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Super Bowl streaker fined $1,000

Roberts avoids jail time for delaying 2nd-half kickoff

updated 9:12 p.m. ET June 23, 2004

HOUSTON - A streaker who delayed the second-half kickoff at the Super Bowl was fined $1,000 Tuesday but avoided any jail time.

Mark Roberts, 39, of Liverpool, England, was fined by the same six-woman jury that found him guilty Monday of misdemeanor trespassing. That carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and up to a $2,000 fine.

Jurors deliberated for about an hour before deciding on the sentence, courts coordinator Rachel Ferrel said.

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“The whole reason I did it was to entertain people, America,” Roberts said Monday. “If making people laugh is a criminal offense, I should be sentenced to prison for life.”

Roberts jumped a knee-high barrier and paraded on the Reliant Stadium field after halftime of the New England Patriots’ win over the Carolina Panthers.

Roberts ran on dressed as a referee, stripped down to a football-shaped G-string and shoes, then started dancing a jig at the 30-yard line for about a minute.

New England linebacker Matt Chatham leveled Roberts as he ran from security personnel. Roberts, who had the name of a gambling Web site scribbled across his chest, was hogtied and carried off the field by police.

Roberts’ Web site claims he has pulled 380 similar streaking stunts but has never before been found guilty on criminal charges.

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