The Super Bowl has seen some controversial moments in the past. Janet Jackson’s boob. Bruce Springstreen’s groin.

Paula Abdul. That sort of thing. But this Sunday, all of that looks set to be blown out of the water when Pete Townshend from The Who will – get ready for this – play some of his most famous songs in front of several thousand adoring fans. The bastard. Let’s burn him!

Alternatively it’ll be when Pete Townshend plays some of his songs and members of Florida child advocacy group Protect Our Children stand outside with some placards moaning about that time that Pete Townsend was arrested and cleared in a child pornography sting. Still, it’s still better than Jackson’s tit again, we suppose.

The Super Bowl doesn’t thrive on controversy, but it should. Without any fuddy-duddies getting their knickers in a twist over things that aren’t really that important, the Super Bowl is just a slightly tedious display of a sport that nobody fully understands interspersed with wildly expensive adverts for beer and a four-song set by Tom Petty. It’s so controversy-averse that it once even censored the Rolling Stones, even though the scariest thing about them is they way that they now resemble a collection of haunted ballsacks.

But that’s all going to change this year. This year’s Super Bowl is going to be the most controversial ever! It’s already controversial because a gay dating website wasn’t allowed to buy advertising space for it, even though an anti-abortion group was. But that’s nothing because, during the Super Bowl half time show on Sunday, a man who was cleared by police of downloading illegal images of child pornography will play some of his songs. Pete Townshend, you’re a monster.

Don’t these Super Bowl people know what they’re dealing with here? Pete Townshend is a man who once had his computer seized by police officers so they could spend four months forensically determining that he’d never downloaded a single picture of child pornography! Behind Blue Eyes? Behind Boys’ Pants, more like! Pete Townshend must be stopped!

At least that’s what a number of a Florida-based family groups are saying. Not having grasped the ‘cleared’ part of the Pete Townshend child pornography story, they’re planning to protest his appearance outside the Miami Sun Life stadium on Sunday. After all, nobody takes flimsy accusations of paedophilia more seriously than tubby, slightly drunk sports fans. NBC Miami reports:

Come Sunday, Townshend and groups like Protect Our Children will be on opposing sides. Townshend will be on stage inside Sun Life Stadium at the halftime show of Super Bowl XLIV and protesters will be outside denouncing The Who’s performance. A group has already started passing out fliers calling Townshend a threat to Miami’s children.

We’re expecting all of this to culminate in a bloody clash between Pete Townshend and the protesters on Sunday. Or, failing that, a bloodless clash. Or, failing that, we’re expecting the protesters to sort of wave their placards around for a bit, get ignored and then go home before Pete Townshend gets to play that song from the TV show about the ginger policeman in a workmanlike fashion for the billionth time. Watch this space.

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Tagged as: Pete Townshend, Super Bowl, The Who