A streaker delayed the start of the second half of the Super Bowl, with New England Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham giving police an assist in apprehending the naked male interloper.

Security police carry a streaker off the field during halftime of Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2004. [AP]

With the smoke from an elaborate musical half-time show still hanging in the air at Reliant Stadium, the streaker displayed his cheekiness by stripping off a referee's uniform and running along the middle of the field.

Players from the Patriots and Carolina Panthers were preparing for the second-half kickoff to the American football championship game when the incident began.

Startled police reacted a few moments later, their elaborate security precautions humbled as more than a dozen policemen raced onto the field to try and apprehend him.

But the nude showoff strayed too near Chatham, a member of the Patriots' kickoff team, and the burly padded player slammed into the streaker, sending him to the turf, where he was quickly buried beneath a host of police.

Fifteen policemen took the streaker off the field and the second half began moments later.

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