Heavy price for watching brother at Super Bowl

Now Tank Carter has more time to think about how much he enjoyed that Super Bowl party.

Broward Circuit Judge Stanton S. Kaplan increased jail time from six months to five years for the brother of Pittsburgh Steelers safety Tyrone Carter because he failed to report to prison on time for driving with a revoked license.

Tank Carter went to the Super Bowl instead and said he had no regrets.

He was to report to a Broward County, Fla., prison on Jan. 6, but decided against it when his brother told him the Steelers had a good chance of going to the Super Bowl.

“Even knowing what I know now, I would do it again. It was the greatest game in my life,” said Carter, who watched the Steelers beat Seattle from the 50-yard line in Detroit on Feb. 5 and partied with rapper Snoop Dogg after the game.

NFL will tweak rules

The NFL is satisfied with its officiating but concerned that high-profile errors in the playoffs and Super Bowl left a bad impression.

So beginning next week at league meetings in Orlando, Fla., it will tweak a few rules, dealing mostly with player safety, offensive holding and false starts.

In the 256 games during the past regular season, there were 850 false-start calls.

To cut that number, the committee is ready to recommend that minor flinches by wide receivers be ignored if they have no effect on the play.

The committee also is considering recommending to officials that they make sure there was holding on a play before throwing a flag.

One such play occurred in the Super Bowl. Seattle right tackle Sean Locklear was called for holding on a pass completion early in the fourth quarter that would have put the Seahawks at the Pittsburgh 1-yard line, poised to go in for the tying touchdown.

Judge agrees with Culpepper

A judge agreed that Daunte Culpepper and a former Minnesota Vikings teammate had made a case that they were treated differently than two white men who were not charged as part of a boat party sex scandal.

Culpepper and running back Moe Williams are seeking dismissal of misdemeanor charges of lewd conduct.

The players, both black, argue that prosecutor Steve Tallen passed up a chance to charge two white men, including the captain of one of two boats on the cruise.

At a hearing in Hennepin County District Court, Tallen said he declined to charge the men because the case against them was shaky.

“I’m allowed to make that decision, and it has nothing to do with the race of these defendants,” Tallen said.

“It looks bad, though,” Judge Kevin Burke responded.

Culpepper testified that he spent his entire time shooting dice during a boat party last fall and rejected offers from lingerie-clad dancers.

Culpepper was traded last week to the Miami Dolphins.

Rice rules out commish job

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a big football fan, ruled out applying for the job of NFL commissioner after Paul Tagliabue retires.

“Unfortunately, it came open at the wrong time,” Rice said, clearly amused when a reporter posed the question. “Obviously, I’m very busy as secretary of state, and I intend to continue to be secretary of state as long as the president of the United States will have me.”

Rice, an avid follower of the Cleveland Browns and pro football in general, has frequently said she aspires to run the league one day.