There are four Super Bowl games that I care about more than any others:

• In January 1970, the Minnesota Vikings played the Chiefs in Super Bowl IV (1970) and lost 23-7.

• In January 1974 the Vikings lost 24-7 in Super Bowl VIII to the Dolphins.

• The Vikings made it to Super Bowl IX in 1975 and lost 16-6 to the Steelers.

• The Vikings earned a spot in Super Bowl XI in 1977 and lost 32-14 to the Raiders.

I had to Google the above information; I enjoy sports but I’m not one of those people who can absorb sports trivia like a sponge.

For example, I didn’t know that Carol Channing was the halftime entertainment during the 1970 Super Bowl, or that in 1974, Super Bowl viewers were treated to “A Musical America” during halftime with the University of Texas band.

I have no memory of the “Tribute to Duke Ellington” with Mercer Ellington and the Grambling State Band that was presented during halftime of the 1975 Super Bowl.

I have no recall of the halftime show for Super Bowl XI on Jan. 9, 1977, which featured the Los Angeles Unified All-City Band alongside the New Mouseketeers. The performance, themed “It’s a Small World,” was produced by Walt Disney Productions and took place at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. It included crowd participation for the first time with spectators waving colored placards on cue.

I also had completely forgotten that Up With People performed at the Super Bowl halftime show five times between 1976 and 1986, which is more than any other act in history. (They headlined four of these performances in Super Bowls X, XIV, XVI, and XX).

Don’t feel bad if Up With People is a mystery to you. Wikipedia describes them as an American 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization that staged song and dance performances promoting themes such as multiculturalism, racial equality and positive thinking.

They were much like Vermillion High School’s Rhythm in Red, except the Rhythm in Red puts on a better show, in my opinion.

I searched Up With People Super Bowl halftime performances on YouTube, and a sure sign that these wholesome performers weren’t well known was the television announcer who kept calling them “Up With The People.”

This all shows that, for at least 20 years, no one really cared much about the halftime of the Super Bowl. The entertainment seemed to be offered as something unique, something you wouldn’t see during a normal NFL halftime, but not THAT unique. I mean, you could crack open a beer, chow down on specially prepared Super Bowl snacks during halftime and not regret that you missed the show.

At some time, that all changed and the halftime entertainment of the Super Bowl has become almost as important as the game itself. (Also, more entertaining. You have to admit that the Seahawks and Patriots hardly looked like two NFL teams that were on the top of the heap this football season).

Elizabeth Merrill, writing for ESPN, notes the stark difference of today compared to those old Up With People days.

“Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — known professionally as Bad Bunny — has been critical of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Spotify’s top artist for the fourth time in 2025, Bad Bunny told i-D Magazine in an interview published in September that he was fearful ICE would target his shows if he performed in the United States. Green Day, which will perform prior to kickoff, and its front man, Billie Joe Armstrong, also have openly criticized Trump. The president hasn’t hidden his distaste for the acts, recently telling the New York Post, “I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”

Turning Point USA, a conservative group founded by the late Charlie Kirk, promises a counterprogramming option called “The All-American Halftime Show.”

All of this comes on the heels of a federal immigration crackdown and the Department of Homeland Security’s Jan. 24 deadly shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.”

How did we get to this point, where controversy seems to be welcomed when it comes to halftime Super Bowl entertainment?

According to Merrill, everything changed in 1992.

She writes: Fox aired counterprogramming during the CBS broadcast of Super Bowl XXVI in Minneapolis with a mostly live episode of the popular comedy “In Living Color.” While Jim Carrey exploded in his “Fire Marshal Bill” skit, back in Minneapolis, Olympians skated on plastic ice and Gloria Estefan and the University of Minnesota’s marching band performed in a show called “Winter Magic.”

Fox took away a chunk of the NFL’s viewership, prompting seismic changes the following year. The NFL responded with a halftime dubbed “An Unprecedented Super Bowl Spectacular Starring Michael Jackson.”

The halftime ratings wound up being higher than the actual game’s and it changed the magnitude of the show and its participants.

In other words, no more Up With People. No more marching bands.

It’s been replaced by our nation’s new obsession with the halftime performance. During my television viewing early this week, I’ve seen several news reports about Bad Bunny, about how some people loved his act and others, including Trump, hated it.

There’s been no further talk about the football game itself. Granted, there’s not much to talk about.

Sunday’s Super Bowl — the football game part of all of the pageantry — wasn’t really super at all.