But when those fighters are asked to come back and do it again to make sure the timing with the end of the National Anthem is absolutely perfect - it can only be the Super Bowl.

The aerial fun and games caused a commotion in the muddy little compound set aside for International broadcasters yesterday, but everyone was soon back to work. There are a dozen or so pre-fab huts here - we're sharing one with the Italians, next to us are the Germans, then the Japanese, then oddly enough, Disney.

Having said all that, it's clear that the Super Bowl isn't immune to the global downturn. It was a major talking point at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's 'State of the League' press conference yesterday. The NFL has been forced to lay off employees, there's been a struggle to fill those once-precious half-time advertising slots in the US, and for the first time ever the number of media accreditations for the big game has gone down this year.

It's had an effect on our plans too - the massive difference in exchange rates between last year and this means that something like a video feed cable which costs $1,000 is a lot more in pounds this year than it was last year.

That's one of the reasons we've kept things relatively simple with our coverage. We'd love to be broadcasting the game in HD for example, but financially it was never a realistic option.

Despite all the financial issues surrounding the event, it still promises to be a typical Super Bowl extravaganza. The game itself should provide another fascinating encounter, with the underdog Arizona Cardinals hoping to stop the Pittsburgh Steelers from winning the Vince Lombardi trophy a record sixth time.

Once again Jake Humphrey and Mike Carlson will be joined in our studio by Rod Woodson, which is great news for us, not just because he's a Steelers legend, or because he's back at the scene of his own Super Bowl win with the Baltimore Ravens, but also because he's among the candidates for induction for the Pro Football Hall of Fame at the weekend - and he'll be in a great mood if he gets in. Fingers crossed.

The one major change we've made is that we're going to take the NBC network coverage this year rather than the World Feed commentary offered by the NFL that we used last time. Quite simply, we just couldn't pass on John Madden. Being a bit of an old sentimentalist, it's just nice to add his name to the list of commentary legends that have appeared on the BBC down the years.

And for those once-a-year viewers who like their coverage a little more inclusive, we'll also have Radio 5 Live's pairing of Arlo White and Greg Brady on the Red Button.

I'll finish as I started with one of those 'only at the Super Bowl' moments. I've seen plenty of press conferences in my time, the vast majority of them pretty dull, but nothing compared to the pandemonium surrounding the Bruce Springsteen briefing on Thursday.

While there's much anticipation surrounding his half-time show on Sunday night, I understand it was also the first time in around 22 years that Bruce and the E-Street Band had agreed to do a presser. As a result, there were hundreds of journalists jumping over each other to get a decent seat, and when it came to TV crews, I lost count at 50.

Fortunately, Bruce was honest enough to bring his legendary working man's touch to proceedings. When asked why he'd finally agreed to perform at the Super Bowl this year rather than any other year, he simply replied: "Because I got an album out, dummy."

I guess even the Boss ain't recession-proof.

I guess most of you who stayed up on Sunday night expected to see Super Bowl history made, but not in terms of a Giants upset.

Regardless of who you were supporting, there's no doubt that it was one hell of a finish, and we're glad that nearly half a million of you stayed up until 3.30am to watch it with us.

Mike Carlson, our studio guest, put it better - 'the Oscars, the 4th of July and the FA Cup Final all rolled into one'.

Everything about our Super Bowl experience seemed to be on a huge scale and incredible slick - probably the only exception was being shipped to the stadium on those school buses like Otto drives in the Simpsons, but even that had a certain charm.

I made countless trips from our truck to the studio on the day of the game, and it seemed every time the lift doors opened, there was a celebrity like Roger Federer or Hugh Laurie, or an NFL legend like Jerry Rice or Jim Brown waiting outside.

After a while you were disappointed when you didn't bump into someone famous. And that's before you get to the game itself, which was unforgettable for so many reasons.

Anyway, thanks ever so much for all your comments and questions - I'll try to get through a few now.

Most of them centred around why we didn't go for the US network commentary, this year provided by Fox's pairing of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.

We took the decision back in December, when the NFL makes its requests for video and audio feeds.

We felt the world feed was the best option to go with as there would be a lot of new viewers - or at least occasional viewers - to the game, who we didn't want to exclude with commentary that occasionally assumed a little too much knowledge of the game.

Looking at the audience figures, the Super Bowl peaked at around midnight, when there were a combined 1.2m viewers on the BBC and Sky.

Compare that with the 200,000 peak for the Conference Championships a fortnight before, and you get an idea of how many people tune in solely for the Super Bowl itself.

In the event, I thought the commentary was pretty good - Dick Stockton did pause to explain things like yellow flags, the red zone and the Pro Bowl, but fairly succinctly - and if anything Sterling Sharpe was at times too technical for a World feed, but I certainly wasn't complaining.

Either way, I don't think it was as dire or terrible as some of you feared.

However, some of you also asked whether it was possible to put Fox on the red button - which was a fair point.

Realistically, last week was probably a little late in the day to get that in place, and our main fear was filling the ad breaks. Now this gets a little complicated, so bear with me...

The world feed has a fixed plan of 25 ad breaks, all 90 seconds long, with five per quarter and five at half time - that way each of the international broadcasters know where they stand and can place their commercials accordingly.

The Fox broadcast however does not match it identically, and they'll often take extended breaks to make up for lost time (certainly the Giants 10 minute opening drive didn't help them on that front).

Obviously we only had the one studio, so we couldn't fill different length ad-breaks simultaneously. The odd 30-seconds of silence here or there might be one thing, but the two 10 minute holes either side of Tom Petty at half-time might've been a little strange.

The BBC would also have faced a couple of challenges editorially with the US network coverage, as there are increased levels of sponsorship and advertising as part of the broadcast - as many of you who watch the NFL weekly will know.

Having said that, the door is certainly not closed for next year - it's NBC's turn to cover the Super Bowl in 2009, and the prospect of the legendary John Madden commentating on the BBC in some form is certainly tempting.

On the subject of world feed ad-breaks, they certainly kept us on our toes. The NFL employs an assistant director to warn the international broadcasters when breaks are coming - we had his feed on a speaker in our truck, and he would count us in and out of the commentary.

When the final break was done midway through the fourth quarter, we assumed we'd heard the last of him. How wrong we were.

Now I don't know if he was a big Patriots fan, or simply had bet a large amount on them winning, but what came out of that speaker during the Giants' winning drive is probably not printable here.

Suffice to say he gave us a lot of entertainment, and at the end of the day Eli Manning's arms were still in one piece, so no harm done.

You also asked about next season, and increased coverage of the play-offs and the possibility of broadcasting the Super Bowl in HD.

It's certainly something we'd like to do - especially with the increased level of interest in the NFL that will come from games at Wembley for the next three seasons and further TV coverage on satellite and terrestrial TV. We'll be assessing the response to our NFL coverage in the near future, and I'll try to keep you posted of any news.

Finally just a big thank-you to everyone who complimented us on our coverage, especially the studio trio of Jake Humphrey, Mike Carlson and Rod Woodson.

The guys were a joy to work with, even when we weren't at our professional best at supporting them. There was barely five minutes to go until we were on air when Rod slipped on his headphones to find that he couldn't hear the game, couldn't hear the director, and couldn't hear Jake and Mike - but yet had full commentary of Newcastle v Middlesbrough on Match of the Day 2.

Aaah, the joys of television. We'll get it right next year Rod, honest.

"Why don't we say the New York Giants' win makes them a good bet for the Super Bowl, and that way we can plug the fact that we're showing the thing," we agreed.

Both of our "British boys" will have their hands full, though, as they try to prevent the New England Patriots becoming the second team in NFL history to go through the entire season without losing a game.

Sounds like it's going to be a memorable night no matter what the result.

Jake is once again fronting our coverage out in Arizona, and joining him in the studio is a familiar face to NFL fans in the UK, Mike Carlson. I'm also delighted to announce that our other guest on the night is one of the finest defensive backs in the history of the NFL, Rod Woodson. To diehard fans of the game, he needs no introduction. To those occasional viewers, let me put it a different way - think of the legendary quarterbacks of the past 20-odd years - Joe Montana, John Elway, Troy Aikman…well, he's intercepted passes from the lot of them.

As for commentary, we'll be taking the NFL's world feed pairing of Dick Stockton and Sterling Sharpe, with Radio 5 Live's Arlo White and Greg Brady available on the red button. We know there were a few of you who wanted us to take the FOX commentary to give it the full authentic American feel, but we decided on this occasion to go with the more inclusive world feed. Let us know what you think though.

Also available on the red button during the game will be a beginners' guide to the sport courtesy of the Miami Dolphins. And if you're one of those Monday morning strugglers who find themselves confessing "I made it as far as U2 at half-time, but then I fell asleep", the highlights of the game will be available on interactive the following day. (In case you didn't know, it's Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at half-time this year).

Of course one of the main challenges facing the BBC as it shows the Super Bowl for the first time is filling those ad-breaks - well, in addition to more studio analysis with Rod and Mike, we'll also be trawling the archives for the best moments from Super Bowls past. So, if you've got a favourite you want us to show, shout now.

I'll finish where I started, at Wembley, and the news that the NFL is set to announce another game in the UK for October 2008, with the San Diego Chargers and New Orleans Saints poised to make the trip. Both teams have plenty of offensive firepower so we could be set for quite a game - and once again the BBC will be there to cover it. Who knows, if Wembley becomes some sort of good omen for NFL teams, they'll soon be queuing up for a game in lucky London.

'With most matches you can usually predict what's going to happen and plan your programme accordingly', said Graham Fry, who heads up our snooker coverage with TWI.

'But with Ronnie, you have to have a Plan A, a Plan B and a Plan C'.

Ronnie's 2007 also included a fourth consecutive Premier League title, five century breaks, including a 147, in five winning frames while taking on Ali Carter in the Northern Ireland Trophy, before another eventful climax to the UK Championship in December - although even that came with the odd scare for our production team.

It was in the early stages of his semi-final with Mark Selby that Ronnie nipped out for what appeared to be a standard comfort break. We waited for his return, and waited…

'It was seven minutes before he came back' said Graham, who was helping produce the show that day. 'With most players, you think 'he's not well', but with Ronnie, you're never sure what's going to happen next'.

What did happen next was that the match went to a final frame decider, which Ronnie proceeded to take with another maximum - his eighth in competition - before cruising to the title with a 10-2 victory over Stephen Maguire the next day.

'That's the genius of Ronnie,' added Graham. 'With some 147 breaks, you look back and wonder how it happened. The one in that semi was one of those where he got to 32 and we all said 'this is on'.'

Maguire has an early chance of revenge when he takes on Ronnie this Sunday as part of our opening day's coverage, which also includes Shaun Murphy take on Allister Carter and Ryan Day against Barry Hawkins.

As the old maxim goes, 'expect the unexpected'.

There are many culture shocks you have to get used to when covering American Football, but nothing can prepare you for the mayhem of an NFL locker room after a match.

After a 10-minute 'cool down' period, the NFL allows the media into the players' dressing rooms.

You can imagine the chaos that ensues, as was the case following the New York Giants' historic win over the Miami Dolphins at Wembley.

It certainly was an extraordinary sight to see the Giants' star quarterback Eli Manning - a man who earns $6m a year - emerging from the showers in just a towel to have 20 microphones thrust in his face.

There's been many comparisons drawn between the NFL and the Premier League in the past few days, but I don't think Wayne Rooney and company are quite ready for that treatment!

It was all a learning experience that came with BBC television covering American football for the first time as part of a deal that also involves us showing the Super Bowl live in February.

As is often the case with covering American sports, there's a tricky balance to strike between educating new viewers to the sport without patronising the hardcore fans that have been following it for years.

It's particularly true of the NFL as it gained such a popular following in the 1980s. From the amount of Dan Marino shirts around Wembley yesterday, that fanbase is certainly alive and well today.

For yesterday's programme, we decided to do a brief beginners' guide to the game - I'm sure a few diehard fans would have groaned to see another explanation of downs, touchdowns, running and passing, but given the impressive publicity drive that the NFL went on last week, there was inevitably some curious new viewers among the million that tuned in.

We also decided to take the American network commentary from Wembley. Obviously there's a fair bit of assumed knowledge in there which may confuse the novice viewer, but we felt it was part of the NFL coming to town. It's also what the seasoned American football fan has come to expect.

That was for a 50 minute highlights programme though. Things may be different come the three hours of our live Super Bowl coverage. I'd be interested in hearing what viewers would prefer - American network commentary, some of the BBC's own, or perhaps a mixture of both like Radio 5live's pairing of Arlo White and Greg Brady?

I have to admit I'm already excited about the prospect of covering the Super Bowl. Perhaps we'll be covering the Giants once again, who knows?

One thing's for sure, we'll be preparing for the mother of all media scrums in the locker rooms afterwards.

I joined the BBC in 1998 as a trainee assistant producer, having worked the previous four years in newspapers.
I was assistant editor of Grandstand from 2002 to its end in 2007, where my job was to co-ordinate the sports on Saturday and Sunday afternoons from the gallery.

Nowadays I do the same job on the separate elements that Grandstand has left behind, so I may turn up on anything from Six Nations Rugby and the NFL to the highlights programmes at Wimbledon and the Open golf.

I also act as BBC liaison with the independent companies that produce our coverage of snooker, darts, bowls and cricket.

With that bunch on my CV, it's no surprise that you'll usually get an opinion from me on most sporting topics, but Cornish rugby, Indian cricket, Leeds United and the New York Jets would probably incite the most passion.