DETROIT -- DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler division, bowing to critics, yesterday said it was abandoning plans to sponsor a Super Bowl Sunday televised football game featuring underwear-clad models.

The "Lingerie Bowl 2004" -- a tackle football game to be played by 14 women models wearing bras and panties -- was to have been sponsored by Chrysler's Dodge brand and broadcast on pay-per-view television at halftime during the National Football League's championship game on Feb. 1.

Dodge was to have had its ram's-head logo emblazoned on bras worn by the models. Critics dubbed the event sexist.

A source close to Chrysler said the company's e-mail system had been flooded with complaints about the upcoming spectacle. "You've got at some point just to decide 'OK, maybe we made a mistake, let's pull the plug,' " the source said.

Horizon Productions Inc., the Lingerie Bowl's producer, said it was "disappointed" that Dodge had withdrawn its sponsorship, but that the game would go on.