OSCARS & BEYOND: NFL SCORING BIG

The rating for last week’s Oscar telecast is the most recent evidence of the NFL’s unmatched popularity: Television -- The Oscar telecast drew a 26.2 Nielsen rating. Terrific, but not even close to Super Bowl XXXV this past January 28. The NFL title game posted a 40.4 rating, making it the highest-rated TV program of the past 12 months, as it is every year. In fact, three of the top five-rated programs in the last year have been NFL games: Super Bowl XXXV (40.4), 2000 Survivor finale (28.6), 2001 Academy Awards (26.2), 2000 AFC Championship Game (22.6) and 2000 NFC Championship Game (20.6)……Hotel Occupancy -- Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa topped even Inauguration Day in Washington, DC for the highest rate of hotel occupancy in the top 25 U.S. tourist markets in January. According to Smith Travel Research, lodging in the Tampa area jumped to 67.5 percent of available rooms, compared to an average of 52 percent nationally and 59.6 percent in Washington. "It’s amazing what a Super Bowl can do," says PAUL CATOE, president/CEO of the Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau……Advertising -- The USA Today/Harris Poll "Ad Track" revealed last month that the new NFL United Way TV campaign that debuted last season with a softer creative approach was "liked a lot" by 40 percent of those surveyed, compared to Ad Track’s average of 22 percent in that key category. "The new approach works," according to Ad Track.

SEAHAWKS ACADEMY WELCOMES EDUCATION SECRETARY

"You have to be made out of concrete not to feel all the caring when you walk into this place," said U.S. Secretary of Education (and former football coach) DR. RODERICK PAIGE on March 27 when he entered the (Seattle) Seahawks Academy. Founded in 1997, Seahawks Academy is a joint venture of the Seahawks, Seattle Public Schools and "Communities In Schools of Seattle." Located in the city’s central district, the school provides specialized education and counseling to 125 middle school students. Secretary Paige spent time in individual classrooms before joining parents, Seahawks players and academy staff in an assembly. "What is important here is all of the caring that goes on," he said. "We want to fix it so that no child is left behind"……And joining Paige this year in government service is former NFL linebacker PAT SWILLING (1986-98), who recently won a runoff election to serve eastern New Orleans in the Louisiana House of Representatives.

STAUBACH & HOLT: MAKING PROPERTY COUNT

Two former NFLers, in different ways and locations, are making their mark in real estate. The Staubach Company, an international real estate strategy and services firm headed by Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback ROGER STAUBACH, has been selected – along with its partner, Fraport AG -- to develop, maintain and operate the new $788 million Farley-Penn Station in New York City. The project will create 7,600 jobs and eventually generate more than $65 million in tax revenues……And on a smaller but no less impressive scale, former San Francisco 49ers and Atlanta Falcons defensive end PIERCE HOLT now lives with his family in Christoval, Texas on a 15,000-acre ranch he shares with seven cloistered nuns of the Carmelite Monastery of Our Lady of Grace. Holt donated 640 acres to the nuns for their monastery. "He is a great inspiration, a great family man and a great worker," says SISTER MARY GRACE. "You would never know he is a famous person."