NEW YORK (AP) – ‘N Sync’s JC Chasez unleashed a scathing indictment of the NFL on Thursday for yanking him from the Pro Bowl halftime show, then asking him to sing the national anthem instead after the unexpected breast display during the Super Bowl.

“I have had a great relationship with the NFL in the past and feel that I have been mistreated,” Chasez said in a statement, adding that he’s won’t sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Sunday’s annual all-star game in Honolulu.

In an interview with The Associated Press later, he said of the Super Bowl uproar: “I never in my wildest dreams thought it would affect me.”

After the Super Bowl halftime show – in which Chasez’s bandmate, Justin Timberlake, tore off a piece of Janet Jackson’s top, exposing her breast – the NFL re-evaluated Chasez’s planned performance.

The singer said the league expressed concern over some of his lyrics and asked him to change his song choice to “Blowin’ Me Up (With Her Love)” off the “Drumline” soundtrack.

“I decided to be obliging. I wanted to go with the flow and I wanted to be a team player, I wanted to come to the NFL’s rescue,” Chasez told the AP. “If that’s what it will take to put out a fire, then fine, I’ll do the ‘Drumline’ song.”

That also proved problematic, because the latter song contains the words “horny” and “naughty,” which Chasez said he reluctantly agreed to change.

The NFL removed him from the Pro Bowl halftime show anyway and replaced him with hula dancers, drummers, conch shell blowers and local singers, who were to have been the pre-game entertainment.

Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the Pro Bowl, told The Associated Press by cell phone from Hawaii: “We saw what happened on Sunday, and Monday we took a look at what the performance would have been in terms of the music and dancing. We just felt it was inappropriate as we’re being extremely cautious in light of what happened at the Super Bowl.”

But the league still wanted Chasez to sing the national anthem – which he said he was willing to do, until he claimed the NFL made disparaging comments about him in announcing the halftime changes.

“While I agree the mishap at the Super Bowl was a huge mistake, the NFL’s shallow effort to portray my music as sexually indecent brings to mind another era when innocent artists were smeared with a broad brush by insecure but powerful people,” Chasez said in his statement. “That’s not the America I love. Nor is this the NFL I love. I’ll sing the national anthem anytime, anywhere, but not for this NFL.”

McCarthy’s response: “We’re not going to debate him. We made our decision and we’re going to move on.”

Chasez also complained that he passed on a chance to be at Sunday’s Grammy Awards because of his planned Pro Bowl appearance. “Now I have to jockey for my position back in there,” he told the AP.

McCarthy said it was unclear who would sing the national anthem before Sunday’s Pro Bowl, which is airing on ESPN.

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Editors note: AP Music Writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody contributed to this report.

AP-ES-02-05-04 1803EST