Super Bowl half-time show change forces top bosses | NFL News

The Super Bowl half-time show has been a fixture since the very first Big Game, though it bears little resemblance to the period when local faculty marching bands carried out on the sphere.

Tonight at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Bad Bunny will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show, changing into the first solo Latin artist to do so. Last 12 months at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Kendrick Lamar delivered a widely acclaimed efficiency alongside particular visitor SZA.

The transition from efficiency teams to solo artists has also resulted in longer halftime intervals. A regular NFL half-time lasts 12 to quarter-hour, roughly the same period as the headliners’ Super Bowl performances.

Yet in contrast to the drill squads of earlier a long time, trendy performers utilise elaborate staging – ceaselessly a number of platforms – somewhat than performing straight on the enjoying floor. Assembling and dismantling these constructions can take as long as the performances themselves.

Consequently, gamers now spend between 20 to half-hour in the dressing room during half-time, successfully doubling the usual break. Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who appeared in more Super Bowls than most with 12 in complete – 9 as head coach – even created a specialist training regime to put together his squad for the extended interval.

And this 12 months’s coaches could also be pressured into a rethink of how they deal with the interval.

Ahead of Super Bowl XLVI, the Patriots devoted half-hour of their Wednesday observe during Super Bowl week to replicate the prolonged half-time state of affairs.

Though they in the end fell 21-17 to the New York Giants, Belichick’s method was well-founded.

“It really gets into a whole restarting mentality,” he explained at a pre-match press convention. Belichick in contrast the half-time expertise to hitting the reset button.

“It’s not like taking a break and coming out in the second half. It’s like starting the game all over again,” he continued.

“It’s like playing a game, stopping, and then playing a second game. It’s like a double-header in baseball.”

That same 12 months, Delanie Walker – a three-time Pro Bowl tight end who performed for the San Francisco 49ers at Super Bowl XLVII – provided an insider’s perspective on the expertise.

“When you’re playing, you don’t really care who is performing the halftime show because they’re taking a longer time,” he disclosed on Quora. “And we tend to get cold sitting in the locker room for thirty minutes even though you’re trying to stay hungry. So we don’t focus on who’s singing, because we’re trying to stay warm, people are eating, etc.”

However, not all gamers share Walker’s viewpoint.

In February 2022, Cincinnati Bengals kicker Evan McPherson notably exited the sphere early during Super Bowl LVI to watch performances by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent.

Reflecting on his actions, McPherson told The Athletic: “Looking back on it, if there was a camera in my face, I wouldn’t stay out there.

“I get how it appeared. It most likely appeared fairly unhealthy. I most likely would not do it again, but no regrets.”