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For football fans like myself, Super Bowl Sunday is one of the most anticipated days of the year.
It’s a day where the best of the best meet on the gridiron in one last shot for NFL immortality.
As always, I will be propped up by the big screen, surrounded by pizza, beer and friends to watch this spectacle. But unlike most years, the game isn’t necessarily the event I am looking forward to the most.
Legendary rock gods The Who will perform in what is arguably the largest stage for musicians – the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
You might ask, "Why is The Who performing at halftime such a big deal?" Simply put, it is a recognition nearly four decades in the making.
When one thinks of music legends, the obvious names always push their way to the top like a West Virginia University student trying to get into the Coliseum.
In my mind, there are only three groups that can even be considered the greatest band of all time: The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and The Who.
When Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon formed The Who in 1964, they not only created a band that would revolutionize rock ‘n’ roll but laid the foundation for rock music as we hear it today.
With songs like "My Generation" providing the backdrop for an age of youthful revolt that would eventually spawn punk rock legends like The Ramones, to "Won’t Get Fooled Again," inspiring the guitar heavy tracks of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, The Who has influenced some of the best bands of our age.
So is there any question that The Who deserves the recognition of the halftime show? None whatsoever.
The problem, however, may lie in one small dilemma: age.
With the group’s lone survivors, Daltrey and Townshend, well into their 60s, is it possible The Who can no longer bring down the house as it has in the past?
I can say, unequivocally, yes. The Who can still rock with the best of them.
If I were CBS, I may be more worried about what The Who does on stage rather than can it still rock.
The Who was the definition of rock ‘n’ roll excess and the originators of bad behavior.
Trashing hotel rooms left and right, destroying instruments on stage, playing with explosives, taking numerous recreational drugs, The Who did it all before almost anyone else.
Even as late as last year, a video surfaced on YouTube of Townshend going off on a profanity tantrum on stage that would rival the WVU student section at a basketball game.
If CBS is still trying to tone down the questionable activity stemming from Janet Jackson’s "wardrobe malfunction," then more power to them. I would just suggest a five-second delay if possible.
For many, the halftime show this Sunday could be seen as a final curtain call for The Who, a token thank you for the band’s contributions.
But for the crowd tuning into the big game, don’t be surprised if Peyton Manning and Drew Brees are not the only people putting on a high-energy spectacle for the crowd.
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history of the super bowl.