Columnist Susan Snyder: Bowled over by leap year

Friday, Jan. 30, 2004 | 3:26 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

WEEKEND EDITION

Jan. 31 - Feb. 1, 2004

I only watch the Super Bowl in a leap year.

Kidding.

I only watch the Super Bowl when lashed to a chair in front of the television.

Today marks the Super Bowl and the beginning of a 29-day February, which surely is significant enough to elicit a rash of banal statistics and "leap" puns for announcers of The Big Game.

So to fully appreciate their humor and The Game to End All New Year's Diets, we should explore rules regarding leap years and football.

According to Eric W. Weisstein, a technical Internet encyclopedia developer for Wolfram Research Inc.'s Science World website, leap year's extra day synchronizes the calendar year with the seasons.

"Since the tropical year is 365.242190 days long, a leap year must be added roughly once every four years (four times the fractional day gives 4x0.242190=0.968760-1)."

'K.

Compare that to the National Football League rules regarding a referee's jurisdictions, positions and duties during the game on a pass play:

"Drops back as quarterback begins to fade back, picks up legality of blocks by near linemen. Changes to complete concentration on quarterback as defenders approach. Primarily responsible to rule on possible roughing action on passer and if ball becomes loose, rules whether ball is free on a fumble or dead on an incomplete pass."

Wake me when we get to that "Bud Bowl" thing.

"In the Gregorian calendar currently in use worldwide, there is a leap year every year divisible by four, except for years which are both divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400. Therefore, the year 2000 will be a leap year, while the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not."

Yes, but did they have football in any of those years?

"Chucking: Warding off an opponent who is in front of a defender by contacting him with a quick extension of arm or arms, followed by the return of arm(s) to a flexed position, thereby breaking the original contact."

And here I thought "chucking" had something to do with too much cheese from a tub and Chex mix.

Leap year has an "extra rule":

"The extra rule involving centuries is an additional correction to make up for the fact that one extra day every four years is slightly too much correction (0.250.242190). This scheme results in the vernal equinox gradually shifting its date between March 19 and March 21, being shifted once every leap year, and then being abruptly shifted in non-leap centuries."

Football has a "sudden death" rule:

"Following a three-minute intermission after the end of the regulation game, play will be continued in 15-minute periods or until there is a score. There is a two-minute intermission between subsequent periods. The teams change goals at the start of each period. Each team has three timeouts per half and all general timing provisions apply as during a regular game."

For some of us, "sudden death" began the moment play commenced.

But enjoy your Gregorian crackbacks and leap-second penalty plays.

I'll be at the mall synchronizing my seasons -- with money from my pocket area, of course.