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The NFL in L.A. might just ruin some good television

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I’m not all that familiar with the work of the Green-Eyed Peas. But I got the impression they didn’t have enough material to do a whole halftime Super Bowl show.

As filler, they had to lower a surprise star from the scoreboard. My guess as we watched at home was Michael Jackson since the Super Bowl likes to do things big.

Turns out it was some usher, maybe the NFL usher of the year or something. It looked as if they were expecting a bigger man, the usher’s costume not fitting him very well. He just kind of hopped around the stage while the Peas made noise.

The show started with someone forgetting to turn the female Pea’s microphone on, so just to be safe, she yelled rather than sing the rest of the performance.

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One of my daughters explained to me the female Pea was Fergie, and I knew she had been doing weight-loss commercials since breaking up with the Prince or Duke or whatever, but wow, it really worked.

The show ended with some dancers wearing boxes over their heads, so they might remain anonymous, I guess, and work again.

Christina Aguilera, meanwhile, tried shouting the national anthem, seemingly afraid no one would hear her. Unfortunately, most did, noting later how she flubbed the words.

Then they had four planes fly over the stadium, which is always stirring, unless you are in the stadium and the roof is closed, as it was in Dallas. The planes flew over for the benefit of the TV audience.

A few years ago when I was being forced to attend Super Bowls, Janet Jackson flashed the crowd with the help of Justin Timberlake. I’m pretty sure almost no one who bought a ticket to the game noticed because they were standing in line to use the bathroom or just too far away.

I did, because I’m a paid observer and trained to spot such things. I was watching on TV, although I was in the stadium, because I learned long ago that football, and all that goes along with it, is best watched on TV.

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I never have understood how they sell out the Super Bowl. If you had connections giving you the chance to buy a ticket to Super Bowl 45, you paid $800. According to published reports, those same tickets were going for $5,000 on Sunday.

How would you like to spend $5,000, and for that matter $10,000 because the wife would have to tag along, and then miss all the Super Bowl commercials?

Throw in traffic, parking, concessions, the chance for a short nap, and what’s wrong with lying on the couch with a remote control?

I would never go to almost any football game unless they were paying me to do so, which brings me to all this ramped-up chitchat about the NFL returning.

As Ed Roski, one of the guys motivated now to bring a NFL team to L.A., put it to our Sam Farmer in Monday’s paper, “I’m just tired of watching it on TV.”

What a ridiculous comment.

Roski’s a billionaire. He could fly to any game anywhere in the country without having to build a stadium to watch a game.

If Roski is successful in bringing an NFL team to the Los Angeles area, or if Phil Anschutz builds a downtown stadium, the overwhelming majority of folks who live around here are still going to watch the NFL on TV.

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I’d have more respect for our billionaires if they came out and said anyone offering their opinion about a new football stadium should first state their income.

Let’s be honest, poor people have no say in any of this. Anything they might have to say is just noise.

Once L.A. has a new football stadium, only rich folks will be allowed inside. There will be luxury suites, club seats and personal-seat licenses. These would be considered house payments by most folks.

I know this is all about bringing Super Bowls here, or so we’re always told, but if tickets cost $800 this year, what will they cost in 2016 if L.A. is successful in getting a Super Bowl?

The NFL charged fans $200 to sit in the cold outside Cowboys Stadium and watch on two big-screen TVs. More than 1,500 people did so. Would you want to wake up the morning after the Super Bowl in L.A. and learn there were 1,500 morons living among you?

Those who want to bring the NFL back to town are always talking about how much better off we will be if they are successful. I’m not so sure anymore.

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Maybe life for Roski and Tim Leiweke will be better, but what about your life? You’d probably be expected to buy jerseys, caps or other stuff for your kids. Then the kids would want to know why they can’t go to the games — not knowing they were so poor until the NFL returned.

They’d probably start asking questions after the first football player was arrested for domestic abuse or a DUI.

The last 16 years haven’t been so bad. For those who predicted L.A. would lose a generation of football fans, the NFL has worked just fine here as a popular TV show. And for most folks it’s going to remain a TV show even if L.A. does get another team.

A bigger concern than where the stadium is built is who will occupy it, because it will affect what we watch on TV. Horrible owners in the past have resulted in fewer TV games.

And the owner who makes nice with Roski or Leiweke will probably be a horrible owner, having failed elsewhere to keep folks happy. We know something about horrible owners around here.

Maybe the case should be made that L.A. was lucky to lose two NFL teams and gain a long-running love affair with the game on TV.

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t.j.simers@latimes.com

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