It's the biggest week of the year in U.S. sports. The Super Bowl. No detail too small, no activity too outrageous during the week of parties.

For six Super Bowls, I was among those 5,000-plus reporters trying to inform the world of what they already knew -- it's a lot of fun. Most days, you'll hear me say to those who think sports writing is glamorous that it's a lot of travel to stadiums and hotels and not much fun. But, two events each year brought out the fan in me -- the Super Bowl and Kentucky Derby (covered 20). I'm now a columnist with the Washington Examiner (dcexaminer.com) and don't travel much so I'm watching like you this year after having my fill of 15 years on the road. You see the game better on TV, but it's more fun being there.

The week of the Super Bowl is about having fun for everyone no matter how long the days can be at the end of a season where NFL writers have worked 6 or 7 days per week for six months. This is the fun part. You see celebs -- Paul McCartney, Gloria Estefan, Aerosmith, NSYNC and more in a small room for interviews. You eat like a king. See al the outrageous TV people from MTV and such and just have a laugh.

The teams meet with the press for an hour on Tuesday-Thursday before going into seclusion. They have fun with it too until Saturday.

So what's game day like? A lot of waiting since the game doesn't begin until 6:30 p.m. EST. The entertainment begins around 1 p.m. and there are serious musical acts. Most of the crowd is corporate writeoffs because the average ticket is scalped for $4,300 despite face value of $250. They write it off their taxes. Oh, there are real fans, but not many get into the stadium. Often, 500,000 people will come to a city for the game but only 75,000 or so have tickets. The rest are in bars around town watching.

This year's host city Glendale, Ariz. is a great place. Warm, lots of entertainment and a beautiful area. My favorite Super Bowl city is Miami, but New Orleans is cool, too.I like places where I don't need a jacket in the middle of winter. I also covered one in Atlanta during an ice storm and Minneapolis with two feet of snow on the sidewalks.

I've covered every major sporting event in the U.S. and traveled to 10 foreign countries and the only thing that comes close is the World Cup. That's personal for the fans more so than American football played by people who aren't from that city. Otherwise, the Super Bowl is must-see TV commercials and all.

Who's going to win? Some of you will read this after the game so hopefully I don't look dumb. I think New England will pull away late -- 31-13.