Expect the worst off the field at Super Bowl 51

WE HAVE every reason to be afraid of what we’re about to witness on our TVs before, during and after the Super Bowl.

IT HAS almost become tradition to expect the worst when it comes to the Super Bowl halftime show.

It is what many have been conditioned to anticipate from the Super Bowl. Someone will make sure they go too far to exploit their biggest audience to make news and noise. It almost has become an obligation.

At halftime of the 1993 game, Michael Jackson repeatedly grabbed his crotch while dancing and singing, though he did cut it out when singing We Are the World with a children’s choir.

Last year’s halftime starred Beyoncé and her troupe, where she included a salute to the Black Panthers.

The 2004 Super Bowl was scandalised by Justin Timberlake’s exposing Janet Jackson’s right breast.

Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction is a lasting memory of the last Super Bowl in Houston, overshadowing a thrilling win by the New England Patriots in 2004 and forever changing how the NFL handles halftime performances.

Jackson baring one of her breasts to a live US TV audience of about 143 million left viewers to sit through several years of halftime shows headlined by mostly ageing rockers before the NFL returned to more contemporary acts in 2011.

Janet Jackson had an infamous wardrobe malfunction in 2004.

Lady Gaga will headline this year’s show, giving fans a current superstar expected to wow in a family friendly performance far removed from international scandal the 2004 show in Houston created.

“After the last Super Bowl in Houston was pretty much when we brought the show back in house, to make sure we have a voice in how the show is produced and what it is all about,” said Mark Quenzel, NFL Media’s senior vice president of production and programming.

“Everyone has been focused on what specifically happened, but there’s more to it than that.” That performance was the last produced by MTV before the NFL began producing the show on its own.

Justin Timberlake and Jackson performed their hit Rock Your Body as the finale. They wrapped up the provocative performance with Timberlake ripping her costume to reveal her right breast, bare except for a nipple shield.

The incident drew CBS a $550,000 fine from the Federal Communications Commission (which was later overturned), sparked an international debate about decency, and landed Jackson in the Guinness Book of World Records as “Most Searched in Internet History.”

Thirteen years later the incident has become ubiquitous in popular culture, being mentioned or parodied on various television shows and in at least a dozen rock and rap songs.

Timberlake’s apology was the genesis of the term “wardrobe malfunction,” which was eventually added to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

That performance and its fallout are far from what the NFL aims for, and Quenzel shared the league’s vision for the show.

“Our belief is it is the day family and friends get together to watch the game and that is the environment we want to set for the halftime show and the game,” he said.

And what about today’s Super Bowl entertainment headlined by Lady Gaga. What we do know is Lady Gaga isn’t shy. And her outrageous side, as much as her considerable talent as a singer, is why she is famous and why she was engaged.

What will Lady Gaga bring to the show?

Originally published as Expect the worst off the field at Super Bowl 51