A view of the Benson Tower in New Orleans with a Super Bowl XLVII logo. (USA Today Sports)NEW ORLEANS – It is the most American of occasions, the showpiece of the most American of all sports, so why does the Super Bowl use Roman numerals to denote its grand event every year?

No other major American sport uses the Roman counting system, one formerly familiar to school kids around the country but now essentially obsolete to the iPad generation. Yet the Super Bowl persists with the tradition, has no desire or plan to change it, and the ancient characters will continue to appear just as they have since 1971.

That was the year when what was supposed to be Super Bowl 5 became Super Bowl V, at the insistence of pioneering sports entrepreneur Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and one of the most significant figures in the growth in the game’s popularity.

The Baltimore Colts emerged victorious that year, outlasting the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 thanks to a winning field goal in the dying seconds.

Lamar Hunt (Getty Images)Hunt was a man with plenty of ideas, most of them good. It was he who

NEW ORLEANS – San Francisco 49ers stars revealed Wednesday how coach Jim Harbaugh's tough restrictions on his team's activities has turned New Orleans into "the most boring city in the world" for them.

Every 49ers team member was given a detailed briefing by security experts upon their arrival in Louisiana and orders regarding where they should and should not venture in the city. Mario Abney plays the trumpet on a quiet day on Bourbon Street. (Getty)

Anywhere other than main streets and recognized, well-lit areas are to be avoided, and players are expected not to be out late in the Big Easy's famous French Quarter.

As a result of the restrictions, many players have simply confined themselves to the team hotel, passing their time studying plays and preparing for Sunday's showdown with the Baltimore Ravens at the Mercedes Benz Superdome.

"I don't even know where Bourbon Street is," 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis told Yahoo! Sports. "I have been asleep by 10:30 p.m. every night. I am going to go to sleep because it is going to pay off come

NEW ORLEANS – It sounds like the kind of headline that would give Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh nightmares.

"Joe Flacco flattened by professional MMA fighter."

Gian Villante, right, delivered one of the hardest sacks Joe Flacco has ever experienced. (Getty Images)The story is true, but Harbaugh can rest easy for now. Flacco's rough treatment at the hands of UFC hardman Gian Villante took place more than six years ago, and in the perfectly legitimate setting of a college football game.

Villante was a linebacker with Hofstra, and before he swapped the gridiron for the octagon, he provided Flacco with one of the fiercest sacks of his college career.

Game reports of a 10-6 victory for Flacco's Delaware Blue Hens describe a "brutal" hit from Villante, and the fighting star remembers the moment clearly, although he admits that back in 2006 Flacco didn't seem destined for the kind of elite excellence he has since produced.

"It is pretty cool to think that I put a quarterback who is now in the Super Bowl flat on his back," Villante, a fast-rising light-heavyweight who

NEW ORLEANS – San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver has made inflammatory comments regarding homosexuality in football just a few days before Super Bowl XLVII.

Shock jock Artie Lange revealed he had interviewed Culliver at media day Tuesday and aired a segment on his show that night, where the player insisted that any gay players would not be welcome on the team.

"I don't do the gay guys man," said Culliver, whose Niners play the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. "I don't do that. No, we don't got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do.

"Can't be with that sweet stuff. Nah…can't be…in the locker room man. Nah."

When quizzed by Lange whether any homosexual athletes would need to keep their sexuality a secret in football, Culliver responded: "Yeah, come out 10 years later after that."

You can listen to the interview here:

The 49ers released a statement Wednesday in response to Culliver's remarks:

"The San Francisco 49ers reject

NEW ORLEANS – On Sunday, just like before every other game this season, Paul Kruger will take a silent moment in front of his locker and trace his finger along the pattern of scars that line his stomach.

As he does so, almost by habit, the Baltimore Ravens linebacker will allow his thoughts to drift to a time and place that he otherwise keeps suppressed in the recesses of his mind – a Salt Lake City night five years ago when he almost lost his life. Paul Kruger celebrates with fans after the Ravens beat the Patriots. (USA Today Sports)

It was January 19, 2008, when Kruger, then at the University of Utah, was hosting his brother David for a campus visit. After a dinner with team coaches, then a viewing party for a pay-per-view boxing bout featuring Roy Jones and Felix Trinidad, the group headed out for a night on the town.

As they left, Kruger says, they were confronted by a gang of around 12 youths who first yelled obscenities from their car, then confronted him and his group. As Kruger grappled with one assailant, he was stabbed in the stomach and side by another

NEW ORLEANS – Everyone has seen Colin Kaepernick's tattooed arms and explosive legs, but considering he's the most discussed participant in Super Bowl XLVII, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback is still, in many ways, an unknown quantity.

Kaepernick's public comments are unfailingly polite, but brief and to the point. He sends pizzas to hungry reporters, but doesn't exactly fill their notebooks with scintillating insights.

His parents describe him as a nice kid, his coaches rave about his work ethic and his colleagues tiptoe around the thorny question of the Alex Smith saga.

Tabloid fodder like Tom Brady he is not, and likely never will be – not even if he leaves the Big Easy with a Super Bowl ring after his 49ers take on the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

So, what makes Kaepernick tick?

[Dan Wetzel: Atlanta deaths still weigh on Ray Lewis]

Colin Kaepernick and fullback Bruce Miller, left, used to room together. (AP)Backup 49ers tight end Bruce Miller might know Kaepernick better than anyone else on the roster, having spent much of the

A series of supportive messages from Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps helped poker professional Greg Merson clinch an $8,531,853 payday and the title of world champion on Wednesday morning.

Merson survived a marathon session of nearly 12 hours before finally eliminating his last two competitors from a field of 6,598 in the main event of the World Series of Poker – the most prestigious prize in the game.

Greg Merson holds up his new bracelet after winning the World Series of Poker. (AP)Phelps and Merson both hail from Maryland and are long-time friends, and the swimming superstar sent his pal several tweets and text messages before and during the closing session of the final table, before conveying his congratulations at the end of the dramatic event.

Merson invited Phelps to join him at the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio in Las Vegas, but the 18-time gold medalist was unable to make the trip as he was returning from a charity event in Brazil, where he was teaching swimming to under-privileged youngsters in a Rio de Janeiro slum.

"It is pretty cool

When David Beckham finally won the MLS Cup last November, took a little too much champagne and partied into the night with will.i.am, it was easy to feel that the English soccer icon had reached the end of his American adventure, and perhaps even the end of his career.

David Beckham has scored seven goals in the 24 games this season. (Getty Images)Yet there he was a couple of months later announcing he would be back with the Los Angeles Galaxy for two years, and there he still was on the pages of the tabloids, hanging out in Beverly Hills on his motorbike, or in his beanie, or at a coffee shop, or (if the paparazzi are really lucky) all three at the same time.

And here he is back in the MLS playoffs and, despite the Galaxy's abysmal beginning to a campaign they started as overwhelming favorites, with a realistic shot at going back-to-back. L.A. is in action Thursday night, hosting the Vancouver Whitecaps in a one-off elimination game that carries the prize of facing regular-season table toppers the San Jose Earthquakes in a home-and-home series.

Still,