Revealing the Super Bowl Halftime Curse

Ever year millions of people anticipate one of the biggest sporting events of the year. The Super Bowl has turned out to be the social event of the year. Part of what makes the game great is that it is held on a grand stage in front of millions of people. The fireworks are bigger, the hype is much larger, commercials promise to be funny, and the Halftime show usually is an entertaining production. However, some of the performances are clearly overblown, bloated, and loaded with too much talent and it ends up being more of a circus act than a concert. One thing that's not often talked about in the mainstream media is that history has proved there is an eerie correlation between Super Bowl Halftime performers and a downfall with their public image shortly after. Here are a few examples at just how the curse of the Super Bowl Halftime performance is alive and well:

Britney Spears

Who can forget the Super Bowl XXXII performance with Britney Spears, Nsync, and Aerosmith? I certainly can't. I often refer to this performance as the "Worst Super Bowl Halftime performance ever." It was one of the most insane ten minutes in the history of the Super Bowl. It was the first time that MTV directed the halftime show, and thank God it was one of the last. There were pyrotechnics, Steven Tyler looked older than ever, and Justin Timberlake shot fire from a device on his hands. Justin and Britney murdered the song "Walk This Way" and I'm surprised that Steven Tyler didn't slap them after the performance. Even though that was just a few years ago, Britney Spear's career has spiraled downward dramatically after that performance. Since the performance, her and Justin Timberlake broke up, she married a high school friend and divorced within the same day, she married the world's whitest trash, had two children, dropped the children on their heads and let them ride in a car without a carseat, managed to get her freshly healed birth scars upskirt pictures posted all over the Internet, and she's hanging out with Paris Hilton. Whew. Let me get my breath.

Janet Jackson and Kid Rock

How could I possibly go through this list without mentioning the infamous "NippleGate" scandal in Super Bowl XXXVIII? If you're memory is as dusty as Janet Jackson's career, then let me refresh it for you. At the end of the performance, Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson were finishing the song with the lyric "Gonna have you naked by the end of this song," and indeed Justin kept that promise. What followed was a new meaning to the term "Wardrobe Malfunction" as Timberlake ripped off a section of Janet Jackson's bra, exposing her nipple and some metallic device that could be used as a ninja Chinese star. Naturally, the curse reared its ugly head and declared that performance as the day that Janet Jackson's career ended. Criticism fell hard on Jackson, she scored the FCC loads of fines, and people immediately classified her as just another one of the "Jackson crazies." However, the curse didn't stop there. Kid Rock didn't get off this thing without a few scars. Kid Rock married Pamela Anderson, only to divorce a few weeks later, and his career became invisible just like Jacksons.

Diana Ross

This is perhaps the most obvious evidence that the curse lives. Diana Ross, the former Supremes superstar, was set to perform at Super Bowl XXX. Her performance was indeed memorable, but the events to follow were what people would remember about Ross. The former Supreme's image came under fire when she made a few bad public decisions, including an arrest for fondling a security guard at the airport and she went to jail for getting a DUI in 2002. As if that wasn't enough, people really questioned her mental state at the MTV Music Video Awards when she couldn't help herself when presenting an award with Lil' Kim. Lil Kim was wearing a lavender colored dress with pasties over her bare breasts. Diana Ross, in front of millions of people, felt Lil' Kim up and groped her bare breast. I wasn't complaining, just simply noting it happened.

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney is one of the people that you always find yourself rooting for. The Beatles were a legendary band that changed the face of music and I find myself having a reserved amount of respect for the musician and humanitarian. His Super Bowl XXXIX Halftime performance was one of the best I've ever seen, changing the face of the recent trend in halftime performances to bubble gum pop music to classic rock. However, the curse was about to strike again. It seemed as if he was happily married to Heather Mills, a beautiful blonde that had a difficult past. Shortly after the performance they were in the midst of a divorce that had seen as much public attention as Britney Spears upskirt pictures. McCartney's wealth is at stake, and it's been a bitter war of words between the two for months now.

I thought Prince had one of the best Halftime performances I've ever seen. What will the curse decide as his fate this year? What about future performers? I guess we'll have to tune in and see!