No NFL-season kickoff concert for Detroit

The NFL has dropped plans for a free Detroit concert to launch the city's Super Bowl season, officials said Monday. The Rolling Stones will instead tape footage during their Aug. 31 Ford Field date for a football kickoff show to air Sept. 8 on ABC-TV.
A Detroit concert had been scheduled to launch a season that culminates at the stadium with the Feb. 5 Super Bowl, though no acts had been named. The idea was nuked, sources say, as the anniversary-minded NFL steered its focus to events in L.A., home of the inaugural Super Bowl 40 seasons ago.
The Stones, meanwhile, have signed on to a season-long NFL promo campaign -- a move certain to fuel talk, already circulating in local music circles, of a Super Bowl halftime set by the veteran rock band. An NFL spokesman said Monday that no decision has been made.

Brian McCollum, Free Press pop music writer