Halftime Show

PHOENIX-- --Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are probably more likely to break a hip than a heart these days, but that's one of the reasons they were chosen to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show on Sunday. The NFL loves that old-time rock 'n' roll, but only because it can't trust today's pop stars to keep their clothes on for the 12 minutes they get to entertain the entire planet. OK, it's not really the entire planet, but when you've got a half-billion people tuning in to see your football game, it's normal to want to exercise a little control over your product, something the NFL officials realized right after Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" a few years ago. So, instead of signing the hottest acts on the planet, the NFL settles for the safest mega-acts available, which is great news for those of us who remember when they were still considered outlaws.

The notion of Super Bowl Sunday as a sort of national holiday has pretty much taken root. It's certainly not a novel idea, but I want to stake a claim to spreading that particular gospel for more than a decade. I used to open the college undergraduate classes I taught with the lecture on sports' important role in American culture by using the Super Bowl-as-a-holiday concept.

In 1933, Art Rooney bought the Pittsburgh Steelers for $2,500. Were the team's patriarch still alive yesterday, ESPN.com reported, he could have used that same money instead to buy a last-minute ticket to see his team play in the Super Bowl. That secondary-market price - nearly $2,000 above face value - might seem like a lot of cash, but it was even higher last week when the going rate exceeded $3,000. Why did the price fall? "Talk of really bad weather could have discouraged people who were going to make the trip," said Kenneth Dotson, chief marketing officer of TicketsNow.

If you're wondering like me why they brought the Super Bowl to Motown and then decided to book The Rolling Stones as the headline act of the glitzy Super Bowl halftime show, maybe we'll all find out today at the glitzy Super Bowl halftime show news conference. Don't blame Detroit. That was an NFL decision. It seems to me that there are a few local acts that might have been more appropriate, since this is one of the capital cities of American popular music, but I'm guessing that NFL officials went for the Stones because they were a safe choice with broad appeal that stretched across generational lines.

It seems clear now that last year's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" debacle could have been easily avoided had FCC commissioners and other moral watchdogs merely listened to the words of the song immediately preceding the shocking and unprecedented baring of Janet Jackson's breast. Justin Timberlake sang "bet I'll have you naked by the end of this song" just before he pulled on her costume and shocked the nation. Those who think that such problems will be avoided at today's Super Bowl halftime show by hiring a 62-year-old star from another century are fooling themselves.

Things you won't see during today's Super Bowl broadcast: Mickey Rooney's bare behind, the Go Daddy girl shaking her bottom and a stagehand opening a beer bottle with Janet Jackson's breastplate. Things you will see: Mike Ditka pitching designer countertops, Hammer (formerly known as a rap star) hawking insurance and Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy promoting Pizza Hut. One year after Janet Jackson's right breast saw the light of day during the Super Bowl halftime show, setting off a public furor over lewdness and vulgarity on television and earning CBS a $550,000 fine, the producers of this year's big game are taking no chances.

After 500,000 letters of complaint, eight months of threats, two Congressional hearings, two House and Senate bills and endless hours of testimony, federal regulators yesterday fined CBS a record $550,000 for showing Janet Jackson's bare breast during the Super Bowl halftime show. But for all the furious debate across the months, experts yesterday seemed split on whether television and society have been changed by Jackson's stunt and the reaction of the Federal Communications Commission to it. Yesterday's action by the FCC took the form of a unanimous vote by the five commissioners to slap each of the 20 CBS-owned stations - including Baltimore's WJZ-TV - for indecency with the maximum fine of $27,500.

Nextel Cup driver Jeff Burton was watching the Super Bowl halftime show -- as was his 8-year-old daughter -- when singer Janet Jackson's breast was exposed. It doesn't surprise him that repercussions have been piling up, that the Federal Communications Commission is cracking down and that even stock car drivers are being affected by the aftermath. "When it comes to television and radio and you know you're in the public eye, then I believe NASCAR -- and not just the FCC -- has to crack down," said Burton, who spoke by cell phone while driving to Darlington, S.C., earlier this week for today's Carolina Dodge Dealers' 400. "It has to happen just because of our image and because people shouldn't have to hear morons saying stupid, off-the-wall things.

WASHINGTON -- I was actually at the Super Bowl. Yup. And I too was upset about the halftime show -- but not just because of Janet Jackson's antics. After the show ended, I said to my wife: How can we present something to America and the world that is this frivolous and gross when we have 115,000 U.S. soldiers at war in Iraq, dying at one per day? I realize this is irrational -- there's no rule that says the Super Bowl show must honor America's soldiers at war. But that halftime show has become a kind of national moment, and the grotesque way it came out really captured what has bothered me most about how this war is being conducted: The whole burden is being borne by a small cadre of Americans -- the soldiers, their families and reservists -- and the rest of us are just sailing along as if it has nothing to do with us. And what bothers me even more is that this dichotomy is exactly what the Bush team wants.

WASHINGTON -- Last night I dreamed that I had an exclusive interview with Janet Jackson's bra: Q: Thank you for agreeing to open up to our audience. A: You're welcome. I need the exposure. Q: The world is waiting to hear the real reason why Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson's right breast in front of a worldwide television audience during the halftime show at the Super Bowl. A: Justin Timberlake? Talk about boobs ... Nevertheless, Ms. Jackson claims she and Mr. Timberlake planned what she called the "costume reveal" without telling CBS or MTV, which produced the halftime show, and that Mr. Timberlake was only to expose her bra -- not her anatomy.