi Shiriashi to give him treatment. The Bears said no. McMahon needled them. McMahon won. Shiriashi needled McMahon.

Then there was the photographer trying to shoot some pictures from a helicopter flying over the Bears’ practice at Tulane Stadium. McMahon looked up. He dropped his pants. He was not trying to show the acupuncture marks.

That was not the end of the McMahon story, however. The best was saved for last, although it was not McMahon’s fault at all. Sportscaster Buddy Diliberto of WDSU in New Orleans reported that McMahon had called the city’s women a bunch of, well, streetwalkers. It was total nonsense, of course.

Actually, Diliberto’s son, Mike, had told him that he had heard a radio reporter say that McMahon had made the statement. That was enough to get the story on the air. The next day, a group of women picketed the Hilton where the Bears were headquartered.

The upshot of the whole thing is that Diliberto was taken off the air for a while and later fired. McMahon landed on his feet, not the seat of his pants. He passed for 256 yards and the Bears beat the New England Patriots, 46-10.

WHY? BECAUSE IT’S THERE

Thomas was dubbed the “Silent Sphinx” (as opposed to the “Chatty Sphinx?”) when he went through the entire 1971 season for the Dallas Cowboys without uttering a word to reporters. One day the week before the Cowboys were to play Miami in Super Bowl VI in New Orleans, Denne Freeman of the Associated Press and Bob St. John of the Dallas Morning News went for a walk on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale and ran into Thomas, who was gazing at the Atlantic Ocean.

“I asked him, ‘What are you looking at?’ ” Freeman said. “He said, ‘I’m trying to find New Zealand, I wouldn’t mind being there right now.’ Well, Bob and I both asked him how he could feel that way since here he was in the Super Bowl, the championship, playing in the ultimate game.

“Duane sort of looked funny at us and said, ‘If this is the ultimate, how come they play it again next year?’ ”

Of course, Thomas was correct. This is the 20th anniversary of his ultimate question.

THAT’S MY STORY AND I’M STICKING TO IT

Ray Buck of the Houston Post arrived in Miami for Super Bowl XXIII, the Sunday before the 1989 game between Cincinnati and San Francisco. He rented a car, headed for a dog track, took a wrong turn and wound up in the middle of a riot in Overtown.

Someone smashed the side window with a rock and Buck was cut by the shattered glass. Another rock struck the side of the car. Buck quickly sped away, but news of the incident spread quickly among reporters.

“Listen, if you have to write about it, say I was going to church,” Buck said.

BUT IF YOU LOSE, IT’S A DIRTY SHAME

Before Super Bowl V in 1971, Baltimore Colt linebacker Mike Curtis explained why he liked artificial turf, such as that installed at the Orange Bowl for the first Super Bowl to be played on fake grass: “After the game, your fingernails are clean.”

It was also the first time in Super Bowl history that a player had inadvertently identified the body part that would change the outcome of the game. During the fourth quarter of the game against Dallas, Curtis snagged Cowboy quarterback Craig Morton’s pass with his fingernails to set up Jim O’Brien’s winning field goal in a 16-13 victory for the Colts.

SHOWERS FOR THE BIRDS

When the Minnesota Vikings went to Delmar School in Houston for practice before Super Bowl VIII in 1974, the locker room was woefully inadequate. Only two of the 15 shower heads worked; sparrows were nesting in two of the others.

Jim Klobuchar wrote in his book “Tarkenton” that Jim Marshall delivered a short speech: “Men, consider yourselves honored. This is the first time we have ever showered in an aviary.”

NEED ONE ON THE 50?

Counterfeiters printed thousands of phony tickets for the Dallas-Pittsburgh matchup in Super Bowl X in Miami and bilked fans of more than $1.5 million.

BUT HE SURE SPELLS TROUBLE IF YOU HAVE TO PLAY HIM

Before Super Bowl XIII at the Orange Bowl, Dallas Cowboy linebacker Thomas Henderson said Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw wasn’t too smart. Henderson said Bradshaw couldn’t spell “cat” if you “spotted him the ‘c’ and the ‘a.’ ”

Bradshaw passed for 318 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-31 Steeler victory and said afterward, “Go and ask Henderson if I was dumb today.”

BOURBON STREET BEAT

Picture, if you will, the late John Matuszak, baddest bad boy on a team full of them, the Oakland Raiders. They were exactly as Kenny Stabler said, a team that studied the game plan by the light of the jukebox.

Anyway, there was Matuszak at a news conference one day the week before Super Bowl XV in 1981 in New Orleans, telling reporters how he would serve as a positive role model for the younger Raiders.

He would give them guidance on how to be a good Boy Scout. He would counsel. He would set an example.

Hours later, at 3 a.m., New Orleans police were summoned to break up a fight at the Old Absynthe, a popular Bourbon Street watering hole. Yes, it was Matuszak.

The next morning, Matuszak showed up at another news conference, nearly incoherent, his eyes shielded by thick sunglasses.

It was left to quarterback Jim Plunkett to plant the skull and crossbones in the Vieux Carre and claim it as Raider territory: “We cruised the French Quarter, but we didn’t see any Eagles.”

But the Eagles were soon to see quite enough of Matuszak and Plunkett. The Raiders won, 27-10.