Citing Pete Townsend’s 2003 arrest on charges of possessing child pornography, the Florida-based AbuseWatch.net is petitioning the NFL to have The Who removed from the Super Bowl halftime show, February 7. From the December 24 edition of The Times :
Protect our Children has asked immigration authorities to stop him from entering the US on the grounds of his œmoral turpitude.
They said that the decision to hire Townshend showed a œblatant disregard for American family values and was œa slap in the face to victims of child sexual abuse. They warned the NFL that it risked a œbreathtakingly ugly public backlash.
Kevin Gillick, president of Protect our Children, which works to bring awareness of child abuse, said: œPeople tune in from all over the world and they are going to get a British sex offender on their screen. Townshend taking the stage at the Super Bowl is offensive to victims. We are incensed.
Though I was a little surprised it took this long for Townsend to be vilified by one of these organizations, it seems these folks have a had a hard on for Pete (if you’ll excuse the expression) for a while. 5 weeks before the Super Bowl doesn’t give the NFL much time to secure a suitable replacement, but with a new album to promote, perhaps R. Kelly will cut the league a deal?
So I getting off on the charges is not enough in the court of ‘public opinion’. How about they haven’t made an album worth a damn in 25 years? How about that the NFL needs to drop baby boomer wet dreams and get real arena rock bands in there? But all of that aside, I thought Townshend being a rock star made him a shepherd of family values a bit of a non-starter.