IT WAS A SHAM, TO COIN A...

IT WAS A SHAM, TO COIN A PHRASE

There you were, watching Hank Stram stroll into your television screen, preparing to toss the Super Bowl XXXI commemorative coin, brought to you by some pancake maker, or whoever was sponsoring the flip this year.

Tension mounted in living rooms across the country. Who would win the toss and elect to receive the opening kick? Packer fans must have been disappointed when New England called “heads” and heads it was.

But what you saw was an elaborate staging worthy of an Oliver Stone movie. The coin toss you saw was a fake.

Ever wonder why Las Vegas never offers a bet on the coin flip? After all, they offer a bet on everything else seemingly. Well, the real call is actually decided an hour before the game. When they walked to midfield before the game, every Patriot and every Packer knew who would win the toss.

Now you know.

GEE HONEY, YOU LOOK AWFULLY FLUSHED

For years, one Super Bowl legend was that water pressure in cities all over the nation go down at halftime when sports fans rush to the bathrooms, flushing toilets and using other bathroom facilities.

Sunday, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said there was indeed a drop in the city’s water pressure during halftime.

“There was a 1% or 2% change,” DWP spokesman Walter Zeisl said. “We don’t monitor individual customers. We monitor large lines, and a decrease, though small, was detected.”

According to Zeisl, a more thorough evaluation of the city’s water pressure during halftime will be made today.