Totally Random

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The news release from VPI Pet Insurance began, “True Dedication is not measured in ticket sales or Terrible Towels. True dedication is the fan with a cat named Roethlisberger or a poodle named Polamalu.”

Hard to argue with that.

For fun, VPI used its database of more than 467,000 insured pets to find which of the Super Bowl participants had inspired the most fans to name pets after its team or players. The Steelers won, 159-76 — not even counting the pets obviously named after left tackle Max Starks, who surely inspired the nation’s most popular name for dogs and cats.

Winging it

Still speaking, sort of, about animals and football, the National Chicken Council wants to make sure you know there will be chicken wings available this weekend for scarfing -- about 38.3 million pounds of them -- despite troubling reports of a potential shortage spanning from their hometown in Buffalo all the way to Seattle.

While it’s true that production is down and prices are up, ‘there’s plenty of wings,’ said Richard Lobb, spokesman for the National Chicken Council in Washington.

Buffalo could never win a Super Bowl, but what would a game be without a few Buffalo wings?

Trivia time

And, speaking of Buffalo, every football fan knows the Bills lost a record four consecutive Super Bowls, from 1991 to 1994. Which other NFL franchises have lost as many?

Super bites

Something called the Center for Consumer Freedom is barking about what it claims is an ‘irresponsible’ list of supposedly unhealthy Super Bowl party foods compiled by another group.

The list was compiled by an animal-rights spinoff, the Center reported, and was designed ‘to demonize the consumption of beef, pork, poultry and fish.’

‘Super Bowl Sunday is about watching football and eating food, not hugging cows and saving chickens,’ the Center’s director of research, David Martosko, was quoted as saying. ‘I’m throwing a flag ... personal foul for unnecessary buzz kill.’

Trivia answer

Minnesota (1970, ‘74, ‘75, ‘77) and Denver (1978, ‘87, ‘88, ‘90).

And finally

Herm Edwards on Thursday became the latest unemployed former NFL player and coach to join the ESPN broadcast booth, saying in a statement that he planned ‘to be truthful with my opinions on all the issues that take place on and off the field of play.’

An honorable goal. And here’s the truth about Herm: He stunk as coach of the Chiefs — 15-33 in three seasons.

-- Mike Hiserman