The Who Sell Out

There was a time when putting The Who on at halftime of the Super Bowl -- or live on any television show -- was risky business.

That time was 40 years ago.

Drummer Keith Moon, one of two original Who members who now is dead, detonated his drum kit on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. That was interesting.

The drum kit had been loaded with an excessive amount of explosives due to Keith Moon bribing a stage hand, as legend goes. The explosion was awesome. VH1 called it the 10th-greatest rock 'n roll moment on television.

The explosion messed up guitarist Pete Townshend's hearing for the rest of his life. The price people pay for art.

I'll tell you what, you don't get moments like these on Sunday night network televison anymore.

Here we are in 2010, and The Who is the halftime act of the Super Bowl. The band that once released an album called "The Who Sell Out" is selling out. Understandably, given the enormous boost a Super Bowl halftime appearance gives an artist.

So, the band who sang "Hope I die 'fore I get old" is alive. Well, somewhat.

As with everyone else who performs at the Super Bowl these days, the Who will cram four or five of their classics in 12 minutes. Pete Townshend gave the predictable set list to Billboard magazine in this story. An excerpt:

"We're kinda doing a mashup of stuff," the guitarist tells Billboard. "A bit of 'Baba O'Riley,' a bit of 'Pinball Wizard,' a bit of the close of 'Tommy,' a bit of 'Who Are You,' and a bit of 'Won't Get Fooled Again.' It works -- it's quite a saga. A lot of the stuff that we do has that kind of celebratory vibe about it -- we've always tried to make music that allows the audience to go a bit wild if they want to. Hopefully it will hit the spot."

Me, I'd rather see an artist or band come out and do one long riff one of these years. You know, like Will Ferrell did with "Free Bird" last Friday night on Conan O'Brien's last night as The Tonight Show's host.

I'm prepared to be disappointed. Unless the Who's current drummer, whoever it is, rigs a Super Bowl-worthy explosion in his drum kit. If so, someone please tell Townshend ahead of time.

Pro football on TV is a big deal, by the way. Anyone who would tell you baseball is America's pastime has ignored, oh, the last 30 years.

Sunday night's Minnesota-New Orleans NFC title game had ratings that went through the Superdome roof, as this Baltimore Sun blog item explains.

Outside of Super Bowls, Sunday's game was TV's most-watched program since the finale of "Seinfeld" in 1998.

That, folks, is quite a statement. I think it speaks largely to the drawing power of a man named Favre. Oh, it was a compelling game, too. Favre is the only NFL player with such a command over the American attention span.

Will he retire now, finally? Ask yourself this, instead: Will the NFL let him retire?