This wild Super Bowl is one of the best.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Edwin Pope

HOUSTON _ This Super Bowl started out with nothing and wound up with too much of everything except for the New England Patriots. It took Dead-Eye Adam Vinatieri's 41-yard field goal to beat the Carolina Panthers 32-29 just shy of overtime and wipe out a couple of semi-naked episodes that threatened to rush to the top of the marquee over SUPER BOWL XXXVIII.

For 27 minutes and 50 seconds, the game seemed poised to challenge any of even the dullest Super Bowls for sheer tedium.

You will see better offense on middle school playgrounds.

But when things busted loose, they went off like pregame fireworks. The teams scored 24 points in 2 minutes and 10 seconds before halftime. Then they seemed so intent on warming up for the second half they didn't even notice an uninvited stranger prancing around on the field wearing nothing except sneakers, a jock strap and a cap.

Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham finally plowed into the intruder. Then security converged from every corner of the field _ way late. Good thing the man was relatively harmless.

Just before that, unbeknownst to most of the crowd of 71,525, Janet Jackson had been partially undressed by Justin Timberlake in an incident that may keep reverberating all around sports and show biz longer than the score.