Using a heart-shaped stage replicated from their 2001 Elevation Tour, the group played three songs and paid tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks, which had occurred in the United States five months earlier.

Singer Janet Jackson was originally booked as the halftime performer, but after the September 11 attacks, it was decided that a different artist would be needed to set the tone required.

U2 were selected as the replacement after several executives from the National Football League (NFL) attended one of their October 2001 concerts in New York City and were emotionally impacted by the band's tribute to the attack victims, whose names were projected across the ceiling of Madison Square Garden.

[7] Following the attacks, All That You Can't Leave Behind found added resonance with American audiences,[8] as the album climbed on the Billboard 200 chart and songs such as "Walk On" and "Peace on Earth" garnered radio airplay.

[13] To allow the playoffs to be held in their entirety, in October the NFL rescheduled Super Bowl XXXVI at the Louisiana Superdome from January 27 to February 3, 2002.

[14] Jim Steeg, the executive of special events for the NFL, booked the original entertainment lineup for Super Bowl XXXVI by August 2001.

[15] However, after the September 11 attacks, Jackson cancelled the European leg of her All for You Tour and was not travelling,[16][17] and she decided to pull out of the Super Bowl after realising her show would not fit the mood that was required.

In a meeting the following day, Collins and two other league officials who had attended the concert discussed its poignancy and unanimously agreed with the idea of booking the group.

[19] Collins called Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope Records and producer of U2's 1988 album Rattle and Hum, and pitched him on U2 recreating the same tribute at the Super Bowl.

[17] The following day, Bono met with several executives of the NFL, including Collins, Steeg, commissioner Paul Tagliabue, COO Roger Goodell, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

[17] Greg Hagglund, vice president and executive producer of CCE,[20] met with U2 in Las Vegas during a stop on their Elevation Tour to have a brainstorming session about the show.

[28] McCarthy said, "With the events of September 11th, we've redefined and refocused the game presentation, and the theme is celebration and the human spirit and the values of freedom, and also to everyday heroes".

"[30] An NFL representative said one factor in the league's decision to select CCE to produce the halftime show was its ability to use its vast media holdings, which included 1,200 radio stations, to promote the event.

[31] To increase interest in the Super Bowl in the weeks preceding it, NFL Films re-shot the music videos for U2's songs "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" and "Beautiful Day" to include football footage.

[35] A few weeks before the game, a major production issue arose when organizers discovered they were unable to power the projectors that would scroll the victims' names across the domed ceiling of the Superdome.

[17] Around January 21, 2002, production crews arrived at Tad Gormley Stadium at the University of New Orleans to work on the logistical aspects of the halftime show, particularly the process of building and disassembling the stage on the field in the mandated amount of time.

[46] The websites for U2 and the Super Bowl stated that they would play at least one track from a list consisting of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", "Desire", "Pride (In the Name of Love)", and "Beautiful Day".

"[55] John Smyntek of the Detroit Free Press rated U2's performance "Four stars all the way", saying that it "sure beat other recent Super Bowl halves that tried to telescope the wide world of pop".

And yet, U2's live breath of fresh air and dramatic, emotional spectacle that paid homage to the victims of Sept. 11 was both daringly bombastic and also pretty damn cool.

"[59] David Bianculli of the New York Daily News said that the halftime show "managed to strike the right mood of patriotism, pride and solemnity."

"[60] Peter King of CNN/SI called the band's performance "perfect for the occasion" and said, "I praise you, NFL, selfishly, for giving me 11 terrific minutes at halftime of a great event".

[61] Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News said: "Many Roman numerals down the road, I'll still remember those shimmering moments when the banner dropped, U2 played loud, live and intimate, and the names of those lost in the Sept. 11 attacks glowed in the dark, lit by spotlights and projected onto the crowd.

"[62] Ed Bark of The Dallas Morning News called the performance "electrifying" and said about the tribute, "The roaring crowd reaction dwarfed anything produced by the game itself until the Patriots' thrilling victory on a last-second field goal.

[65] Despite scepticism about U2's decision to play the Super Bowl halftime show, Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly said: "Once U2 took the makeshift stage, all my compunctions vanished.

"[66] Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times said that the Fear Factor counterprogramming "couldn't have been any more bloated or exploitative than U2's oddly out-of-place halftime performance".

He said the fault did not lie with U2 themselves but that "it nevertheless seemed odd: An Irish band singing about transcending society's oppressive values before a list of people killed in America's most devastating attack".

[67] Ed Sherman of the Chicago Tribune criticised the halftime show for not paying enough reverence to the 9/11 victims when displaying their names, saying: "Instead U2 played to a screaming crowd that was bouncing up and down, completely oblivious to the banner memorializing the dead.

[69] In the week following U2's Super Bowl performance, All That You Can't Leave Behind sold 46,000 copies (a 142-percent increase) in the United States, causing it to jump on the Billboard 200 chart from number 66 to 25.

[83][84] In 2021, Thrillist ranked it the second-best halftime show, saying, "U2 delivered the kind of bald sentimentality that both attracts and repels legions of fans and detractors, though it's tough not to appreciate the raw power of the performance" during the tribute to the September 11 victims.

[87] Tim Glanfield of The Times ranked it the best Super Bowl halftime performance, calling it a "bittersweet mix of euphoric energy and moving reflection".