The NFL has once again disappointed its fans by utilizing the death of Spongebob Squarepants creator Stephen Hillenburg to drive audience engagement in the Super Bowl halftime show. The Change.org petition to get the NFL to play the song "Sweet Victory", written by David Glen Eisley and used in the Spongebob episode "Band Geeks", had surpassed over 1.5 million signatures by the time the Super Bowl was played, had become a viral sensation.

Covered by countless news outlets and was plastered all over social media sites such as Reddit and Facebook, the petition appeared to have grabbed the attention of the NFL and the band headlining with halftime show (Maroon 5), who had released a short hype clip with a snippet of Spongebob in it.

However, once the big game was going and the show was ongoing, there was no sign of the promised tribute to the creator of the greatest cartoon in TV history. The only sign of it came as an introduction to Travis Scott, another one of the halftime performers, disappointing, angering, and bamboozling millions of fans.

There is hope, however! with the Alliance of American Football going into its inaugural season, fans who would be otherwise starved for football are getting to once again cheer on their favorite teams. This is the perfect opportunity to right the wrong that the NFL caused and pay proper tribute to Stephen Hillenburg.

Sign this petition to call on the AAF to make things right!