The play of the game ...

It's 5:52 the morning after the Super Bowl, and I've been up for more than an hour, having finally given in to clock-watching that began around 1. When the cat cried -- a fairly rare occurrence -- at 4:30, enough was enough.

I wish I could attribute such sleep deprivation to Tracy Porter's phenomenal interception and touchdown. But that would do little to explain the last year or so. It's just life at 51.

Truth is, I did see the play and it was great. Or, at least I saw most of it. I'm a root-for-the-underdog kind of person, just like the president, so I was marginally more interested in this year's Super Bowl. Plus, I've actually been to New Orleans, so favoring the Saints over the Indianapolis Colts was a no-brainer for someone who has no brain for the gridiron.

Anyway, if I worked in an office, I knew I'd be talking today about having seen Porter run the field and score; but, I'd still be wishing I'd seen the whole thing.

I wish I'd seen the catch itself. I blame watching the game and doing online crossword puzzles at the same time. Something was going to get short shrift. I'd rather it had been the four-letter word for combustible heap.

But, I had a chance to set things right this morning when I turned on the computer and saw a story about Porter missing the game bus and why. Embedded in it was a link to the play, so I watched it. Over and over and over again. I kept missing it. Too many guys out there, too wide a shot. I narrowed my gaze, finally, to the area where Porter and the Colts' star Peyton Manning were, but I'll have to go back -- or to a different Web site -- if I want to see the ball actually touch his hands.

Not for anything, but what I really wanted to see embedded in that particular story were photos of the $40 haircut that made Porter miss the bus (overly dramatized, by the way; he caught the next one, just 30 minutes later).

The haircut apparently has SB44, the trophy and the Louisiana Super Dome shaved into it.

An aside ... Almost as surprising as Porter's play was the commercial that had Betty White muddied up -- seconds later it was Abe Vigoda lying there. Abe Vigoda, formerly of "Barney Miller."

I thought he was dead.

So, in case it was camera magic, I checked whosaliveandwhosdead.com, where I learned that three members of the cast have passed away, James Gregory, Ron Carey and Jack Soo.

Vigoda, by the way, will turn 89 next week.

Unless he makes a sudden move to the other column.