Ballpark figures from Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego on Sunday:

• I believe that other than having your favorite team win the Super Bowl, there is no better feeling than having the team you despise the most get blown out and humiliated in the big game. For legions of NFL fans throughout the land, the latter came true on Sunday night. There is a God.

• Former Patriot Drew Bledsoe is off the hook in the Super Bowl record books. He, along with three other quarterbacks, shared the dubious championship-game record of throwing four interceptions in the contest going into number 37; with Rich Gannon’s collection of five INTs Sunday — three of which were returned for TDs — he got the record all to himself. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

• Speaking of nice guys, you’ve got to like the character of Raiders All-Pro center Barret Robbins, who threw an unwanted monkey wrench into the team’s preparations by missing a Friday-night meeting and the Saturday-morning final run-through. He then reportedly staggered, disoriented and shaky, into the final team meeting Saturday night before being dismissed and later suspended by the Raiders’ first-year head coach, Bill Callahan. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that, although Robbins has a history of medical problems including depression and bipolar disorder, four teammates under the cloak of anonymity told the paper that Robbins had been in Tijuana, Mexico, for the better part of Saturday. The center was reportedly hospitalized in the San Diego area on game day, but his role was critical to the Raiders’ offensive line, as his position is typically the play-caller for the linemen set up to protect Gannon and open holes for the rushers. While Robbins’s absence was not the reason that the Raiders got bludgeoned, controversies such as these cannot help but disrupt a team’s mindset prior to the biggest game of the year, and the void his absence created may have had a domino effect on the massive Raider O-Line, which allowed five sacks and was partly to blame for Oakland’s pitiful rushing total of 19 yards on 11 carries. Numerous players after the game were unforgiving in their condemnation of Robbins’s behavior, and it is unlikely the high-priced center will be able to stay on the team itself, much less in the good graces of his teammates.

• Hope you got a good long look at the AFC Champion Oakland Raiders on Sunday, because it’s unlikely you will see them again in their present incarnation. Because of a "Just win [it now], baby" credo this past year, the organization stacked the deck salary-wise to put together a team of seasoned veterans that could bring the coveted Lombardi Trophy back to the Bay Area. Unfortunately, when the NFL releases its salary-cap number in the coming months, the Silver & Black will likely find themselves nearly $50 million over that proposed cap. That will force the franchise to discard many of the key components of this year’s team. The Raiders will have a much different look for the 2003-’04 campaign; the Oakland personnel guy claims that the team may be forced to restructure each of its top-20 contracts. Ouch. The Raiders’ cross-town rivals, the 49ers, dealt with a similar salary-cap-busting situation a few years back, but the Niners weren’t in nearly as deep, and they handled it much better than the Raiders likely will. Not helping the cause will be Oakland’s address in the toughest division in the NFL, with Denver, San Diego, and Kansas City sharing the premises. The Broncos are traditionally a solid team, San Diego has faltered late in the past two seasons but is still a dangerous foe, and the Chiefs have the league’s best runner, as well as former Super Bowl coach Dick Vermeil on the sidelines. Oakland will face each of these teams twice next season, along with the likes of the Jets, Steelers, Titans, Packers, and Browns. Like the Patriots, Oakland may very well find the follow-up year to its Super Bowl appearance not only a letdown, but also bereft of any post-season appearances. Boo-hoo.

• It’s become evident that while the price tag for the Buccaneers to pry coach Jon Gruden away from the Raiders — two first-round draft choices, two second-round picks, and $8 million in cash — was steep, without the need to draft and sign all four of those potentially high-priced college lads, the Buccaneers — already on top of the football world — should not be in any kind of salary-cap trouble next season, and will likely be able to re-stock through trades or free-agent signings, which are ultimately more cost-effective and reliable than gambling on unknown talent.

• While you have to admire Gruden for guiding the formerly cursed Tampa franchise to its first title, what was he doing jumping around like Pete Carroll when the tide had irreversibly turned in the Bucs’ favor? Can you imagine Tom Landry or Bill Parcells prancing along the sideline in exuberant glee like Gruden did, practically following Derrick Brooks down the sideline after his late-game interception? Show some class, man. And distributing Super Bowl champion hats along the Tampa Bay sideline with well over six minutes left in the contest showed poor taste. Despite the game’s having been decided long before, it’s a mark of sportsmanship and respect for the opponent to wait until after the game to don the championship gear.

• Although it could be argued that many, many Raiders players did not play their best on the sport’s biggest stage on Sunday, how on earth can one defend the seven offsides calls against the Oakland rushing linemen? Certainly one expects a handful of unnecessary-roughness and unsportsmanlike-conduct infractions routinely called against the renegades in black and silver, but seven offsides penalties — many at critical junctures? And we’re not talking blitzers coming from secondaries mistiming their advancements into the Buccaneers’ backfield; we’re talking about the guys who line up every play on the line of scrimmage, and who should be able to determine accurately when the ball is snapped — just by looking at it. And don’t get me started about all the dropped passes by the Raiders receivers; there was positively no excuse for this collective lack of focus.

• Imagine if 10 years ago, someone had told you that, starting in the new century, your Super Bowl champions would be the St. Louis Rams ("What happened to the LA version?"), the Baltimore Ravens ("The who?"), the New England Patriots ("You’ve got to be kidding"), and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ("Surely, you jest"). Could you have imagined it?

• Impossible-to-believe department: according to the SF Chronicle, "Anarchy broke out on the streets of Oakland Sunday night when beefed-up police forces proved inadequate to stem eruptions of mayhem after the Raiders’ loss in the Super Bowl." Additional reports said that more than 50 city blocks of International Boulevard had "stretches of virtually lawless zones nearly three hours after the Super Bowl game." The gracious losers of Raiders Nation reportedly set at least 12 cars on fire, looted businesses, and pelted police officers and riot-squad members with bottles and rocks.

Nineteen-year-old Akela Thomas was quoted in the paper as saying, "It’s the Raiders’ fault — blame it on the Raiders. If they would’ve won, we wouldn’t be doing this."

Right.

Thank you, Bucs. God knows how many lives you saved.

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com