Seacrest in

Read a pretty funny article today from SI's media columnist, Richard Deitsch, regarding the Fox Network's plans for covering the Super Bowl. Normally, Deitsch is a pretty with-it guy, so it kind of surprised me to read this dog-bites-man piece about how Fox is going to treat the Super Bowl pregame show like an Oscars telecast, complete with Ryan Seacrest interviewing celebrities on the red carpet as they enter the stadium.

Sports and entertainment have been intertwined for years, and I thought the angle had been pretty much beaten to death in the last five years or so. Whether it's hip-hop stars at the NBA All-Star Game, movie stars at the Super Bowl, or David Hasselhoff at the NBA Finals (watching his close, personal friend Dirk Nowitzki), is it news anymore that celebrities and pro athletes go together like Roger Clemens and B-12 shots?

And even though I'm pretty much a sports curmudgeon, the news of Fox's plans strikes me as perfectly rational. The Super Bowl pregame show is notoriously excruciating anyway, and who can spend six hours breaking down Xs and Os on the old telestrator? Certainly not Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long.

Plus, we all know that millions of viewers tuning in on Sunday will have little to no interest in the game itself. It's a party, it's social, it's an excuse to drink in the afternoon. Why not give the non-fans a little red meat to chew on before kickoff, when the bulk of their attention will turn to the commercials and glimpses of Tom Brady's girlfriends past and present in the stands?

Never thought I'd say this, but kudos to Fox.