Low-Key Kraft Does Have Sweet Emotion

An unusual sight before the Super Bowl was Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith, giving strait-laced New England Patriot owner Bob Kraft a hug.

So was Kraft taken aback?

“Oh no,” Kraft said. “He’s a good friend. He was a guest of mine in our box at the AFC championship game.”

Talk about an odd couple. So what’s the deal?

“My eldest son, Jonathan, is close with the band,” Kraft said.

Trivia time: Before there were 24 points scored in the last 3 minutes 5 seconds of the first half Sunday, no Super Bowl had remained scoreless as long. What is the Super Bowl record for lowest halftime score?

Keeper of the grass: You might say George Toma, the grass guru who has been the head groundskeeper for all 38 Super Bowls, was high on the grass at Reliant Stadium.

“This is the best grass I’ve ever seen,” Toma said before the game.

He said the grass was Bermuda seeded with rye and bluegrass. All 99,000 square feet of it, in 30-foot rolls, were shipped from Casa Grande, Ariz., via 49 refrigerated trucks, arriving two weeks ago.

“The amazing thing is, we didn’t lose a single roll,” Toma said.

Common practice: Toma said shipping in special grass specifically for the Super Bowl has been done since Super Bowl XXIX at Miami’s Joe Robbie Stadium in 1995.

No one exempt: Fans had to wait in the security checkpoint lines for up to an hour and a half before the game. Thomas Andrew, one of the seven NASA astronauts invited to the game by the NFL, said they too had to go through security. But at least they didn’t have to wait in a long line.

Impressive stadium: If Los Angeles had acquired an NFL team rather than Houston, it’s doubtful the city would have ended up with a stadium as impressive as Reliant. It’s an amazing place, and not only because of its retractable roof.

On the club level, there are food stations and bars everywhere, plus cushy lounge chairs and couches where fans can eat and drink in comfort.

The downside? Super Bowl tickets to the club level cost $600, instead of the regular price of $500.

Trivia answer: Pittsburgh led Minnesota, 2-0, at halftime of Super Bowl IX, played at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans in 1975. The Steelers won the game, 16-6. The lowest final score in Super Bowl history was 14-7, when the Miami Dolphins defeated the Washington Redskins at the Coliseum in 1973.

And finally: There were Super Bowl parties here all week, and one of the hottest tickets was to the Playboy party at the Corinthian Hotel on Saturday.

Jackson Hicks, owner of the Corinthian, told the Houston Chronicle he was getting tons of calls for tickets, even though he had no control over tickets.

One caller said he was “a really good friend” of Hugh Hefner. Hicks said he told the caller, “If you’re such a good friend, give him a call.”

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.