UI Alums Reunite for Bad Bunny Super Bowl Halftime Show

Santa Clara, Calif.—When Joe Piasecki submitted an online application in mid-January to become a literal shrub onstage at Super Bowl LX, he pictured himself hidden inside a grass costume, not standing shoulder-to-shoulder with one of his closest college friends. Yet as the 128.2 million U.S. viewers tuned in to Bad Bunny’s record-breaking halftime spectacular, the former Hawkeye Marching Band drum major found himself yards away from Benjamin Nadler, the very friend who once conducted Iowa’s beer band on autumn Saturdays inside Kinnick Stadium.

Piasecki, now the San Francisco Environment Department’s public affairs and policy coordinator, learned of the casting call from his wife, who fell short of the height requirement for the verdant ensemble. He met the specs, booked the job, and—during a rehearsal break at Levi’s Stadium—descended a staircase straight into Nadler, production coordinator for the hundreds of grass-suited performers. “We were both like, ‘What are you doing here?’” Piasecki recalled. “It was hysterical.”

The chance reunion placed two Iowa music alums on football’s grandest stage, 2,000 miles from Iowa City. Nadler, whose Blue Devils Performing Arts nonprofit supplies elite ensembles to pro franchises, had spent the week assembling the halftime’s living landscape. Piasecki, no stranger to discipline after five seasons with the Hawkeye Marching Band (three as drum major), treated dawn-to-dusk rehearsals like early-morning band camp. “I’ve worn a wool uniform on a 100-degree Iowa August day,” he shrugged, unfazed by the bulky foliage.

On game night the Seahawks defeated the Patriots 29-13, but inside the stadium the headline act belonged to Bad Bunny. From the first note Piasecki and Nadler felt the roar of 70,000 fans ripple through the turf. Visibility inside the costumes was minimal, so the pair relied on the same trust they forged during Iowa’s 2009 Orange-Bowl run. “To know somebody was there that I 100 percent trusted made me feel great,” Piasecki said.

Between set changes the pop superstar addressed the entire crew, thanking technicians, dancers, and shrubbery alike. “He spoke with such gratitude,” Nadler noted. “Not all celebrities take that time.”

The production granted behind-the-scenes access, letting the friends heed the literal advice of Bad Bunny’s hit “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.” They documented everything, aware the moment would outlast the final whistle. “We definitely got to take the words of the song literally,” Piasecki said.

Danielle Paulsen, a fellow trumpet alum watching from Minnesota, scanned the broadcast for her friends. “It was really cool to see both of them utilize their marching-band experience for such a cool experience the world got to see,” she said.

Eric Bush, current director of the Hawkeye Marching Band, echoed the pride: “It’s always great to see how our students and alumni take what they learn and apply them in unexpected and exciting ways.”

Long after the turf was rolled up and the costumes stored, Piasecki and Nadler held onto the snapshots—and the memory of performing together once more, this time as bushes on the most-watched stage in American sports.