Super Bowl halftime shows? Prince’s set the standard

The halftime show at Super Bowl LIV has become a test. Did you get it, or did you fail to, and if you failed to, is it because of your background, your age, or the culture from which you come?

I disagree with the premise, which I’ve heard repeatedly. I just thought it was bad and boring. The theme appeared to be: A Tribute to Wardrobe Changes. I didn’t care about the pole, or the predictable, repetitive music, save for a riff appropriated from Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir.

I’ve read and heard stunning reviews. But just as I don’t care if people like my music, why would anybody care if I don’t like theirs?

Most halftime shows are quickly forgotten, although I try to forget them as they’re going on. Almost every halftime show in the history of Super Bowl halftime shows has been bad. Even U2, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Usher, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, The Who, Maroon 5 and Justin Timberlake were less than they are in real life. They weren’t close.

When you’re there, this is what you see when the first half ends: A crew of about 25,000 runs onto the field to prepare the stage. Then about 15,000 people run to and surround the stage. Fans cheer as if cheering is their job. Numerous sequins are involved.

It’s not a halftime show. It’s a halftime spectacle. The more moving parts and pieces, the people who put on the spectacle believe, the better. I can think of, maybe, four halftime spectacles that were all right, and one that was sensational.

The sensational show was in Miami Gardens, same as this year’s show, at halftime of the Indianapolis Colts-Chicago Bears game. That the Colts and Bears played indicates that the game isn’t recent. It was 2007.

I was in the press box, and had a great seat. Man. Prince played his stuff and he played Proud Mary by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Prince played “All Along the Watchtower,” which Bob Dylan wrote and Jimi Hendrix made famous. the song was the first and only No. 1 hit of Hendrix’s short but brilliant career. Prince played Best of You, an excellent but not terribly popular song by the Foo Fighters. Prince opened with his stuff and closed, in the rain, with Purple Rain.

Prince was so good that night that, rather than the Super Bowl, which the Colts were obviously going to win (29-17) you wished you were in a small club, with a good seat, and Prince on stage.

Prince never changed his wardrobe. But he did change his guitar.

Greg Olsen’s Charlotte legacy

I understand the reason the Carolina Panthers cut Greg Olsen. He’s old (34), makes a lot of money ($11.8 this season) and, as veteran players often do, has become susceptible to injury.

But don’t you get enjoy watching certain players? If you bring binoculars to Bank of America Stadium, didn’t you train them on linebackers Thomas Davis and Luke Kuechly, and quarterback Cam Newton? Even when the Panthers were struggling, didn’t you watch certain guys and think, “This could be all right.”

I’m an Olsen fan. We were walking off the field in Spartanburg at training camp last summer, and I was taping him and watching him. I hadn’t realized his children were underfoot until I stepped on one.

I told the kid, and the dad, I was sorry.

“He’s fine,” Olsen said, never breaking stride.

The Chicago Bears traded Olsen to the Panthers in 2011 for a third-round draft choice. So, Olsen has been unwanted before. From Carolina’s perspective, the trade was brilliant.

After a practice not long after the trade to the Panthers, I watched Olson face off with a JUGS machine. Olsen won. He was like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix. He caught everything. He caught footballs that came at him, came high, came low, came left, and came right. If the machine had flung a ball over a fence, I have no doubt that Olsen would have run it down, too.

I liked watching Olsen on the field because I was a fan of his precise patterns and the great hands. I like him personally. I went to his locker after a practice and he asked if we could do the interview at a later date. I said sure; I sense that players don’t always say, “Hooray, Tom is here!” when I approach.

The next time I saw him, he thanked me for understanding.

Olsen made Carolina better and Charlotte better. His HEARTest Yard Foundation, formed after his son T.J. was born with a heart defect, is like the foundation Thomas and Kelly Davis run, like the foundation Steve Smith Sr. and his wife Angie run, like Cam Newton’s foundation.

They give back, and not merely with money, but with sweat and passion.

They receive, too. Former Panthers owner Jerry Richardson offered his plane to the Olsens when he learned that they were flying to Boston to see a specialist for their son’s heart.

I understand why the Panthers released Olsen. If you rebuild, you have to commit. For years, the Charlotte Hornets failed to. They were never good enough to win a playoff series and rarely bad enough to get a high pick. They operated, until this season, without a plan. The Panthers have a plan.

Olsen can still run routes, catch footballs and block. But after playing 16 games from 2008 through 2016, he’s played seven, nine and 14 the last three seasons.

When he decides to become an NFL TV commentator, a lucrative job awaits. He’ll be good at it. This is a lot to ask for, but maybe he’ll be a bigger Tony Romo.

But maybe he wants a ring. And maybe he wants to play another season, and run tight routes, catch tough passes and sustain his health. If he does, and I don’t care who he plays for, I hope he has one more great season in him.

Sam Mills’ time will come

Had hoped that Sam Mills would finally be chosen for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We always cheer for the players we watched, and perhaps knew. Mills doesn’t deserve a bonus for being a 5-9 middle linebacker. He doesn’t need a bonus.

Mills played for the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars of the U.S. Football League, the New Orleans Saints and finally the Carolina Panthers. As a player, and then a coach, he offered the Panthers an identity. He was a special guy and a special player, as natural a leader as Carolina has ever had. He worked so hard that his expansion team teammates had no choice but to keep up.

The Panthers won their first game on Oct. 15, 1995, at home, home for a season being Clemson’s Memorial Stadium. The Panthers had lost their first five games as a franchise. They played the New York Jets in game six.

With 22 seconds remaining in the first half, New York quarterback Bubby Brister threw a shovel pass – to Mills. Mills grabbed the ball and ran right, cut left, cut back right, and scored. The most elusive 36-year-old linebacker in the history of the world ran 36 yards to the end zone.

The play gave the Panthers a 13-12 halftime lead and, later, their first victory. Carolina won 26-15.

Mills made the Hall of Fame finals this year for the first time. Look at his work, voters, his work in the USFL, in New Orleans and Carolina. He’s worthy.

This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 2:04 PM.