Today was a big day in professional football, with the Steelers and the Packers qualifying for this year's version of the Ultimate Game.

Whenever I think of that, though, I remember the great quote by Dallas running back Duane Thomas: "If it's the ultimate game, then why do they play it every year?"

I didn't watch a minute of either game. It's actually been at least four or five years since I've watched any professional football. Part of it is that the only two teams I really care much about -- Washington and Denver -- are in down cycles and probably will be for the foreseeable future, but another part of it is that I've just become really bored by the NFL.

[caption id="attachment_779" align="alignright" width="152" caption="in Pasadena in 1993"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/index.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-779" title="index" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/index.jpg" alt="" width="152" height="183" /></a>[/caption]

I actually spent a lot of years covering the league. I covered the Redskins in 1980 and 1981, the Falcons in 1983, the Broncos from 1986-88, the 49ers in 1989 and the Rams and Raiders in the early '90s.

I saw some incredible games, most of them at Denver's Mile High Stadium, and I did get to cover one Super Bowl -- XXVII in 1993 at the Rose Bowl. It was a typically Godawful Super Bowl game, but there were two memorable moments, one at halftime and one after the game.

Halftime was probably the biggest concert of any of the 27 Super Bowls up to then, with Michael Jackson the performer. Most of the shows up till then had been marching bands and Up With People. Since then there have been shows by Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and the Who, but Jackson was probably the biggest thing in the world in 1993.

If he wasn't No. 1, Garth Brooks probably was. He sang the National Anthem.

[caption id="attachment_780" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The Gloved One"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Super-Bowl-XXVII-Halftime-Show-michael-jackson-7340171-1200-784.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-780" title="Super-Bowl-XXVII-Halftime-Show-michael-jackson-7340171-1200-784" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Super-Bowl-XXVII-Halftime-Show-michael-jackson-7340171-1200-784-300x196.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="196" /></a>[/caption]

I was never a big Michael Jackson fan. I'd never have bought tickets to see him, but since I was already there and it was free, I enjoyed it.

Not as much as I did the post-game interviews, though.

Dallas beat Buffalo, 52-17, and one of the players I interviewed after the game was veteran defensive end Jim Jeffcoat, who was nearly at the end of his career. There were three or four of us asking him questions, and one guy asked the inevitable "How does it feel to win the Super Bowl" question.

Jeffcoat's answer was a classic, although it didn't appear in any newspaper or on any broadcast medium.

<em>"How does it feel? It feels like (fill in the blank with a verb) a 16-year-old girl."</em>

Yeah, it was <em>that</em> verb.

I don't know if any of the Steelers or Packers will feel that way when they win the big game in two weeks, and I don't know if the Black-Eyed Peas' halftime show will compare with the Gloved One.

Some things don't bear repeating.