E Street Band will supply the halftime entertainment

NBC and the NFL have confirmed that Bruce Springsteen will play the Super Bowl, giving the official stamp to a rumor that's been circulating for a couple of months.

Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform during halftime of Super Bowl XLIII, which NBC will broadcast on Feb. 1. Not that the Boss needs it, but the halftime show is the biggest platform for any musical artist; NBC says some 148 million people tuned in to last year's halftime, which featured Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

(That figure represents anyone who watched a few minutes of the show; as a whole, last year's Super Bowl averaged 97.5 million viewers.)

Word of Springsteen's involvement at the Super Bowl first surfaced in August. He joins a list of recent halftime performers that includes Petty, Prince, the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney.

The NFL has stuck with veteran, mainstream rock acts since the 2004 halftime show, when Justin Timberlake's overenthusiastic bodice-ripping of Janet Jackson's outfit caused her breast to be exposed and ushered in an era of heavy indecency scrutiny by the FCC.