05/19 — One of the nice little off-the-radar NFL stories took place recently when Jets owner Woody Johnson accepted a delivery from an Indianapolis middle school student.

The student's name is Alaina Finkelmeier, and she is one of 32 eighth-graders who have been a pretty big deal that city. They were the students selected to hand-deliver the city of Indianapolis' Super Bowl 2012 bid package to each NFL team in advance of Tuesday's secret ballot at the owners' meeting in Atlanta.

Few of the students got to meet NFL owners, but Alaina was the exception. Accompanied by Carmel Clay Schools superintendent Barbara Underwood, she arrived at LaGuardia Airport the morning of May 9.

The day trip included a visit to Central Park and lunch at Tavern on the Green. Then the Indy contingent ventured to Johnson's Rockefeller Plaza office for the scheduled 2:30 p.m. dropoff.

Waiting for them was Mr. J, who accepted the package in The Johnson Company conference room, chatted and took photos with the two. Then he invited them for a breathtaking view of Fifth Avenue and St. Patrick's Cathedral, which rises majestically outside the window of Johnson's office.

"It was a pleasure meeting Alaina and accepting Indianapolis' Super Bowl 2012 bid package from her," Johnson said. "She represented her city well and with great pride."

That was one of the reasons for this unique dropoff, explained Cindy Duran of Borshoff, an Indianapolis-based communications agency that developed the idea.

"One of the things we think makes Indianapolis stand out as far as being a contender for the Super Bowl is that it would really be a community event here and the community supports it," Duran said. "We got to talking about delivering the bids and we thought, wow, what better way to show our community support than to have members of that community deliver the bids."

Why eighth-graders? Because they're members of the Class of 2012, of course.

Many NFL watchers think Indianapolis is in the "pole position" (easy reference to the upcoming Indy 500) to win this bid and host its first Super Bowl. Indy lost a narrow bid to host the 2011 game. And this fall the city and the Colts are opening the $750 million domed Lucas Oil Stadium, which is about the same size as the stadiums of the two other competing cities, Houston and Phoenix, each of which has already hosted a Super Bowl.

I don't want to preclude the Jets from making appearances in XLIII, XLIV and XLV, but should they make it to XLVI in Indianapolis, one Colts fan who will be a high school senior that year will gladly put aside her blue and white gear to welcome the Green & White.

"My friends would be like, 'Wow, the Super Bowl is here,' " Alaina told the Indianapolis Star. "I'd be like, 'Yeah, uh-huh. That was me.' I would definitely have to throw a Super Bowl party for sure that year."