==CNBC's Darren Rovel wants your opinion on an exotic wager on Sunday's game: He has set the over/under at 5.5 as for the number of times Fox's Joe Buck will mention Peyton Manning's name during the broadcast. He supposedly found the wager on BoDogLife.com, paying $100 for every $125 wager if you take the under.
The under is even greater for Buck to say the phrase "passion bucket," but could go higher for "Slam-a-lam-a-DING-DONG."

==A book called "19-0: The Historic Championship Season of the New England Patriots" has been spotted for preorder on Amazon.com for $14.95, a paperback book issued by The Boston Globe through Triumph Books publishing and scheduled for a Feb. 11 release. We got a bad feeling about this...

==Reports from other media sources (and perhaps confirmed by the league) are that 4,786 credentials have been issed by the NFL for Super Bowl XLII, topping the previous record of 4,516 credentials offered to media members in 2007.
The Arizona Republic has been issued 57; the Boston Globe has 35.

==SportsbyBrooks.com has tracked down an ABC "Good Morning America" poll that asks viewers: "Would you rather date (Eli) Manning or (Tom) Brady?” Sixty-four percent picked Manning.
In answering the question posed by ABC’s Diane Sawyer on the results -- “What does this mean?” -- Brooks offered: "It means you don’t have a single female viewer under the age of 30. And they all think Jim Belushi is hot."

==Sirius Satellite Radio offers 12 different broadcasts of Super Bowl XLII, including the home-team calls by the Giants (Channel 123) and Patriots (126), the Westwood One syndicated call that will go to L.A. on KLAC-AM (570) (Channel 124 here); in addition to calls in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Flemish, German, Russian, Japanese and French.

==ESPN's parallel universe three-hour Super Bowl preview of "NFL Countdown" (8 to 11 a.m.), leading into the Fox preview, includes Don Shula and Mercury Morris from the '72 Dolphins making a live appearance in Scottsdale.
Other features include:
"Takin’ It to the House with Jason Krause" at 8:30 a.m. (the 10-year-old kid from Chicago does media day); "Mayne Event" at 9 a.m. has Kenny Mayne trying to get tickets to the game; Shula and Morris at 10 a.m.

==Onion Sports headline of the week:

==According to NFL Network math majors, they're dedicating 213 hours of Super Bowl XLII pregame programming -- that's 24 hours a day, nine days in a row. Most of it filled with Jamie Dukes and a bunch of other guys tripping over him (and themselves). Sixty-five of those hours are live shows from various spots around the Arizona desert.

Highlights for this weekend:
Today:
7 a.m.: Commissioner Roger Goodell's state of the league address, which comes after press conferences with Bill Belichick, Tom Coughlin and the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year presentation.
6 p.m.: A replay of the Week 17 Patriots-Giants contest from the Meadowlands.
Saturday:
8 a.m.: Another replay of that Week 17 game.
1 p.m.: Hall of Fame announcements
Sunday:
3:30 p.m.: Super Bowl Red Zone (a statistical look at the Super Bowl as the game is going on)
7 p.m.: Total Access postgame show.

Meanwhile, in the real world ...

==CBS’ Gary McCord has the honor of being stationed in the 16th hole tower this weekend at the FBR Open at the TPC in Scottsdale to survey the craziest scene on the PGA Tour (Saturday and Sunday, noon to 3 p.m.) just a few minutes away from where the Super Bowl is cranking up. The Golf Channel has today's second round (noon to 3 p.m.) after some 83,000 showed up to watch the first round in person. That's about 10,000 more than the capacity of the University of Phoenix Stadium, where Sunday's Super Bowl will be staged.
The 162-yard par 3 hole has been lined with 154 sky boxes going for about $45,000 a piece. McCord actually gets paid for sitting in his box.
Meanwhile, Tiger Woods’ appearance at the Dubai Desert Classic will continue to be carried exclusively by the Golf Channel today through Sunday (5:30 to 9:30 a.m. live, replayed from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. each day).
Woods' lopsided victory in San Diego gave CBS a 4.6 overnight rating for Sunday's final round of the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, the most-watched live golf since the PGA Championship last August.

==Washington Post columnist and ESPN "Pardon the Interruption" co-host Mike Wilbon writes in a column today that explains how his intentions to cover his 21st consecutive Super Bowl ended up with his first ambulance trip to the hospital to treat a heart attack earlier this week. Wilbon writes one of the surprises he's had this week during his recovery at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz.
"I've also, in this space and on TV, been pointedly critical of Kobe Bryant. Yet, I answered the doorbell Wednesday and there were flowers and balloons from Kobe wishing me a quick return to my duties. I hope I have the grace to extend myself to someone who might offer a public rebuke of my work."

==OK, another Onion Sports headline (because it segues into the next stuff we need to cover):

==Versus reports a 0.8 national rating for its coverage of the NHL All-Star Game last Sunday, which translates to more than 588,000 homes and about 800,000 viewers. Last year's game did a 0.7 rating on Versus.

==Even before the Ducks announced that Teemu Selanne was coming back, NBC announced it would carry the Feb. 10 Ducks-Red Wings game from Detroit at 12:30 p.m., taking the rematch of last season's Western Conference finals in its flex scheduling instead of Philadelphia at Pittsburgh or the N.Y. Rangers at Washington. The national game Sunday (Channel 4, 12:30 p.m.) pits the N.Y. Rangers at Montreal, which NBC says is the first regular-season NHL game broadcast by a U.S. network in more than 30 years (we'll take their word for it ... regular season? OK ... 'cause our first reaction was the Kings-Canadiens '93 Stanley Cup finals...)

==NBC reports that its Saturday prime-time coverage of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships did a 3.3 rating, about a 65 percent jump over last year’s coverage of the women's free skate on ABC (2.3/5), which wasn't in prime time.
Combined with what NBC had for the men's final on Sunday (3.1), the two skating shows were the highest rated sports shows of the weekend (outside of Woods' show at Torrey Pines). That includes the Lakers-Cleveland NBA game that ABC had on Sunday (2.8).
In L.A., the figure skating did a 4.4 Saturday and 3.1 Sunday on KNBC-Channel 4; the Lakers-Cavs did an 8.8 on KABC-Channel 7.
The return of Dick Button to the coverage has to have drawn some interest back to the sport of televised figure skating. Two of his most memorable quips from the weekend:
On Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who finished runner-up in the dance competiton: "There was a pulsing, romantic, aggressive, sexual quality about them." That caused co-host Bob Costas to do a double take.
Later, Button said it about the ladies' free skate performance: "I got what I wanted tonight. This was theater in my book. Great skating that made my spine tingle."

==A Stephen A. Smith update for those who need one (following up on our elaboration of his situation a few weeks back):
The Philadelphia Daily News reports that Smith has been effectively fired from the Philadelphia Inquirer for job abandonment, since he hasn't returned from an unpaid leave. Smith, the ESPN NBA studio analyst and host of his own ESPN Radio show heard on KSPN-AM (710) from noon to 1 p.m., is pursuing a union grievance and says he can't talk about what's happening there. Smith has recently launched a blog at stephenablog.typepad.com
Smith told us back in November he couldn't talk about his Inquirer situation.
"I am not working there; I can not talk extensively about that because that’s a legal matter," he said. "The position they’ve taken is entirely contradictory to what my position is and what I believe we agreed upon. I will say I’m happy to be working at ESPN. I’m proud of the years I had at the Inquirer and the leadership that helped elevate me with 8 different promotions over 13½- year period. I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the opportunity they gave me. Other than that, I know of the agreement we had and I intend to make sure I fulfill it or for someone to give me an explanation as to why that was other than fabricating some bogus stuff about me."

==Saying that "fans deserve it" and he expects others to follow suit, Oscar De La Hoya has said his next fight on May 3 against a to-be-named opponent won't be a pay-per-view event but available on HBO during a "free weekend" promotion, according to the Miami Herald. It's not exactly a free-TV event, since viewers will still need to have either cable or satellite TV service, but it will be the first time someone with some boxing star power is making himself that accessable to the general TV public since Mike Tyson knocked out Buster Mathis Jr., on Fox in 1995.

==FSN Prime, ESPNU and CSTV goes full overload for college football national signing day Wednesday. FSN has an hour-long show set (6 p.m.) that will include Birmingham High standout Milton Knox making his announcement live. ESPNU has a seven-hour special (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.). Included will be live player announcements (some exclusive), overanalysis and yackity-yack from people like Tom Liginbill, Todd McShay, Mike Gottfried and Dave Ryan . Among the players slated to make their college choice live on the TV are Darrell Scott, the heralded tailback from St. Bonaventure High in Ventura, while Mater Dei's Khaled Holmes and junior quarterback Matt Barkley (both committed to USC) is also scheduled to be interviewed. CSTV, an extension of the CBS family of networks, also has six hours live on this subject (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.). Recruiting "expert" Tom Lemming is the focal point, with reporters Brian Curtis and Adam Zucker, and guest analysts like former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr and former Mississippi coach (and one-time USC assistant) Ed Orgeron. CSTV says they have landed the live decision by the nation's top recruit, Jeannette, Pa., quarterback Terrelle Pryor, (pictured above), who is deciding between Ohio State and Michigan. Online, CSTV.com plans even more multi-media coverage. Lemming’s Top 100 list of 2008 recruits can be found at this link.

==A link to a story on Forbes website trying to determine who the most influencial sportscaster on TV today. Forbes' choice: John Madden, with Chris Berman a close second. It notes that Al Michaels missed the cut because he's "hurt by relatively modest buzz online and in the press."

==Dana Jacobson, co-host of ESPN's "First Take," said it upon her return to the airwaves Monday after serving a one-week suspension for saying stuff at a network-sponsored roast that irked a few people: "I want to once again say how truly sorry I am for my poor choices and bad judgment that night. I’ve taken responsibility for what I did, say and do, and realize why it was wrong."

==Other stuff that might sail under the radar:

**The 101st Millrose Games, the most-famous indoor track meet in the world, goes live from New York’s Madison Square Garden tonight (ESPN2, 4 p.m.) with more coverage on NBC Saturday (noon) that focuses on the Wanamaker Mile.

**Whatever Punxsutawney Phil decides when he when he pops his head out of the ground Saturday morning, ESPNU will base its seven hours of programming on Tuesday. If Phil sees his shadow -- which means six more weeks of winter -- ESPNU will air programming that focuses on winter sports (such as the 2007 NCAA men's hockey championship). If there's no shadow, which means winter will end soon, the programming will focus on spring sports (such as the 2007 NCAA men's and women's College World Series) from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. See what Phil does live for yourself at the official Pennsylvania state department of tourism site starting at 4 a.m. PDT, or check out the official Punxsutawney Phil website . ...

**In addition to KCAL Channel 9's Sunday morning coverage of the Lakers' game in Washington D.C. (9 a.m.), KABC-Channel 7 has the Dallas-Detroit game at 11:30 a.m. with Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson. ...

**Saturday's UCLA-Arizona college basketball game will be -- according to ESPN's media relations staff -- the 2,500th high definition telecast on ESPN HD, a service that launched on March 30, 2003. ESPN HD reaches more than 16 million subscribers these days, available to more than 93 million homes; ESPN2 HD gets to 12 million subscribers and is available to more than 80 million homes.

**ESPN's Sunday installment of "Outside the Lines" (6:30 a.m., replayed at 9 a.m. on ESPNEWS) focuses on how athletes can be crime targets, and many victims don't report incidents of being robbed. Pedro Taylor, the Florida City, Fla., police chief, talks about the recent death of his son, Washington Redskins cornerback Sean Taylor, on the show. ...

**One last Onion Sports headline of the day:

==And finally:

Congrats to Deadspin.com for procuring what some have called the video of the century: An 81 second rant by ESPN's Chris Berman, a piece of video that's apparently from 1999 that somehow surfaced.
For those counting, Berman uses the F-bomb three times, "Jesus" five times and damns God twice. It was up on YouTube.com for just two days and already had 150,000 views.
(In case this video from YouTube.com disappears, Deadspin.com has embedded it into its site at the address above):

It pales in comparison to this one from ESPN anchor Michael Kim , who by now has probably been told which finger a man wears a wedding ring... it kinda goes with the definition of ... never mind (thanks to AwfulAnnouncing.comfor finding this):