News isn’t super for Spears

The NFL landscape is littered with former champions who spun out after their Super Bowl triumphs:

The Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Kurt Warner.

Britney Spears.

Five years ago, Spears appeared in a Pepsi commercial that was the most TiVoed replay of the 2002 Super Bowl, surpassing anything that actually happened on the field.

The year before that, Spears was a star of the league-approved Super Bowl halftime show.

This week, however, Spears failed to make the cut for a Super Bowl commercial promoting the NFL Network. According to a report in the New York Daily News, the league rejected a request by Spears to appear.

“She’s too much of a train wreck. Besides, we already have Paris Hilton,” the Daily News quoted a source as saying.

Instead, the commercial will feature L.L. Cool J, the country band Rascal Flatts and a cast of assorted celebrities showing up for Chad Johnson’s Super Bowl party.

Spears is disappointed, but should realize that the NFL is doing her a favor.

There will probably be several Cincinnati Bengals at that party. If Spears is truly serious about rehabilitating her damaged public image, she’ll want nothing to do with that crowd.

Trivia time

How many wild-card teams have won the Super Bowl?

It’s more important

to look good ...

In news that initially had Los Angeles fashion designers speed-dialing their therapists for emergency help, a major news outlet has named L.A. the fourth-best-dressed city in the country -- in a tie with ... Pittsburgh?

Upon closer inspection, however, the major news outlet was ESPN.com and the man handing out grades was Paul Lukas, not Mr. Blackwell. And Lukas was talking about uniforms, as in which city’s professional sports teams collectively have the best-looking uniforms.

Boston, Chicago, San Francisco-Oakland finished 1-2-3, with the Red Sox, Bears and Raiders pulling in perfect five-star sartorial scores.

Lukas assessed L.A.’s fourth-place tie with Pittsburgh this way: “No surprise that a city obsessed with looks would field a good-looking set of teams. L.A.’s uniforms are led by the timeless Dodgers (five stars) and Lakers (four stars) and the modern classic Angels (4 1/2 stars), with the Clippers (three stars) and Ducks (three stars) holding down a respectable middle ground.

“Unfortunately, not even a crew of L.A.’s best plastic surgeons can help the Kings (1 1/2 stars), but a half-point bonus for Dodger Stadium helps to lessen that pain.”

Note: Grades are for the winter and spring 2007 collections, reflective of improvements made by Anaheim’s teams after ditching their Disney kiddie pajamas.

Teach what

you know

Tom Osborne has returned to the University of Nebraska, where he won 255 games coaching football.

Osborne, who turns 70 next month, is back on campus, teaching a course called Leadership in Organizations. According to the Associated Press, his approach to teaching leans heavily on his football experience.

“Forgive me for talking so much about athletics, but it’s what I understand,” Osborne, told his students. “I’d talk about politics, but I’ve never understood politics.”

The scoreboard supports Osborne -- sort of.

In football, Osborne won three national championships. In last year’s Nebraska Republican gubernatorial primary, Osborne lost to appointed Gov. Dave Heineman, who took 49% of the vote to Osborne’s 45%.

Before that, however, Osborne was elected to three terms in Congress.

Trivia answer

Four -- the 1980 Oakland Raiders, the 1997 Denver Broncos, the 2000 Baltimore Ravens and the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers.

And finally

USA Today reports that 383 players withdrew from professional men’s tennis tournaments in 2006, which provides a quick answer to the question: Why is tennis not more popular in this country?

“If you go see U2 at a concert, and at every single concert, one of the band [members] decided not to play, how long would it take you to get teed off?” ATP Chair Etienne de Villiers told the newspaper.

U2 has already written and performed the ATP’s unofficial theme song: “A Day Without Me.”

mike.penner@latimes.com