BRUUUUUUUUCE!

It's only fitting that one of the greatest Super Bowl games in history also had one of the greatest halftime shows.

The NFL had been trying to snag Bruce Springsteen play for years, but, as the diehards know, The Boss always had that motto that you don't play any show where you can't control the volume.

Finally, they got him and he delivered.

The amazing thing about his 12 minutes is that he and the E Street Band hit the stage as if they were midway through one of their marathon sets. When he came out and said "Put the chicken fingers down and turn the television all the way up!" they were clicking on every cylinder right away, maybe a little extra pumped by the half-ending 100-yard interception return.

There was a lot of talk in the past week about what three or four songs he would play. No one predicted he would open with "Tenth Avenue Freezout," even though it's a true fan favorite, and one of his most rousing concert songs - especially with the best-ever set-up to a sax solo.

Bruce, a master of pacing, then cranked it up another notch with "Born to Run," a surprise in the second slot. Who would have thought it would apply to James Harrison Sunday night and not Willie Parker?

Bruce knows his audience enough to realize that no one wanted to hear anything off the new album - Super Bowl halftime isn't the place - so he wisely kept "Working on a Dream," with the big choir, to a snippet.

Happily it didn't end there. There was only one team on the field Sunday night that could relate to Bruce's last song, "Glory Days." It's a mixed message about the folly of living in the past, something Steeler Nation was accused of for years.

Not any more, baby. The "Glory Days" are back again. And it was all the more awesome to have the Boss as the soundtrack.

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