A little too late to turn back now I guess.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated his support for Super Bowl LX halftime show headliner Bad Bunny after the Puerto Rican rapper went on an anti-ICE rant last night during his acceptance speech at the 68th Annual GRAMMY Awards.
The league has already been facing backlash from conservative fans for the selection of the outspoken Trump critic to headline the halftime show. Last year, Bad Bunny (whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) said that he wouldn’t bring his tour to the United States due to the president’s immigration policy and ongoing ICE raids, and many saw his selection to headline the halftime show as a middle finger of sorts to Trump.
Goodell has publicly stood by Bad Bunny, previously dismissing criticism of his selection for the halftime show:
“He’s one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world. That’s what we try to (choose). It’s an important stage to us. It’s an important element to the entertainment value. It’s carefully thought through. I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism.
It’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching. We’re confident it’s going to be a great show. He understands the platform that he’s on, and I think it’s going to be exciting and a united moment.”
Of course the NFL has been making a major push recently to expand internationally, and just announced a record 9 international games next year, so my guess is that it’s more to do with trying to bring in global fans than trying to send a message to Trump. The NFL has proven time and time again that their bottom line is what they’re really worried about, and they clearly see dollar signs in fans outside the United States.
But last night at the GRAMMYs, Bad Bunny once again made headlines for taking a shot at President Trump and ICE while accepting his award for Album of the Year:
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say: ICE out. We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”
Obviously the crowd in the Hollywood echo chamber loved the comments – but how would they go over with football fans, which has a much more diverse range of thoughts and opinions?
Well apparently Goodell isn’t too worried about it, because he was asked about the halftime entertainer’s comments today during a press conference ahead of the Super Bowl and dismissed any concern he had about Bad Bunny:
“Bad Bunny was, and I think that was demonstrated last night, one of the great artists in the world. And that’s one of the reasons we chose him. But the other reason is he understood the platform he was on, and that this platform is used to unite people and to be able to bring people together with their creativity, with their talents, and to be able to use this moment to do that. And I think artists in the past have done that. I think Bad Bunny understands that, and I think he’ll have a great performance.”
It sounds like Goodell is expecting Bad Bunny to keep politics out of the halftime show – but do we really think that’s going to happen?
