Twitter extremely disappointed by Maroon 5's Super Bowl halftime show

When it was first announced that this year’s Super Bowl halftime performer would be Maroon 5 -- a choice so bland, it made 2016’s halftime headliner, Coldplay, seem like GG Allin by comparison -- the news was met with a collective yawn. But it wasn’t long before Adam Levine and company found themselves at the center of the biggest halftime show controversy since Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s “Nipplegate” debacle 15 years ago. Maroon 5’s decision to play the Super Bowl -- at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, one of the American capitals of black music (and specifically hip-hop) -- didn’t sit well with some detractors, who saw the move as a snub against ex-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (who is currently suing the NFL, claiming team owners conspired to keep him out of the league for protesting police brutality against people of color). Nearly 115,000 people signed an online petition urging Maroon 5 to drop out, and celebrities ranging from Amy Schumer to Meek Mill to Ava DuVernay blasted the band. Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters actually asked the band to take a knee during their halftime show, and Kaepernick’s attorney, Mark Geragos, accused Maroon 5 of “crossing the picket line.” Maroon 5 could have silenced their many haters and doubters with a spectacular performance -- just like Gladys Knight, who’d also caught flak for appearing at Super Bowl LIII, did with her gorgeous national anthem performance earlier on Super Bowl Sunday. But Maroon 5 didn’t do that. Instead, they played it safe with what just might be the most underwhelming and instantly forgettable halftime show of all time. There was a rumor, sparked by Levine's exclusive Entertainment Tonight interview, that the band might honor Kaepernik during the halftime show. They didn’t. There was a rumor that Christina Aguilera might show up during “Moves Like Jagger.” She didn’t. There was a rumor that Travis Scott would propose to his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, onstage. He didn’t. There was even a rumor that Maroon 5 would pay tribute to a hero the entire nation could get behind -- SpongeBob Squarepants creator Stephen Hillenburg, who died in November -- with their beloved SpongeBob theme “Sweet Victory.” (Another online petition, begging the band to perform that song, actually gathered more than 1.2 million signatures.) Maroon 5 could've paraded the SpongeBob characters out for a "Sweet Victory" finale and viewers of all political persuasions would have loved it -- but they didn’t do that either. Twitter was mad. And understandably so.