ITEM ONE:

NOT MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, BUT…  

Even before the NFL Europe League opens its training camp in Tampa this week, it has made news – of the heart.  When TRISTA REHN on the hit ABC-TV show “The Bachelorette” chose the man who won her heart on February 19, little did she know she had picked a Dragon – a former NFL Europe F.C. Barcelona Dragon, that is.  Trista’s choice was RYAN SUTTER, a safety for the Dragons in 2000 who finished fourth on the team in tackles with 37.  A fifth-round draft choice of the Baltimore Ravens in 1998, Sutter was not the only former Dragon in the running for the Bachelorette’s hand.  JEFF POPOVICH, an F.C. Barcelona safety in 2001, was among the original eligibles, but, alas, lost out to Sutter.

ITEM TWO:

XXXVII ADDS UP TO NO. 1

The score was final on January 26, but the final tally wasn’t.  In the days after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Oakland Raiders 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII, it was determined that 137.7 million people watched the game – making it the second-most-watched program in TV history (behind SB XXX between Dallas and Pittsburgh in 1996, 138.5 million).  However, Nielsen Media Research now has come out with its final, final numbers for the game.  The total has been upped by 1.2 million viewers, thanks to those who taped the game and watched it later.  (We do not count those viewers as our most loyal fans…but we count them nevertheless.)  The addition makes Super Bowl XXXVII the most watched program ever with 138.9 million viewers.  The 10 most-watched programs in TV history are all Super Bowls.

ITEM THREE:

NFL HAS MOST OF THE FAVORITES

Ask Americans “Who is your favorite sports star?” and three out of the top six choices will be NFLers – five of the top 10 if ex-NFLers are included.  That is the NFL top-heavy result the Harris Poll announced this January in a survey of sports fans.  The NFLers and their rankings in the Harris Poll’s “10 Favorite Sports Stars”:  BRETT FAVRE (3), JERRY RICE (4), EMMITT SMITH (6), JOHN ELWAY (tie, 9) and TERRY BRADSHAW (tie, 9).

ITEM FOUR:

BUCS ON THEIR BACKS

Super Bowl is over, but not for Buccaneers fans.  They can’t get enough championship gear.  Nearly one million Bucs championship T-shirts and hats have been sold, second only to the sales racked up by the Denver Broncos when they won their first Super Bowl in 1998.  And the buyers are not from Bucs territory only.  About half the sales have come from outside Florida.  In Tampa, stores have been jammed.  “At one point, there was a two-hour wait to get into the store,” says JEFFREY NEIL FOX of Buccaneer Heaven.  “I had to have a police officer at the door to help everyone on line.”