Since 1990, the Super Bowl halftime show entered the All-Star era, in the past nine years, only one halftime show has been supported by a singer - Michael Jackson, all the other shows are performed by multiple singers, the main thing is to ensure that this 100 million audience stage can have enough appeal, and in addition to Michael, there are very few singers who can have such appeal.

It has been suggested that Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey should sing the halftime show, but their historical influence is still not enough to sustain the ultimate showdown of the nation's No. 1 sport. Therefore, it was never possible.

Influence does not mean sales or popularity, these are just components of influence, the real influence is the energy that permeates the entire social culture. For example, the ubiquitous penetration of American culture by the "Star Wars" series, such as Michael Jackson's penetration of all aspects of American society. The Super Bowl halftime show is all about social impact.

Now, Glory to Death has such qualifications, and it has been recognized by the Super Bowl. In fact, if it is simply glory to death, their influence is still difficult to compare with Michael at his peak, but because the lead singer of the band is Hugo, and Hugo's current influence can definitely be said to be unique in North America, even if it can be among the top in the world, so this makes the band win such glory.

Not only Alfonso, but even Fokine showed a shocked expression at this time, obviously a little indigestion for Henry's bombshell news.

Hugo was no exception, he frowned slightly in surprise, and asked curiously, "What is the NFL calculating?" ”

Henry shrugged his shoulders and had a non-commenting expression, "It's nothing more than a consideration of business interests, nothing special." Henry's words, though simple and crude, do make the most sense, "If you're really curious, Paul wants to have lunch with the band tomorrow, it's up to you." ”

Before Hugo could speak, he saw both Fagin and Alfonso staring at him, which made Hugo smile dumbly, and then nodded, "Why not?" ”

Glory to Death has experienced many grand performances, including the Maracana, which has never been seen before or since, with more than 200,000 spectators and more than 700,000 participants, which can almost be said to be a Woodstock miracle, and has become a pilgrimage target for countless rock fanatics. However, if there are more difficult challenges in this world, perhaps the Super Bowl can be counted as one.

In fact, the number of live spectators at the Super Bowl is certainly not as large as that of the Maracanã, or even smaller than the Rose Bowl; But the Super Bowl has an impact across the United States, even the Oscars and the Grammys can't match, and hundreds of millions of viewers around the world will tune in to watch the game, which is undoubtedly the most powerful and far-reaching event in the entire English-speaking world, even in the middle. The global influence of the National Spring Festival Gala is incomparable.

So, it's very difficult to get on the Super Bowl stage, and it's even more difficult to conquer the world on the Super Bowl stage.

This is another challenge for glory to death, if not the ultimate one, and Foquin and Alfonso don't want to miss it, and neither does Hugo.

When Hugo met Paul Talib, he was surprised to see that the head of America's No. 1 sport looked less like a businessman or an athlete than an elementary school principal, a little bookish, a little bureaucratic and an indescribably amiable.

But such an old man who seems to have no characteristics, but single-handedly pushed the commercial value of the NFL to the peak, first opened the star era of the Super Bowl halftime show, and then accepted the proposal of Twentieth Century Fox to broadcast the "Independence Day" ad on the halftime show. The seemingly simple choice is hidden behind superhuman wisdom and decisiveness, which also makes the influence of football in North America far beyond baseball, basketball and ice hockey.

Paul stood up with a smile, straightened his tie, and said enthusiastically and politely, "I hope you like the environment, our colleagues always like such a warm and warm atmosphere, so when arranging the restaurant, my assistant obviously did not take your situation into account." ”

Instead of introducing himself, he opened with a restaurant topic, which made the atmosphere immediately harmonious. It's an Italian family-style restaurant, with a large fireplace behind it, freshly baked pizza, a spacious, long wooden table in the center that seats twenty people, and waiters in simple T-shirts and jeans walking through the lobby, making the restaurant look like a family dinner rather than a place to welcome guests.

"If so many of us walked into a French restaurant, the restaurant manager would politely invite us out." It was Neil who spoke, and he looked at the large crowd of people around him, and then at the three people around Paul, and a simple word made everyone chuckle. Neil then went on to say, "We're a little late, please forgive us for our faux pas." ”

In fact, Glory to Death was not late, they even arrived at the scene ten minutes early, but they didn't expect to see Paul and his party waiting at the table early. But out of politeness, Neil said anyway.

Paul smiled and waved his hand, "It's really us who are rude, we arrived at the restaurant a full twenty-five minutes early, which is not the right way to respond to an invitation." "If you arrive too early for a date, it's actually rude to the late party, because it will put too much pressure on the other party, and even if you are not late, it will become late." We don't need to be polite here, let me introduce you to ......."

There are a total of four people from the NFL today, in addition to Paul, the current chief head of the NFL, two are senior executives from the marketing operations department, and one is a senior executive from the news department. It can be seen that they attach great importance to this cooperation, and the dispatches are all heavyweights. In addition, all the members of Hugo's band arrived at the scene, and Henry also came together, and the mighty ten people gathered together, which was indeed very lively.

Just as everyone was about to sit down, the general manager of the marketing operation department standing on the far right took out a transparent glass box with a match ball in it, and handed it forward, and the direction was Hugo, "I heard that your father is a fan of 49, so he specially prepared a gift." ”

San Francisco 49ers, which is also the home team that Adam has supported all his life. However, because the San Francisco 49ers are in distant San Francisco, and Adam lives in Wyoming all year round, Adam's support has never been fanatical, and under the influence of Hugo, he has gradually become a supporter of Peyton Manning's Indianapolis Colts since last year. Still, the San Francisco 49ers carry many of Adam's memories of football.

Hugo did not hide his surprise, because it was strange that the information about Adam was almost secret to the outside world, and now that someone could know about it. The other party seemed to sense Hugo's meaning, and explained with a smile, "It is not difficult for us to find the members of a team. ”

Hugo suddenly realized, so he took the glass box and looked at it carefully, and there was even the signature of a generation of superstar Steve Young on it. It can be seen that they have indeed made careful preparations.

Seeing the smile on Hugo's face, Paul explained to the others, "We didn't plan to make Hugo special, but since you don't seem to be interested in rugby, I'd rather not give a gift than give the wrong one." A little humor diverted everyone's attention from this little episode.

When the order was over, Paul was not in a hurry to get down to business, but let everyone gossip, and he sat alone next to him, like an outsider, which was really interesting. Neal noticed Paul's loneliness, a little embarrassed, and took the initiative to say, "I'm sorry, but when we talk about music, we always fall into a state of madness. A few of them had just talked about the "Twist Tour" performance in Chicago, and they had a great time.

Paul smiled and waved his hand, "No, no, don't worry about me." It's a good thing to find the passion in me that I don't have when I talk about rugby now, and I feel like I'm getting old. I'd love to be part of the tour, but for me, jazz will always be irreplaceable, so it's better for me to be a spectator. ”

Surprisingly, Paul did not praise the glory to death, let alone deliberately pursue it, but mocked himself in a mocking manner. This made Neil chuckle, "The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, they should be very hurt when they hear this." ”

"That's what Michael Jackson said to me back then." Paul chuckled the whole table with just the simplest sentence, and Paul adjusted it a little before he spoke, "So when someone proposed a rock band to play at next year's Super Bowl halftime show, my first reaction was, 'Are you kidding me?'" ”

Almost unexpectedly, Paul cuts to the topic of today. This skill is indeed admirable, which shows that the chief head of the No. 1 sport in the United States is definitely not as gentle and harmless as it seems on the outside. On the contrary, none of the people who were able to go to such a high position were weak.

After Paul finished speaking, he chuckled, "Forgive me, I really don't have any research on rock and roll, and Frank Sinatra is the greatest singer in me." This honest remark showed no offense, showing his sincerity and friendliness, "but when the fifth person in a row mentioned the band 'Glory to Death' in front of me, I was a little curious for the first time." ”