FanHouse Super Bowl

The Cardinals trailed the Steelers 10-7 when linebacker Karlos Dansby intercepted quarterback Ben Roethlisberger at the Pittsburgh 34-yard line with two minutes to go in the first half of Super Bowl XLIII.

Seven plays and 1:42 later, Arizona had a first-and-goal from the 1. Best case: the Cards headed to the locker room with the lead. Worst case: a tie. Unimaginable case: NFL Defensive Player of the Year James Harrison pick-six'ed Kurt Warner (video after the jump), resulting in a 10-point swing that had as much to do with the game's ultimate outcome as the Big Ben-to-Santonio pass-and-catch in the back of the end zone during the last drive.

But here's the thing: Harrison was supposed to blitz on the half-ending, game-changing play. If he had, Boldin would have been wide open, Warner would have hit him in stride and the Steelers might still be sitting on five Super Bowl titles.

One of the greatest NFL tragedies of the past decade is the story of former Raiders center Barret Robbins, a Pro Bowl player whose career was destroyed and his personal life ruined by a mental illness that took far too long to diagnose.

Robbins' untreated bi-polar disorder, or manic depression, caused him to experience wildly alternating mood swings marked by intense, psychotic highs and devastating, depressing lows. It opened doors to alcohol and drug abuse, ended his NFL career, derailed his marriage and nearly got him killed by Miami police during a psychotic episode in January 2005, when Robbins attacked officers after they confronted him breaking into the manager's office of a South Beach bar.

Shot in the lungs and heart, Robbins lay in a coma for nearly two months. He's been in and out of jail and substance abuse facilities ever since.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell just announced that New Orleans will be the host city for Super Bowl XLVII in 2013.

It will be New Orleans' 10th Super Bowl, which will tie it with Miami for the most ever. Miami will host its 10th in 2010.

"I think this is a great statement about the spirit of the people of New Orleans and the great relationship the NFL and the Saints have with that community," Goodell said.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Roger Goodell wants to expand the NFL regular season to 17 or 18 games. Team owners, who would presumably profit from such an arrangement, seem to favor it. However, enough issues remain with the plan that Goodell doesn't foresee an owners' vote on it before their meetings conclude at noon Wednesday.

"Right now I do not anticipate a vote on that, but I do anticipate a full discussion," the commissioner said at a media briefing while the owners broke for lunch between their morning and afternoon meetings.

Goodell and NFL General Counsel Jeff Pash said the league would begin negotiations on the new collective bargaining with the players' union next month, and that the plan is to deliver to the players a report on the idea of expanding the regular season. While they'd like to get the players on board with the plan, it's also clear the league doesn't feel it needs its players' approval to put it in place.

Throughout the course of recent memory, the President of the United States has hosted major championship teams' visits to the White House. It's become a sort of American tradition. You win the championship in baseball, football, basketball or hockey, you meet with the President.

Apparently James Harrison, the NFL's reigning Defensive Player of the Year and a key cog in the Steelers' Super Bowl victory over the Arizona Cardinals, doesn't understand the concept. He's going to skip the White House visit. That's his right and there's nothing at all wrong with not going. His rationale, however, is a bit self-important (and by "a bit," I mean "ridiculously").

I'm one of the 10 people in the world that has yet to make a purchase on eBay, mainly because I have no use for a potato chip that looks like Jesus (that's what people sell on eBay, right?). However, if I had an extra $50,000 burning a hole in pocket, I probably would have jumped at the chance to own a piece of NFL history, as a member of the Super Bowl XXXVI champion New England Patriots recently auctioned his ring on eBay. It received no bids.

According to USA Today's NFL blog, The Huddle, the ring belonged to a player who was on all three Super Bowl-winning Patriots teams.

Last Friday, a day before the NFL Draft, commissioner Roger Goodell denied reports that the league was considering hosting a future Super Bowl in London. In fact, he stated unequivocally that the NFL "has never looked at London or Mexico City" as potential Super Bowl destinations, adding that "There is not an international city ... Maybe New Orleans is considered an international city."

Today rumors surfaced again, this time courtesy of The Guardian. The paper contends that "Talks have been ongoing with the NFL, who have identified London as the outstanding candidate city to host the event outside of the United States," which is vague enough to insinuate that the league is actively seeking to move the Super Bowl overseas while leaving plenty of room for misinterpretation.

The NFL is holding a regular-season game in London this year for the third time. But England's capital city has its sights set on a much bigger event. According to a report in The Guardian, London has launched a bid to host the Super Bowl at some time in the next eight years.

The next three Super Bowl sites are set, with Miami scheduled to host the game in 2010, Arlington, Tex. in 2011 and Indianapolis in 2012. While I'm sure the league has good ($$$$) reasons for those latter two sites, at first glance they make it look as if the NFL is running out of U.S. cities in which to hold the game. In that case, let's go to London!

If the NFL decides to extend the season, it will almost assuredly push the playoffs back, which means the Super Bowl would be played in mid-February while the AFC and NFC Championship games would move from their current January dates into February.

That's good news for the television networks since February is a sweeps month, and it's one of those deals that will also be fine for fans. It's a simple formula: More football = good.

Santonio Holmes recently got tattooed by the NFL to the tune of $10,000 for his Super Bowl touchdown celebration that imitated LeBron James' traditional pregame powder-toss.

It was a logical penalty according to the NFL rules, but that doesn't make it any less annoying that amusing NFL celebrations get fined. James apparently agrees too, because when he was informed of the NFL's fine on the Super Bowl MVP, he wasn't very impressed.