MIAMI - This time there was a sponsor. For Media Day. It's bad enough every spare second of television, every halftime score, every interview is connected to some sort of commercial. But Super Bowl media day, when hundreds of journalists shove and push to hear quotes that don't mean anything?

G, as in Gatorade, had its fingers - or its drink - all over this one. Signs everywhere. Bottles strategically located next to microphones for the star players. Is the NFL that desperate for a few dollars? What's next, advertising on uniforms.

Not long ago media day was part circus, part fingernails on a blackboard, tons of underdressed ladies, from television in the U.S. and everywhere else, calling attention to themselves by calling out to defensive tackles. Mindless, if harmless, fun.

One year, at San Diego if memory serves, a lovely blond in attire completely out of place, which was the whole idea, shoved a microphone in the face of a uniformed behemoth and in heavily accented words said, "I'm from Sweden. Say something to the girls of Sweden.''

What players from the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints said Tuesday on Media Day Presented by G was the same they would have said if the hours had been unsponsored: Very little of consequence.

Which was why the old days were more fulfilling. No secrets but a lot of laughs. And didn't the late Pete Rozelle, who as NFL Commissioner gave birth to the Super Bowl, say of the event, "All we are is entertainment.''

See if you discern anything entertaining in this quote by Saints quarterback Drew Brees. "It is very important to be balanced, to be able to run and pass.''

Or this one from Colts coach Jim Caldwell on whether Indy has the advantage because it has played previously in a Super Bowl. "No, I think the game is between the white lines.''

And you thought the game was between Gatorade and Powerade.

We've lost our sense of humor, become too politically correct, overly protective. Every joke is taken the wrong way. Every statement is misinterpreted. YouTube is lurking. Twitter is hovering. The whole country like some 7-year-old, seems only determined to tattle on everybody else.

It was a while back when after those idiotic end zone gymnastics were outlawed that players said NFL stood for No Fun League. But developing a new routine to embarrass an opponent is not the way to have fun. The trick is to loosen up.

To toss in a wisecrack now and then, as well as tossing in a trick play. To remember football, or any other sport, isn't life and death. Yes, I know a Yale coach once said in a much-repeated quote it's more important than that, but it isn't. A great comment however, the sort we sorely lack these days.

Maybe we need the late John McKay, who when at Tampa Bay was asked about his team's execution and responded, "I think that would be a good idea.'' These days some civil rights group would sue him for the remark.

So, it's the Era of Bland. No chance-takers on Media Day, either among the interviewers or the interviewees. The people who used to dress up as clowns, or sometimes act like them, are not allowed any longer, although there was a lady from the Spanish language network Telemundo, with a halo and some feathered wings. The athletes who used to offer warnings or guarantees do not exist any longer.

It was here in Miami in 1969, Super Bowl III, Joe Namath insisted the New York Jets would whip the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, and the Jets did just that. Does anyone believe 41 years later Brees or Colts quarterback Peyton Manning would chance to be as daring?

Peyton has to sell Sonys and Oreos and whatever else. He's not going around even obliquely insulting the other team by forecasting a Colts victory. Nor is Caldwell or Saints coach Sean Payton.

At least Sean Payton, recognizing the need for a bit of amusement, had the temerity to borrow a stunt from the late, great 49ers coach Bill Walsh. When San Francisco played in its first Super Bowl, No. XVI in January 1982, Walsh flew to Detroit before the team, put on a bellman's hat and coat and tried to help the players with their luggage. Laughs all around.

Payton and the Saints players who were voted to the Pro Bowl and came to Miami early, a group which included Brees, did the same thing when the bulk of the New Orleans squad arrived on Monday, acting as hotel workers. He thought it would ease the team into the week and he hopes the game.

When that's ever done again most likely there will be a sponsor.