They had a Super Bowl yesterday, some watched the game, everyone watches the commercials and halftime shows. (btw I echo the sentiment that the SB should be coordinated so that it’s on President’s Day weekend.) During the halftime show with some people called Coldplay, Bruno Mars and Beyonce, that I think I’ve heard of, they showed clips of other halftime shows with Springsteen, the Who, Rolling Stones, etc.

They DID NOT wax nostaligic for this 1980 fiasco with Up With People.  Yes, in 1980 the NFL ran out Up With People, a group of clean cut white kids created in response to hippie subculture (even its creation was a decade behind reality!) with funding from companies like Halliburton (not even a joke, really!). They played at 4 Super Bowl half time shows between 1976 and 1986.

This was the NFL not wanting to reflect the actual culture, but trying to be as white bread and inoffensive as they could to the older, whiter culture that was going to elect Ronald Reagan later than year. Nobody under 65 sat through this kind of zombie WASP nonsense in 1980. They, like other institutions were in complete denial over what had happened in the country over the last 20 years. It was like the NFL thought “Happy Days” was a documentary about youth culture. You turned off the sound, went to the bathroom and didn’t come back to the couch until you saw the teams come back out on the field.

You may not like Coldplay, Bruno Mars and Beyonce, but they reflect the actual culture outside the stadium NOW!

Of course there are still people who would prefer pablum. Giuliani rips Beyonce’s Halftime Performance.  Somehow the Black Panthers were in the show. I missed it.  That was Cam Newton blowing the game, not Huey, right?

Rudolf Giuliani – “You’re talking about the Super Bowl, you’re gonna have entertainment, let’s have decent, wholesome entertainment.”  February 8, 1965

Oh, he said that in 2016?  Nooooo!  What a dick!