Next year’s Super Bowl halftime in Tampa, Florida will benefit from the unique presence of Bruce Springsteen, the one and only veteran rocker who bears the moniker The Boss.

The event’s organizers have announced that New Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen and his trusted E Street Band will provide the musical entertainment for the coveted Super Bowl XLIII halftime show, that is to take place on Feb. 1, 2009.

Springsteen was first rumored to be playing the show in August this year but it was only Sunday that the NFL confirmed the speculation.

The Boss follows in a long line of venerable acts to participate in the event. This year, it was Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers that thrilled the crowd and the viewers back home, while earning marvelous reviews from critics.

The year before that, The Artist Formerly Known As Prince nowadays known as Prince performed, and others before him, in recent years, included the Rolling Stones, former Beatle Paul McCartney and U2.

Then again, who could ever forget 2004’s tragicomical moment of stupor and embarrassment when Justin Timberlake, who had been singing and dancing at ease with a black leather-clad Janet Jackson, apparently just as easily removed the latter’s bustier revealing her right breast and a nipple adorned with a gold star-shaped shield?

The shock of all shocks it was indeed, forever to be remembered as a “wardrobe malfunction” – Timberlake’s inspired description of the incident.

The Super Bowl XLIII will be played Feb. 1 at Raymond James Stadium and chances are, those 148 million people who turned their television sets on this year to watch the halftime show will do the same in a few months. It will be televised by NBC.

No more nipples are to be revealed either, incidentally or not, as there is now a 5-second delay in place to keep a check on unscripted occurrences.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band have been riding a high, high wave this past year. “Magic,” the most recent studio collaboration between the singer and the band, was released in October 2007 to great critical acclaim, soon followed by a hugely successful tour of North America and Europe that reaffirmed Springsteen’s reputation as The Boss of rock’n’roll.