Super Bowl

Arizona vs. Pittsburgh    6 p.m., NBC10

There's always Mississippi. That used to be the consoling thought for states with grim statistics on, say, poverty, education or infant mortality. No matter how bad your situation got, it couldn't be worse than Mississippi's. For years, the Denver Broncos and John Elway performed a similar service for Eagles fans. Sure, the Birds had never won a Super Bowl, but neither had they ever disgraced themselves on world television in quite the way ol' No. 7's Broncos had - three times.

The Super Bowl has been pilloried more often than the Pentagon as the nation's most blatant example of wretched excess, a Roman-numeralled phenomenon that sanctions the outlandish, the boorish and the truly tasteless, all for the most trivial of reasons. You say your team made the Super Bowl? Congratulations. You now have the right to paint your teeth to match the color scheme of your darling NFL franchise, as a young Colorado woman with Broncos orange-and-blue dental work did only a few weeks ago. Perhaps she or her orthodontist had read about the vacuous black-and-gold smiles of a Pittsburgh couple who did the same thing in the 1970s - obviously to start a noble, if little known, Super Bowl tradition.

Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin plans to "wing" his final team speech before the Super Bowl, while Arizona's Ken Whisenhunt will know exactly what he wants to say. But the coaches are aligned on one thing: The buzzword leading up to tomorrow's matchup is "normalcy. " "I think the biggest thing that you have to do is you have to keep a sense of normalcy with your players," Whisenhunt said. "By and large, players in the NFL are creatures of habit and if you can keep that as normal as possible, there's a comfort level that goes with that.

The San Francisco 49ers' troubles just got worse. NFL owners meeting in Phoenix yesterday withdrew the Super Bowl from the city for 2003. Co-owner Eddie DeBartolo turned over control of the team to his sister 16 months ago after he became embroiled in a Louisiana gambling fraud scandal, but now must stay away from the team under league sanctions. The fallout from his legal problems led to confusion and delays in the team's plans for a new stadium. Owners had awarded the Super Bowl contingent on San Francisco building a new stadium, but with the project going nowhere, they decided to offer the right to host the game to other cities.

They used to be neighbors on the same street in Pennsauken. Now they're about to face each other in the Super Bowl. San Francisco 49ers wide receiver John Taylor and San Diego Chargers linebacker David Griggs are the pride of Pennsauken High. Griggs, who will turn 28 the week after the Super Bowl, may be having the strongest of his six NFL seasons. He starred in Sunday's upset win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC title game, and he had a highly productive regular season.

The Great Football Bacchanal, otherwise known as Super Bowl Sunday, is about to take over the nation's living rooms and bar stools for the 20th time. Since the Green Bay Packers dumped the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl I, the celebration surrounding the yearly championship brawl has grown to rival the game itself. This year, the mighty Chicago Bears are pitted against the upstart New England Patriots in a 5 p.m. battle that summons little natural allegiance among the Eagles' faithful.

We are coming up on the Super Bowl, which is by far the most important sporting event in the world as measured in total tons of free shrimp consumed by sportswriters. This year, the Super Bowl will be broadcast to many foreign nations, which, almost by definition, contain numerous foreigners. These people are often puzzled by American football, a highly complex sport that requires a knowledge of many technical terms such as "run," "pass," "cornerbacker," "blitzkrieg," "Texas Leaguer," "ligament" and "Hank Stram.

He needs to anticipate the play, make split-second decisions and try to keep calm amidst all the chaos surrounding each play. This isn't Ben Roethlisberger or Matt Hasselbeck. It's the guy who will call the shots that an anticipated audience of 130 million will view. In the middle of all the mayhem will be ABC's Drew Esocoff, director of his second Super Bowl telecast. Compared to the Super Bowl quarterbacks, the TV director has many more options at his disposal on each play.

"Simpsons" creator Matt Groening, asked recently whether he minded that Fox wouldn't be showcasing his latest venture, "Futurama," after the Super Bowl, instead going with a rival animation series, "Family Guy," said he had "no problem" with the network's decision. The first episode of "Futurama," he said, wouldn't even be done until March. There could be another reason for Groening's calm: He probably knows about the jinx. While conventional wisdom suggests that the Super Bowl, usually the top-rated television program of the year, would be the ideal lead-in for any new TV series, history says otherwise.

LOVE HIM or hate him, it's sad that former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor has put his Super Bowl XXV ring up for auction because he needs the cash. Bids will be accepted on the ring, listed on SCP Auctions website, until Saturday. The ring has the words "Giants World Champions" on it and features two large football shaped diamonds and 17 smaller ones. On the side of it is the Hall of Famer's last name and his number 56. On Thursday morning the high bid was $37,982.

When the Barnes Foundation opens its doors to the public Saturday, it not only will introduce visitors to a new gallery on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway; it could well serve as a gateway to Philadelphia's mélange of museums, galleries, art schools, historic sites, and gardens. Or maybe not. Aware of the intense interest focused on the foundation's Philadelphia debut - the climax of nearly a quarter-century of hyper-publicity and controversy swirling around the fate of Albert C. Barnes' extraordinary collection of modernist artworks - cultural and tourism officials have been considering how to transform the relocation of an art collection into a regional bonanza.

MATT RUHLE, who was recently promoted to co-offensive coordinator by Temple football coach Steve Addazio, is leaving to become the assistant offensive line coach for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants, the Daily News has learned. The Giants have not yet announced the move. Rhule has been on the Owls' staff for the last six seasons, the first five under Al Golden (who's now at Miami). He was the OC and quarterbacks coach from 2008 to '10. Last season, as one of two holdovers who remained from Golden's regime, he coached the tight ends and was also the recruiting coordinator.

An excerpt from the blog "My Daughter's Kitchen. " So the plan for my daughter's Super Bowl viewing party was the white chili featured last week. But here is the joy of roommates and male friends: There is no such thing as making something in advance. And no such thing as leftovers. The chili was consumed within minutes - housed was actually the verb my daughter used - the night it was made. Thus the need for another game-day recipe, something easy that would feed a group.

Sports fans bet $93.9 million at Nevada casinos on Sunday's Super Bowl matchup between the New York Giants and New England Patriots, the most wagered in the last decade. The Gaming Control Board said that unaudited tallies show 184 sports books won a little more than $5 million on the football action. New England was about a three-point favorite, but the Giants won, 21-17. It was a different story for Nevada casinos when the same teams played in the 2008 Super Bowl. The Patriots opened as 14-point favorites four years ago, but Giants backers bet the line down to 12 points and were paid when New York earned a 17-14 win. Nevada casinos lost the most money ever on the Super Bowl that year - $2.6 million.

APPARENTLY, Giants rookie linebacker Greg Jones isn't satisfied with a Super Bowl ring. He wants a wedding band, too. Jones was still on the field after Sunday night's win over the Patriots when he dropped to one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, Amanda, who immediately said yes. "She was bawling," Jones told the Associated Press yesterday. "I was like, 'I don't know how long she's going to keep crying.' " Jones, a sixth-round pick out of Michigan State, said he had practice-squad teammate Christian Hopkins hold the engagement ring for him during the game.

INDIANAPOLIS - Last Monday, New York Giants linebacker Mark Herzlich arrived for Super Bowl XLVI and tweeted the following: "2 yrs ago I was told I might never walk again. Just WALKED off plane in Indy to play in The #SuperBowl. #TakeThatSh*tCancer. " Even though Herzlich did not play in Sunday's game - he was inactive - the Conestoga High graduate's three-year odyssey from learning he had cancer and being told he would never play football again to being at the Super Bowl was one of the stories of the week.

Even before a team from the Meadowlands - the New York Giants - earned a spot in the Super Bowl, New Jersey was preparing for a Super Bowl at the Meadowlands. Two years from now. "An awful lot of preparation is required for an event of [that] size, and we are taking this quite seriously," said Lt. Steve Jones, spokesman for the state police. The NFL voted in 2010 to award the 2014 game to a bid led by the Giants and New York Jets, setting the stage for the first outdoor cold-weather Super Bowl.

INDIANAPOLIS - In a little over two weeks, DeSean Jackson will find out if the Eagles intend to franchise him on the first day they are able to do so. The wide receiver, who attended The NFL Honors Show on Saturday, said that he did not know where he stood with the Eagles. "It's out of my hands," Jackson told NBC10 during a brief red-carpet interview. "So hopefully I am and I will look forward to that. I'm just anxious to see what's going to happen. " Jackson's four-year contract is up, but the Eagles have the option to place a one-year franchise tag on the 25-year-old beginning Feb. 20. The deadline for franchising a player is March 5. Jackson said immediately following the season finale that he would be fine with the franchise tag, in which he would stand to earn approximately $10 million next season.

INDIANAPOLIS - This is where it stands as the New England Patriots and New York Giants finally get down to playing Sunday's 46th edition of the Super Bowl: The Patriots are bloodthirsty for revenge after the Giants embarrassed them four years ago and thwarted their run to 19 games of perfection. Bill Belichick, despite his efforts to say the contrary, has used that loss to motivate his players. As relaxed as the New England coach has seemed this week, Belichick has a chance to win his fourth title and warrant mention as the greatest coach the game has ever had. The same holds true for the Patriots' Tom Brady, who would join Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only four-time Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks.