Quarterbacks can have a ball again

Super Bowl XLI is anything but a brand new ball game.

In last year’s Super Bowl between Pittsburgh and Seattle, the league used a fresh-out-of-the-box football on every play of the first half before reverting to a typical rotation in the second half.

This year, however, each team will use its own set of footballs, prepared just to the liking of its quarterback. It’s the same procedure used during the regular season.

For instance, when Indianapolis is on offense Sunday, it will use footballs that were OK’d by Peyton Manning and are stamped with the team logo. Same goes for Chicago when it has the ball. Each team was shipped 54 personalized balls to prepare for the Super Bowl, and a neutral equipment manager prepared the 12 balls that will be used for kicking.

“I think that Tom [Brady] wanted to change it because of the Super Bowls he played in,” Manning said Wednesday, referring to the three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback of the New England Patriots. “I really couldn’t participate in that part of the appeal because I wasn’t experienced in that game.

“It seemed to have made sense for the home team and the visiting team to be able to break in their own footballs. All quarterbacks have appreciated it.”

The only change the NFL has made to the ball was to the team logos. They were a bit hard to read in exhibition games, so the league asked Wilson to make the marks bigger for the regular season.

“We thought there might have been a logistical problem in shuttling in those balls, but it wasn’t a problem at all,” said Mike Pereira, the league’s supervisor of officials. “I didn’t get any complaints.”

*

If you hear Bears defensive backs talking about 212, it’s probably not a reference to the New York City area code.

The number is the boiling point of water.

“[Cornerback Charles Tillman] has a little book about ... 212 being where steam comes from,” safety Danieal Manning said. “Steam is strong enough to move locomotives, so that’s what we have to take our degree to. So now everybody has that book and we made shirts with the thermometers boiling up to 212.”

*

So is Manning really cycling through plays with all of that waving, pointing and stomping before the snap?

Not everyone on the Bears thinks so.

“There’s no way when you are playing football somebody’s going to sit at the line of scrimmage and have all those audibles and still concentrate on the play they are going to do,” Chicago defensive end Adewale Ogunleye said. “There’s just no way. You are going to have a lot of mistakes. So I honestly think that a lot of the plays they have already called, and a lot of stuff has to be dummy calls unless they get the look that they wanted.”

-- Sam Farmer

*

The Super Bowl parties will really begin picking up over the next few days, with everything and everyone -- Playboy, Maxim, LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal, agent Drew Rosenhaus and singer Sean “Diddy” Combs, to name a few -- set to host soirees before Sunday.

Bears rookie Devin Hester, who played for the University of Miami, calls Miami the best party town he’s ever been in. But he’s hardly tempted to sneak away and join the revelers.

“Everything doesn’t start popping here until 1 in the morning,” Hester said. “We’re in bed by 12:10.”

-- Associated Press

*

Bears Coach Lovie Smith has for weeks patiently explained why Rex Grossman is his starting quarterback and how that’s not going to change. But his patience wore thin Wednesday, the first heavy day of Super Bowl practices.

Asked whether Grossman would have a short leash Sunday if he doesn’t play well, Smith was near incredulous.

“I’m just wondering if Peyton Manning will be asked that question. Probably not. And Rex Grossman should not be asked that question. I shouldn’t be asked that question,” Smith said in his customary calm tone.

“Rex is our quarterback. I am not planning to pull Brian Urlacher or center Olin Kreutz, either.”

-- Alan Schmadtke, Orlando Sentinel

*

Kicker Adam Vinatieri is appearing in his fifth Super Bowl -- his first with the Colts after four with the Patriots.

The Bears’ Robbie Gould is a neophyte, but is no stranger to Vinatieri.

Gould signed a free-agent contract with the Patriots in the spring of 2005, and was brought in for a look-see. He does not recall any great competition.

“It’s not like Adam Vinatieri felt threatened by me,” Gould said, laughing. “The job was always going to be his. I was just there to soak up everything he taught me and learn from the best kicker in the NFL. He was a real inspiration. He was my hero.”

-- Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel

*

Forbes magazine on Wednesday published its ranking of the world’s most valuable sporting event brands and, of course, the Super Bowl -- worth an estimated $379 million -- topped the list.

Behind that came the Summer Olympics ($176 million), the FIFA World Cup ($103 million), the Daytona 500 ($91 million) and then, at No. 5, something of a surprise: The Rose Bowl game ($88 million), which came in ahead of the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four ($82 million), Winter Olympics ($82 million), Kentucky Derby ($69 million), World Series ($56 million) and NBA Finals ($47 million).

The brand value was based on revenue per event day.

Forbes reported that because the Rose Bowl operates independently of other Bowl Championship Series games it is allowed to keep more of what it earns. And while organizing committees for the Sugar, Fiesta and Orange bowls pay a $6-million “entry fee,” no such requirement is made of the Rose Bowl.