COLLEGE FOOTBALL

CORONER: USC KICKER DRUNK WHEN HE PLUNGED TO DEATH

Southern California kicker Mario Danelo was drunk when he plunged over a cliff to his death, but the coroner’s office yesterday was unable to say why he fell.

A toxicological report accompanying Danelo’s autopsy report found he had 0.23 blood-alcohol level, nearly three times the legal limit in California. No drugs were detected in his body, the report said.

FOOTBALL

SUPER BOWL AUDIENCE 2ND LARGEST EVER IN HISTORY

Peyton Manning had a lot of witnesses to his soggy super win, with the estimated 93.2 million viewers representing the second mostwatched Super Bowl broadcast ever.

Only the 1996 Super Bowl between Dallas and Pittsburgh, which had 94.1 million viewers, had a bigger audience, according to Nielsen Media Research on Monday. Behind that 1996 game and the M-A-S-H series finale, Sunday’s game was the third most-watched program in television history.

The presence of the Colts quarterback, one of the game’s most popular players, and a major-market team from Chicago undoubtedly juiced the ratings.

Associated Press

REXGROSSMANISNOTJEWISH.COM LOGS 1.5 MILLION HITS

Despite Rex Grossman’s lackluster performance at Super Bowl XLI, aching fans logged online yesterday to find out: Is the Chicago Bears quarterback Jewish?

It turns out he is not, according to the Web site, Rexgrossmanisnotjewish.com, which posted the message, “sorry jews, it’s true.”

But Internet traffic data from Alexa.com indicated that close to 1.5 million users logged onto the site during the past week to check.

It is not the first time fans speculated that Mr. Grossman, who signed with the Bears in 2003, is Jewish. Yesterday, a co-publisher of the Jewish Sports Review, Ephraim Moxson, said his readers have been inquiring ever since the 26-year-old player was a high school student in Indiana. Mr. Grossman is German-Catholic, he said.

But, Mr. Moxson said, there is another Bears player who is half Jewish: Antonio Garay.

Special to the Sun