You saw the play. Early in the first quarter of the NFC Championship Game, Giants fullback Greg Comella released into the flat and noticed Vikes' linebacker Dwayne Rudd relaxing his coverage. So Comella, a third-year lunchpailer from Stanford, cut up the field and stretched for an 18-yard TD pass from Kerry Collins. His first TD as a pro looked like a Nestea plunge without the pool. After landing awkwardly on the painted gravel that passes for a field at Giants Stadium, Comella pogo-sticked to the sidelines, clutching his backside.

A few moments later, the pressbox PA crackled with the ignominious explanation that Comella had suffered a bruised buttocks. "Man, he was in a lot of pain," said running back Ron Dayne. "It hurt me just to watch him walk."

With the Ravens' ravenous run defense, Comella's lead blocking -- and thus the bump on his rump -- will be big news in Tampa. Think about it: it's been 15 years since Jim McMahon mooned a television helicopter before the big game in New Orleans, and we're all still talking about it.

Well, O.K., maybe just me.

Butt...am I the only one who wonders why players pad everything from their chins to their shoulders to their knees but not their backsides? And if Comella played another position, could he be listed in the Super Bowl injury report as a tight end with a tight end? Medically speaking, is there such a thing as a gluteus specialist? Besides Jennifer Lopez, I mean.

"Whenever you're in the middle of a great dream you always seem to wake up too early," Comella said after spending an hour in the training room. "But with this one we haven't woken up yet and I hope we don't for a while. This is what it's all about...winning the Super Bowl."

Last year, The View's moronic Meredith Vieira said the Super Bowl is "all about the butts." And dang it if she didn't turn out to be right.

David Fleming writes football for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at flemfile@aol.com.