NFL Needs To Get Back to the Basics With Super Bowl Halftime Show Next Year

DEADSPIN ^ | Mon 9th February | Nick Pedone

[nickcarraway]

Bad Bunny’s halftime performance at Super Bowl LX is the subject of many hot takes on Monday.

Despite appearances from Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, many fans online were upset about the predominantly Spanish performance. This ongoing social media outrage is why Roc Nation, who books the Super Bowl halftime show, has to do something more universally beloved next season.

Listen, Bad Bunny’s performance objectively was not awful. Even if you couldn’t understand the lyrics, the stagework, choreography, and overall video production was first class. The special guests and Easter eggs were able to be identified by fans that weren’t familiar with Bad Bunny prior to the Super Bowl.

There’s no denying that the beats were groovy and even the stingiest Bad Bunny haters have to recognize that the “Together we are America” theme was supposed to be a unifying message during turbulent times in our nation.

But next year, the NFL absolutely has to get back to the basics.

After the Super Bowl’s opening night on Monday in San Jose, clips surfaced that most of the players participating in the NFL’s biggest game didn’t know any Bad Bunny songs. As the game grew nearer, similar clips from the Super Bowl’s Radio Row showcased big stars from the football world and beyond being unfamiliar with the work of Bad Bunny.

The NFL currently has an obsession with making the sport more global. During Super Bowl week, commissioner Roger Goodell didn’t slam the door shut about an international expansion team at some point.

But the majority of fans who currently tune into the Super Bowl are still American – despite the league’s ongoing global initiatives.

Check your political viewpoints at the door for this next part.

Last season, the older, boomer crowd was upset about Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance. The older demographic completely missed the cultural impact the performance had on the history of hip-hop music, headlined by Kendrick’s beef with Drake being dragged out on a national stage.

Not only did the older crowd completely miss Kendrick’s not-so-subtle jab at Drake, but they absolutely ignored his overall message about systemic racism in America. That message was part of the reason why the halftime show was booked – and most of the core audience didn’t grasp that overarching messaging.

In the current political climate, the NFL and Roc Nation tried to shoehorn a performance from an internationally-beloved Puerto Rican star that was meant to unify the country. The issue? Most of the NFL’s core demographic had never heard of the artist. Certainly, they didn’t understand the message, either.

Love it or hate it, these boomers are not quitting football as they promised they would when Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem one full decade ago.

Instead of fanning social media flames and backlash from older generations of fans who can’t comprehend why the Super Bowl is strategically placing these halftime shows, they should just take a year off and give their core demographic what they’ve been pounding the table for.

What’s Bruno Mars up to? Metallica? They can still jam, right? Maybe Taylor Swift finally gives the country what they've been waiting for?

People will still find plenty of reasons to complain, but it feels like the rest of us just need a year off from hearing about it.

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TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: antiamericannfl; badbunny; breadandcircuses; dancemalfunction; football; halftimemalfunction; languagemalfunction; lyricsmalfunction; music; nationalfoolsleague; nfl; nofansleft; superbowl; tumblerridge; wokenfl

[Major Matt Mason]

This ongoing social media outrage is why Roc Nation, who books the Super Bowl halftime show

There's your problem right there, Obama's butt buddy, Jay-Z.

[alexander_busek]

Listen, Bad Bunny’s performance objectively was not awful.

Deliberate lowering of the bar!

"Sure, that drunken party guest of yours vomited on the carpet and called your wife a whore, but..."

Regards,

[alexander_busek]

Then why would the NFL even GAF about “getting back to basics” to cater to the whims of inert losers like this?

They aren't "getting back to basics."

Rather, they are talking about "getting back to basics."

Regards,

[Alberta's Child]

Soccer and football have the same flaw that makes them two of the dumbest sports today. They’re the only sports where the clock keeps running even after the whistle blows and play stops. What kind of moron came up with that idea?

At least soccer has the excuse that it is designed to be played by primitive cultures that don’t have anything more complex than an hourglass for timing the game.

[Alberta's Child]

Who is “they?”

[trebb]

The NFL died for me when Colin Kaepernick was kneeling on the field - haven’t watched a game since.

[gibsonguy]

I guess l was being easy on the owners by calling them cowards. The truth is even worse. Shame on those who keep watching while the NFL spits in their faces.

[nickcarraway]

He must be really important to you if you gave him that much power.

[discostu]

The half time show had 135 million viewers. According to advertisers they’ve got it exactly right.

[dfwgator]

That’s just US Viewers, I’m curious what the Internation viewers were, I know it won’t be close to the typical Premier League or UEFA Champions League game.

[discostu]

Of course not. It’s not that big elsewhere but it’s growing.

[dfwgator]

Basically they are going Hollywood, Screw Americans to get the mighty international dollar.

[discostu]

Not really. They still love those American dollars. Just like FIFA loves those American dollars (Americans spend more money being sports fans than most of the world makes in a year, they love us). But there’s money on the table. In 2010 Goodell stated his goal for the league was $25 billion in revenue by 2027. The receipts aren’t all in yet for the 25 season, but it was $23 billion if 24, so they’re gonna make it, and they’ve been adding a $3 a year lately. So I think they’re beat his goal.

[dennisw]

Bad Bunny sucked and I didn’t even waste times seeing this spectacle. NFL/Goodell has illusions of expanding beyond the USA, BB in Spanish is part of this.

[dfwgator]

And I really don’t mind Reggaeton. I liked Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina” when it came out.

Daddy Yankee expressed deep respect for Bad Bunny as an ally and fellow Puerto Rican, but declined to perform “Gasolina” with him at the 2026 Super Bowl, citing a shift in personal values and a new, faith-based mission. While turning down the performance, he acknowledged Bad Bunny’s success and stated he is focused on his own, separate path.

[Honorary Serb]

no hablo espanol

[dennisw]

Bad Bunny - Tití Me Preguntó (Official Video) | Un Verano Sin Ti ..... One billion views on Y-Tube
This is in reggaeton style and far as am concerned it is inane drek.

Same for this with 700 million views https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOT0BUpITw8

[Glad2bnuts]

I remember my Mom and Dad standing up and crying, when Kate Smith sang that song. When it was over they explained, something most parents do not take the time to do.

Death was all around, friends and relatives commonly got telegrams from the War Department. Instead of arguing, we rallied for OUR COUNTRY.. told to children of the WW 2 heroes incessantly, I am guessing.

We threw it all away for grass and free sex, instead of passing on what being an American meant.

[Glad2bnuts]

What is the point of chasing ever increasing money and views?

Some people are insane with power and greed.

THAT IS ALL.

[dfwgator]

"You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU... WILL... ATONE!"