Am I the only one who thought his pants were too short?

One coworker affronted me on Post-Super Bowl Monday: “E. Locke! Did you watch the game?” “I watched the last second of it. Which lasted for about twelve minutes. So, Go Giants?” Then another coworker asked who had watched The Puppy Bowl. “On Animal Planet? Anybody? Em?” YES. Now we’re talking. About puppies.

Though I am impressed by The Giants, no Super Bowl will ever compare to XXVII, when Michael Jackson performed at halftime. I was a third grader with no interest in sporting events or beer commercials, but I remember when my mom called me into the family room at halftime to watch the King of Pop in his breezy white shirt and black pants that looked too short. He sang a medley of Billy Jean and Black or White (my favorite, favorite song at the time, second only maybe to Say You’ll Be There from the Free Willy movie) and then Heal the World.

These were the days before I’d ever seen a music video. I experienced all of my MJ through the headphones of my Walkman, in which I played and rewound and played and rewound the Dangerous cassette tape at every opportunity: at the bus stop, on the way home from dance class, while I waited for my family after Sunday School.

I didn’t know all the words; I couldn’t make a lot of them out and I didn’t have many reference points to help me put them into context. What I couldn’t decipher, I made up, and then I listened to the tape and “heard” those lyrics so many times that I won’t ever be able to learn the songs another way (“I ain’t scared of your body”—I’m just never going to let that one go because it makes sense.)

Then in January 1993, he appeared on TV, amidst a cast of choreographed dancers and thousands of children—it was the pyrotechnic pop remix of It’s A Small World. With strobe lights.

I still remember getting chills over one of the first “live” performances I’d ever seen, and the realization that I wasn’t the only person who liked Michael Jackson or Dangerous or Black or White. When all those kids held up their cards to show that giant mosaic picture in the stands, it seemed like that was the whole point of the game.  I remember thinking that the Super Bowl might be an event worth watching after all, because those twenty minutes were pretty exhilarating.

And then the second half of the game started and, oh, wait! Nope, it’s boring again.

And has been, ever since.

Eventually, I retired my Dangerous tape. Next went the Walkman.

But puppies have never let me down.