Per the Chicago Sun-Times…

A few Fox honchos’ ears were burning Sunday night in Dallas — and it had nothing to do with the action on the Cowboys Stadium field. Turns out Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez wanted to slug a few folks after he spotted himself and his girlfriend Cameron Diaz being shown to the 111 million people watching the game.

America saw the actress lovingly feeding popcorn into A-Rod’s mouth.

“He really went ballistic — thinking the cameraman was out to get them in a paparazzi-like shot. … That’s so crazy,” said my source. “Anyone who knows anything about producing a live sports event — especially something as huge as the Super Bowl — would know that those celebrity shots are purely random.

“A-Rod, of all people, should know that.”

After that one shot — which frankly was totally innocent and kind of sweet — Rodriguez got a guarantee that he and Diaz would not be televised any further.

Here’s an idea — if you don’t want the camera to catch your girlfriend feeding you popcorn, THEN DON’T LET HER FEED YOU POPCORN AT THE F#$%!NG SUPER BOWL!

This is it — this is where ego and idiocy converge.

Just because he complained to Fox, I’m going to post the video here, in case you missed it:

As part of his championship tour, Aaron Rodgers appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman.” Here’s Part 1 and Part 2…

Nicely done…

The Nielsen Co. said on Monday that an estimated 111 million people watched the Packers beat the Steelers on Sunday night. But while the FOX network and advertisers cashed in, the Nevada sportsbooks did not.

According to Covers.com (via the Nevada Gaming Control Broad), Nevada sportsbooks won “just” $724,176 on Super Bowl wagers this year. In comparison, the sportsbooks raked in over $6 million in each of the last two Super Bowls.

At kickoff, the Packers were 3-point favorites over the Steelers, while the over/under total was set anywhere from 44.5 to 46 points. A total of $87,491,098 was wagered on the Super Bowl, which was the most since 2008.

While the sportsbooks in Nevada still recorded a profit, it was the lowest win in the past 10 years. In fact, MGM Mirage sportsbook manager Jay Rood told Covers that the Packers’ win was the worst Super Bowl loss he’d seen in 25 years. That’s surprising considering the Giants’ win over the Patriots in 2008 cost the books over $2 million, which was their largest loss ever.

Of course, no one will be shedding a tear for the books any time soon. Since 2002, Nevada sportsbooks are up approximately $70 million on the Super Bowl. Most of us won’t ever see $1 million, so I certainly won’t lose sleep tonight thinking about their “losses.”

On most “morning afters,” Anthony and I will discuss the big game over Skype as we go about our work day. Since this is the Super Bowl, we thought we’d have a quick conversation in our usual barstool debate format. Super Bowl XLV was extra special for me, a die-hard Packer fan, while Anthony was rooting for the Packers for…ahem…other reasons.

JP: On Friday I wrote a piece entitled “As a Packer fan, here’s what I’m worried about…” and listed (1) Mike McCarthy’s conservative playcalling, (2) not being able to stop Rashard Mendenhall, (3) the Packers not playing a clean game, (4) that the O-line wouldn’t be able to protect Aaron Rodgers, (5) that the Green Bay receivers wouldn’t be able to hold onto the ball and (6) that the Packers wouldn’t be able to bring down Big Ben as the six biggest things I was worried about heading into the game. Whew, that was a long sentence. Anyway, of those concerns, the biggest issue was the 4-6 drops by the Green Bay receivers, and even they made enough plays to make up for it. Jordy Nelson came back after a drop with a big first down catch and run in the second half, while James Jones made a couple of nice grabs on the Packers’ two fourth quarter scoring drives to make up for his awful drop in the third quarter. Mendenhall was running well (4.5 ypc), but he only got 14 carries when he should have had 20 – and his fumble (and subsequent Rodgers-to-Jennings TD) in the fourth quarter completely changed the game. The O-line played well, McCarthy didn’t retreat into his turtle shell when the Packers had the lead, and GB got enough pressure on Big Ben to rattle him a little – Nick Collins’ interception return TD was obviously a huge play in the first half. The special teams dodged a bullet when they recovered Tramon Williams’ first quarter fumble and on the whole played a reasonably clean game. Well enough to win, anyway. You wrote in your wrap-up that you didn’t think it was a very well-played game. The Steelers made some serious mistakes, but I thought the Packers played a pretty good game.

AS: Outside of the drops I would agree with you, John. If it weren’t for the drops and a few passes that were off the mark in the third quarter, Aaron Rodgers played a near-perfect game. Some will say that the Steelers didn’t pressure him, but they did. He was just that good. Most of his passes were accurate and he did a great job of standing in the pocket and setting his feet. On the other side, there were a handful of passes that Big Ben short-armed in the first half because he didn’t set his feet properly. There was a huge difference in the play of the two quarterbacks and that reflected in the final score. Big Ben put together a nice second quarter when Dom Capers was scrambling to adjust to the injuries of Charles Woodson and Sam Shields, but Roethlisberger came up short in the end. Think about it: the Packers were without two of their top three corners for nearly two and a half quarters and Big Ben produced a 77.4 QB Rating. That’s weak. As a Packer fan how nervous were you when Woodson went down? I thought they might have been it for Green Bay.

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I’m just saying…

- Christina Aguilera had at least two weeks to prepare for the National Anthem and she still managed to change a word and skip an entire verse. Did someone forget to rub her the right way before she went out to midfield? Because you know you have to do that with her, right?

- What a game by Jordy Nelson: Nine catches, 140 yards receiving and one touchdown. Now imagine how good his numbers would have been had he not dropped two first down passes right in his hands.

- Speaking of drops…James Jones is lucky the Packers held on to the win because his drop in the third quarter was setting up to be the turning point in the game. Nobody can make a potential touchdown disappear faster than James Deandre Jones.

- I want to commend Bruce Arians for his decision to be aggressive when the Steelers were backed up to their own 7-yard line late in the first quarter. Rashard Mendenhall had just ripped the Packers for 24 yards on two carries in the previous series, so naturally Arians wanted to prove how smart he was by taking a shot downfield. Nick Collins and the Packers want to thank you for the gift, Bruce.

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Five Things We Learned, John Clayton, ESPN
Clayton shares five things we learned about Super Bowl XLV, including how the long layoff helped the Packers more than it helped the Steelers.

Championship Worthy of Lombardi, Mike Lopresti, USA Today
You’d have loved Rodgers. Loved him like Bart Starr. Persistent, productive, unflappable, no longer in Brett Favre’s shadow. He’s had all those gaudy passing numbers, but what do those mean? You need an MIT graduate student to explain how to figure a quarterback rating. But everyone can figure out if a guy has won the Super Bowl, or he hasn’t.

Big Ben Comes Up Small in Defeat, Dan Graziano, FanHouse
Ben Roethlisberger was supposed to be the unflappable quarterback. The born winner who always made the big play in the big spot. A win Sunday would have meant a third Super Bowl title, and only four members of his profession have ever done that. Plans were being made to carve him right into that Mount Rushmore alongside Bradshaw, Montana, Aikman and Brady, and some were even putting forth the preposterous notion that a victory in Sunday night’s football game might somehow offer Roethlisberger some form of “redemption” for the reprehensible offseason behavior that almost got him drummed out of Pittsburgh and the NFL last year.

Ring Vaults Rodgers to Elite Status, William Rhoden, New York Times
Rodgers recounted how in 2005 he told Packers General Manager Ted Thompson that he would not regret drafting him. After they released Favre, Rodgers told Thompson, “I was going to repay their trust and get this opportunity.”

Steelers Get What They Deserve: Defeat, Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
You commit three turnovers and don’t get any. Two of your most dependable offensive stars fail you in the clutch. Your No. 1-rated defense in points allowed can’t stop the other team’s quarterback from throwing three touchdown passes. You deserve to lose.

Curse of Jerry Leads to Disaster, David Whitley, FanHouse
Everything he touched turned to frozen cow manure before the game, but who would’ve thought it was only a warmup? Sunday’s big hoedown at Cowboys Stadium turned into the imperfect ending to a thoroughly imperfect week. Unless you were a Packers fan, in which case you just want to get out of town before the Curse of Jerry gets you.

What Super Bowl Can Teach Other Sports, Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel
Two of the tiniest markets in professional sports played in arguably the biggest Super Bowl in history Sunday night. There were more fans in the stadium (105,000) than any Super Bowl in history. There were more media (in excess of 5,000) covering this Super Bowl than ever before. All forecasters predicted that the TV ratings Sunday for Green Bay’s 31-25 victory will make this the most-watched event in the history of American television.

…Jason Steinmetz! Congratulations, Jason!

The Packers scored first (a TD), Aaron Rodgers accounted for more TDs (3) than Ben Roethlisberger (2), Mike Wallace (89) had more receiving yards than Greg Jennings (64), the Steelers committed more turnovers (3 to 0) and Rodgers won Super Bowl MVP.

Six (out of 49) entries finished with four correct answers, so we had to go the total points tiebraker. Jason picked 51 points which was the highest total of the remaining entries, so he wins the autographed Tim Tebow jersey. The only answer he got wrong was #4 — the turnover question. The other five entries with four correct answers were Johnny Nguyen, Holly Holtman, Li Tsai, Daniel Thornton and Josh Plemons.

Thanks again to FRS Healthy Energy for sponsoring this contest.

Here are five quick-hit observations from the Packers’ 31-25 victory over the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.

1. Aaron Rodgers, welcome to history.
I distinctly remember a few years ago when some Green Bay fans said that it was a mistake for GM Ted Thompson to choose Rodgers over Brett Favre. Hopefully those fans will happily eat a serving of crow after Sunday night because they were dead wrong. In a game where mistakes were aplenty, Rodgers made very few. He misfired on a few throws, but that’s just being nitpicky. For the most part, he was great and he would have been even better had guys like Jordy Nelson, James Jones and Brett Swain bothered to hang onto the ball. Mike McCarthy barely ran the ball in the second half, instead relying on Rodgers to win the game. After the Steelers took all the momentum in the third quarter, Rodgers stepped up and led the Packers on two huge scoring drives. On a night when he threw for 304 yards and three touchdowns, I wonder how much better his numbers would have been had his receivers not dropped so many passes. He didn’t have the game of his career, but he was excellent nonetheless. He now joins exclusive company as a Super Bowl-winning quarterback and MVP. As many football fans know, that now makes him virtually untouchable.

2. Once again, Green Bay battles through adversity.
How fitting was it that in a year when the Packers lost so many starters during the season that they would have to battle through more injury issues to win the Super Bowl. They lost two of their three defensive backs on consecutive plays near the end of the second quarter, including Pro Bowler and team leader Charles Woodson. Yet once again, they pushed through and overcame the hurdles that were placed in front of them. Let’s stop for a second and think about what this team was able to accomplish this year. They lost starters Ryan Grant, Jermichael Finley and Nick Barnett. They needed to win two games in Week 16 and Week 17 just to qualify for the playoffs. They had to win three straight games on the road in the postseason and then they suffered a couple of more key injuries in the Super Bowl and still won it all. Talk about a team of destiny. After they lost Woodson in the second quarter, it looked like they were headed for disaster in the second half. Yet they never trailed, which is a testament to the team that Ted Thompson built off the field and the team Mike McCarthy ran on it.

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Standout Ohio State defensive end and highly touted NFL draft prospect Cameron Heyward spent time earlier this week working with scientists from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) at a sports science lab constructed in the Super Bowl XLV Media Center in Dallas. Gatorade is kicking off an offseason program to help elevate the performance of top incoming NFL rookies like Heyward through sports nutrition science.

The Scores Report was fortunate enough to catch up with Heyward to discuss a variety of topics, including what he learned from Gatorade about his nutritional needs at GSSI and whether or not he’ll perform at this year’s scouting combine after having recent shoulder surgery. We also asked him about his thoughts on the Ohio State players that were suspended five games next season, what pro athlete he models his game after and his thoughts about playing in either a 3-4 or 4-3 at the next level. Of course, we couldn’t let him go without getting his prediction on this year’s Super Bowl.

Cameron Heyward: Hello?

The Scores Report: Hey Cam, how are you?

CH: Pretty good – you?

TSR: Good, good! You enjoying yourself down in Dallas?

CH: Oh yeah, definitely.

TSR: Give me the scoop on what you’re doing with Gatorade and how things are going at the GSSI.

CH: Gatorade has a great program going right now. I’m in the GSSI lab and they put me through a series of tests. I went through an injury recently and while I’m still working through it, this is definitely helping me through it, too. We’re working on things that measure my speed with power, as well as my reaction time to see how I deal with power over a long period of time. They measured my body fat too – all these different things to help you find another edge to help prepare your body, as well as to educate yourself on what you need to do to be in tiptop shape.

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