FanHouse Bruce Springsteen

Sunday's Super Bowl had it all. Incredible performances by both the Cardinals and Steelers, two late-game drives that made you realize why football is so great and even a little crotch bump by Bruce Springsteen.

How much did NBC and the NFL pay The Boss for his singing and camera tap? The exact same amount as you and I made for our vocals. Zilch.

Bruce Springsteen's Super Bowl halftime performance, as I noted last night, was fairly uninspiring. But at least, since the rest of the country couldn't see any crotch shots in the middle of the game, Bruce obliged on that count, doing his classic slide across stage. As you'll see in the video below, it resulted in a much-talked-about close-up.



Video via the Piler, and don't click that pop-up ad at the end for whatever reason.

TAMPA, Fla. -- We don't watch Super Bowls for the chip dip, as Bruce Springsteen wisecracked during his 12-minute party. We crave the emotional bull rush, a crescendo finish, the natural high that Michael Phelps finds in a marijuana pipe. The big game used to bore like a 4 a.m. infomercial, but Sunday, it delivered again, like last year, hijacking our senses with head-banging, back-and-forth drama that even might have thrilled The Boss, the rocker who hates football.

There was plenty of hype coming into Bruce Springsteen's Super Bowl XLIII halftime show performance, as he said he wanted to have the "greatest Super Bowl halftime show ever." That's a little bit tough to achieve considering that both Prince and Tom Petty killed in recent years -- not to mention that we all saw one of Janet Jackson's unmentionables a few years back. (Not that that was "great", but it was still something.)

But all told, The Boss was still, well, The Boss.

There's more advance hype about this year's halftime show, featuring Bruce Springsteen, than I can remember in recent Super Bowls, even as the spectacle around the game/event itself has taken a hit. Part of this is due to the Springsteen marketing machine going all-out in an effort to promote his new album, but as a Jersey boy I can attest from great experience that The Boss just inspires passion in people.

People are talking about the show so much, in fact, that early word on Springsteen's setlist has been a hot commodity. And now it has apparently leaked.

Bruce Springsteen is America. Right? I mean, the guy wrote "Born in the USA" and he's probably from a small town. Grew up there. Gonna die there. Oh ... right. Sorry. Anyway, Bruce is all about these here United States.

So it would make sense, theoretically, that he's a football junkie (I'd have him pegged for the very obvious "Giants fandom" selection, personally.) Turns out, though, that he knows nothing about football. Nothing!

Super Bowl Prop Bets are as American as your mother and as addicting as, um, stuff. Will Brinson's got a program for your all-American fix.

I know what you're thinking -- there aren't any prop bets hanging out there right now, are there? You're right. It's annoying, especially when you're trying to build a 13 step recovery dereliction program for gambler. In order to find out why the hell this was happening (WHERE. ARE. MY. PROP. BETS???) I emailed the incredibly astute R.J. Bell of Pregame.com to find out what the deal-io was. His answer?

But, like every good addict gambler, I know how to handle things when there's not betting readily available.

I've never been that big a fan of Bruce Springsteen. I don't hate him or anything, but I never go out of my way to listen to him. Sure, there are a few tunes of his I can get down to, but for each one of those there are four that I have absolutely no interest in.

Though it appears I'm somewhat alone in this stance. There are a lot of people out there who do enjoy The Boss, as he's still playing sold out shows across the country every year and will even be performing at halftime of next year's Super Bowl. Still, as powerful as Springsteen is, there are still others out there with more pull. Like in St. Louis, where Springsteen delays his concerts so that Tony LaRussa can get there on time.

The start of Bruce Springstreen's performance at Scotttrade Center was delayed until near 9 p.m. Saturday. The word on the street was that it was because Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, a friend of Springsteen's, was late in arriving after the Cardinals' rain-delayed loss, but La Russa said Sunday, "It wasn't me."

Springsteen started playing just after La Russa arrived, although La Russa said he and his group had been waiting for some 20 minutes.

If the New York Post can be believed, we should get to hear "Born To Run" during the Super Bowl halftime show.

The Post is reporting that the NFL has landed Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band for next January's Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa. He's yet another big get for the NFL, which has come a long way from the Up With People shows of the 1970s. Since 2000, U2, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Prince and Aerosmith have all headlined the halftime show. Ever since Janet Jackson showed boob in 2004, the league has ensured that all acts are "safe" enough to ensure that we won't have a repeat. Springsteen should fit that bill. He might get a little political during his intersong commentary, but I think we can trust that he and Clarence Clemons will keep their shirts on.

It was Thomas Tusser, of course, who once said, "A fool and his money are soon parted." Perhaps never has this been more true the case of Nebraska fans and the upcoming spring game. The glorified practice recently sold out, which has produced an outrageous market for the now hard-come-by tickets. An AP wire story opens with the following anecdote:

The week of the sold-out Bruce Springsteen concert in Omaha last month, you could call a local ticket broker and pay $39 for a seat.

For Saturday's sold-out Nebraska spring football game, that broker is getting $95 a ticket.

"I'm not going to be one to judge the craziness of Nebraska football fans," Ticket Express owner Chad Carr said. "The weird thing about this game, I can't keep tickets in stock."

When I last checked on the national ticket site StubHub, prices for Nebraska's spring game were ranging from $44-$148. Face value for the tickets was $10 for reserved seating and $8 for general admission. That's quite the markup. And let's keep in mind this is for a practice game, and one that won't even feature a match-up between the top offensive and defensive units.

It was under Bill Callahan's regime that spring game attendance at Nebraska first took off. The previous attendance record occurred in 2005 when 63,416 fans showed up. Given the disastrous season a year ago, fans are apparently anxious to see what the Bo Pelini era will bring.

We didn't have to do a whole lot of marketing or advertising. It pretty much sold itself," said Nebraska athletic marketing director Corrie Sears. "It's our fans being excited about the new era with Tom Osborne back (as athletic director) and Bo Pelini."

"What we have here is very special," Sears said, "and what we have are very passionate fans. The spring game is becoming more of an event, and we're treating it more like a real game for our fans."

Well, given that it's already surpassed a concert by "The Boss," the spring game has definitely become an event in Nebraska.