The NFL must feel its period of penance is over by signing the unpredictable Madonna as the Super Bowl halftime entertainment.

Madonna to sing at Super Bowl, as NFL rolls dice again eight years after Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction. At last we know exactly how long the National Football League was required to act as if it was really, really sorry about that brief flash of Janet Jackson’s chest during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.

Eight years.

With the announcement that the 2012 Super Bowl halftime act will be Madonna, the penance is officially over.

It’s not that Madonna is likely to go flashing any of her girl parts on national television. Madonna understands the calculus of every situation she enters, so let’s bet that she knows this is an all-ages show.

“Malfunctions” do not follow Madonna around.

That said, however, the NFL has hired a woman whose résumé includes, among other things:

+ Simulating masturbation with a crucifix on stage.

+ Striking poses on her mother’s grave.

+ Touring as a dominatrix whipping topless dancers.

+ Handing David Letterman a pair of her underwear and asking if he’d like to sniff them.

+ Posing for a whole book of naked photographs, including simulated sex and walking into a pizzeria nude.

Nor have these sorts of activities escaped the notice of those around her:

+ Pepsi canceled a $5 million endorsement deal after her “Like a Prayer” video offended religious groups.

+ MTV, which loves her, refused to play several of her videos, including “Justify My Love” and “What It Feels Like for a Girl.”

+ The Pope his ownself asked Catholics not to patronize her “Blond Ambition” tour.

Now it needs to be stressed that with Madonna, none of this is some Lindsay Lohan/Charlie Sheen out-of-control deal. It’s all about marketing and promotion and “pushing buttons,” which Madonna has noted is something she does well.

Add the fact she has made some first-class music and voilà, you have the biggest-selling female artist in music history. Like the NFL, she knows the game and has ridden it to the top.

To some degree, of course, all that outrage is yesterday’s news. Madonna is 53 now, with a 15-year-old daughter. We haven’t seen the “Boy Toy” belt buckle in a while.

It’s almost as if, when she kissed Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on the 2003 VMAs, she was passing the bad-girl torch to the next generation.

Which, by the way, ran with it.

Still, Madonna could live to be 150 and she would still be known to much of the world as the singer who sold provocative sex. She sold it too well to ever have it come off her résumé.

So that’s who the NFL is hiring for its halftime show, and because the NFL is as smart about marketing as Madonna, it knows this.

The year after the Janet Jackson incident, the NFL hired Paul McCartney for its halftime show, a deliberate declaration that it was safe to let the kids watch.

The two years after that, interestingly, it hired artists who had their own history of offending people — first the Rolling Stones, then Prince.

But in the 21st century, even people who love the Stones don’t remember when their music was considered subversive. If they’re remembered as bad boys, it’s more for the drugs and the behavior.

Prince’s controversies, in the rearview mirror, seem more like the mischief of a naughty boy than anything morally subversive.

So maybe the NFL is hoping that’s how Madonna will come off, as someone whose offending edges have been smoothed by the sands of time.

Or maybe not. Just a few weeks ago, after all, a federal court ruled that the FCC could not assess indecency fines over the Janet Jackson broadcast because the FCC has never issued clear standards.

No, that ruling didn’t push the “All Clear!” and “Anything Goes!” buttons. But it’s hard to miss that the NFL has now hired a halftime entertainer who long ago won the Super Bowl of misbehaving.




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