San Jose, California
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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell desires Super Bowl LX to be a unifying occasion, a second for all soccer followers – and those that tune in as soon as a yr for the season’s largest recreation – to place apart the issues that divide us and come collectively for some pigskin.
It’s one of many few occasions that the NFL commissioner could be very unlikely to get what he desires.
Megastar Bad Bunny is ready to be on the heart of the leisure universe at halftime of Super Bowl LX, a incontrovertible fact that has been the topic of tradition warfare contretemps ever because it was introduced this fall. Goodell was requested at his annual Super Bowl information convention Monday whether or not he’s anticipating any political statements through the efficiency. His response, basically, boiled right down to “Boy, I hope not.”
“Listen, Bad Bunny is – 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,” Goodell mentioned.
“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.”
That got here simply the day after the artist used a few of his time on the Grammys stage to criticize latest actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even when his “ICE out” message sounded louder to these within the wings of social media than his message of unity.
This rigidity is why Super Bowl LX is positioned to be not like most of the 59 earlier editions of the sport. In Minneapolis and different cities across the nation, President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement operations are drawing more and more intense condemnations as protests pop up across the globe. The killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have seized the nationwide consciousness. The Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are underneath the microscope as their heavy-handed techniques are topic to ever-increasing scrutiny.
An acceptance speech on the Grammys is a huge viewers for any performer. The Super Bowl halftime present is a entire completely different animal. Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican icon who raps and sings in Spanish, is just not shy about seizing the second, and he’s about to have a highlight not like every other in his profession.
Goodell has had his run-ins with Trump up to now, significantly within the president’s 2016 marketing campaign, when gamers started kneeling through the nationwide anthem with a purpose to protest racism and police brutality in America. Goodell supported his gamers’ proper to talk their minds, one thing Trump criticized.
For a very long time, the president spent an outsized quantity of vitality criticizing the league, its gamers, its rankings, its gameplay and extra. But that icy relationship has thawed in latest months with Goodell even making a heat look within the Oval Office final spring to announce the NFL Draft coming to Washington, DC, in 2027.
The alternative of Bad Bunny as halftime present performer has caught in Trump’s craw, however he’s largely caught to criticizing the artist quite than the league or Goodell. In truth, a lot of his football-related feedback lately have been centered on his dislike of the brand new dynamic kickoff and pushing for a return to the outdated guidelines – one thing that even presidential posts on social media aren’t going to have an effect on.
Some in conservative circles have opposed Bad Bunny’s look on sports activities’ largest stage because it was introduced, stemming from the actual fact he excluded the continental United States from his 2025-2026 live performance tour, a resolution he mentioned he made out of worry that ICE might probably raid the venues. Others on the best have been essential of Bad Bunny’s music catalogue, which completely accommodates Spanish songs.
It shouldn’t come as a shock if ICE has some presence on the bottom within the Bay Area this week as a part of Super Bowl LX safety. Deemed a SEAR-1 stage occasion – the highest stage within the Special Event Assessment Rating by the Department of Homeland Security – the Super Bowl attracts huge safety presence from state, native and federal regulation enforcement yearly. Given the Department of Homeland Security’s position in coordinating these safety operations, ICE officers ought to be anticipated.
“Security is obviously one of the things we focus on the most,” Goodell mentioned when requested about the potential for ICE being on the bottom.
“It’s a SEAR-1 level event that involves unique assets at the federal level, state level and the local level, all working together. I see no change in that. … We’re working with all three of those levels and doing everything we can to make sure it’s a safe environment. And the federal government is a big part of that, including this administration and every other administration before that.”
More particulars on the safety operation for the weekend are anticipated at a information convention later this week.
Ultimately, Goodell has extra than simply Bad Bunny to fret about relating to an artist making a political assertion on Sunday.
Green Day, the legendary punk rock band that fashioned within the East Bay and was seminal a part of the early Nineteen Nineties Bay Area music scene earlier than happening to huge mainstream success, is the primary performer of the Super Bowl’s opening ceremonies on Sunday. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has by no means been shy about letting his ideas identified, whether or not that’s a political assertion or displeasure at how much time his band has been given at a radio concert.
The 2004 launch of “American Idiot,” a roar of anger at President George W. Bush’s America, cemented the band as one of many main political voices in well-liked music. Age has not appeared to mellow out Armstrong and his bandmates – they’ve repeatedly been criticizing the Trump administration whereas on tour earlier than their Super Bowl efficiency, altering a lyric from a monitor from that Bush-era album to “I’m not a part of a MAGA agenda.”
Punk rock ethos calls for making the highly effective really feel uncomfortable each time attainable. Green Day, for greater than 30 years now, have tried to embody that spirit. When they take the mic at Super Bowl LX, it’s arduous to think about Armstrong received’t be relishing the concept of constructing a huge assertion on the large stage.