They're a little bit country...

Brooks and Dunn -- the football players, not the country music stars -- are hosting a celebrity golf tournament Jan. 29-30 at Cypress Run in Tarpon Springs. The event benefits the Derrick Brooks Charities and the Warrick Dunn Foundation.

Diddy, Deion and Winky team up for SB events

Star gazers take a look: Entertainment icon Diddy, NFL legend Deion Sanders and hometown boxing champ Winky Wright are teaming up for a series of parties in the nights leading up to the Super Bowl in Tampa. Event organizer Michael Bilello says the parties -- with limited public access -- will be a "very unique chance to rub elbows with the A-list of America."

Each of the three events at The Venue in Clearwater will have a different theme. Record producer, rapper, actor and menswear designer Diddy will host a "Vegas Fight Night" party on Jan. 29 dubbed "Champions of the Good Life." Proceeds from the event will go to Wright's new Charity for Women.On Jan. 30, Sanders will join his friends for a "Legends of the Good Life" party with a Hall of Fame theme. And on Jan. 31, the trio host the  "Icons of the Good Life Diamonds and Pearls Gala." General admission and VIP ticket prices are not yet available.

Wright will also host a celebrity golf tournament with Bucs player Michael Clayton on Jan. 29 at the Feather Sound Golf and Country Club. 

It's not just a game, it's an education

Super Bowl organizers believe there's a lesson to be learned in the midst of all that running, sweating, throwing and grunting. The Tampa Bay Super Bowl host committee website is offering teachers lesson plans that incorporate the Super Bowl into subjects like history, geography and science. How so? Well, for example, "Super Learning in a Super City" materials teach kids about Roman numerals, how to create a bar graph comparing rushing statistics of players, and how to find their target heart rate so they can be healthy like football players.

Mounted officers prepare for Super Bowl

Mounted police and sheriff's deputies from Tampa, Pinellas Park and Polk, Hillsborough and Manatee counties are practicing crowd control and riot situations today at the Florida State Fairgrounds in preparation for the upcoming Super Bowl, which Tampa hosts.

Law enforcement officers ran their horses through smoke while loud speakers blared crowd noise all the while trying to clear out areas where mobs of other training officers had formed to simulate riotous situations that could flare up during the Super Bowl weekend.

Trainers also tried to grab and tackle officers off their horses while the riders took evasive maneuvers to prepare for especially violent offenders.

Thursday was the second of a two-day training session for the mounted units of various law enforcement agencies. Trainers said horses are especially adept at crowd control because they give officers a tall vantage point to spot problems and they can do the work of about four officers on the ground, using their wide bodies to block or clear crowds. People are also intimidated by horses' size, officers said, while they also are more likely to respect the horses more than officers in riot gear.

"I can go down the street in Ybor with four horses and clear the street," said Polk County Mounted Enforcement Unit Coordinator Jay Scarborough.

Justin George, Times staff writer