In the run-up to Super Bowl LII, the Chicken-Fried News team internally wrestled with the big issues, like “Are Philadelphia Eagles fans or New England Patriots fans more impervious to frostbite, and can we commission an independent clinical study?” or “How can I eat these chicken wings without my gochujang sauce?” But none were more important than this: Who will join Justin Timberlake during the halftime show?”
For the CFN staffers who don’t know pigskin from pork rinds, this was of utmost urgency. There was the issue of whether the other four former NSYNC members would join Timberlake for a run through “Tearin’ Up My Heart” or if JT might invite Janet Jackson onstage 14 years after the notorious wardrobe malfunction at Super Bowl XXXVIII and actually put clothes on her this time.
But then things went completely bonkers in the newsroom when CFN’s Twitter feeds blew up with a photo of 2017 Heisman Trophy winner and University of Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield posing with Timberlake in what appeared to be a semi-heated party tent in Minneapolis.
What made it interesting was the fact that sports broadcaster and former Keith Olbermann sidekick Dan Patrick told Mayfield he’d try to get the quarterback a gig backup dancing for Timberlake if the OU star threw more than 40 touchdown passes, according to NewsOK.com.
Of course, Mayfield threw 43 of those thingys. So CFN doesn’t know what kind of juice Patrick has with the Man of the Woods, but CFN saw no evidence of Mayfield during the halftime show, unless he was in charge of the big, hanging sheet for the posthumous projection of Prince.
