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NFL Needs To Get Back to the Basics With Super Bowl Halftime Show Next Year
DEADSPIN ^ | Mon 9th February | Nick Pedone

Posted on 02/11/2026 3:24:18 PM PST by 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.


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

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To: nickcarraway

“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.” With the bit I watched I don’t even want to know what “universally beloved next season” is going to look like.


41 posted on 02/11/2026 4:06:29 PM PST by kawhill (Dywedwch Wrthym + Add translation Welsh-English dictionary 'Tell Us')
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To: ChildOfThe60s

I would watch mud wrestling. Pam Bondi vs AOC?


42 posted on 02/11/2026 4:07:01 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn... )
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To: JBW1949

Agreed. Just paid mercenaries from out of state. I bet none of them know the school fight song or alma mater. Circuses to attract young coeds from the suburbs.


43 posted on 02/11/2026 4:07:07 PM PST by crusty old prospector
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To: dfwgator

Lolz.

The Lions are never going to the Super Bowl.


44 posted on 02/11/2026 4:08:10 PM PST by themidnightskulker
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To: kawhill

You can actually bet on who it will be next year, and Miley Cyrus is the favorite.


45 posted on 02/11/2026 4:12:00 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: themidnightskulker

Ow, that one hurts.


46 posted on 02/11/2026 4:12:09 PM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: nickcarraway

The country might need the NFL to do so. But the NFL doesn’t need to do anything different. They have the money, the audience and the power


47 posted on 02/11/2026 4:12:28 PM PST by stanne
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To: nickcarraway
"Even if you couldn’t understand the lyrics, the stagework, choreography, and overall video production was first class."

Well sure, if you are 12 years old.

48 posted on 02/11/2026 4:16:03 PM PST by Enterprise (These people have no honor, no belief, no poetry, no art, no humor, no patriotism.)
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To: Jonty30
The first Superbowl half-time show.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see that on TV. The NFL used to not televise home games if they didn't sell out, which the Super Bowl did not, so the league imposed a "Super Blackout" and did not televise it in LA. Some folks made "Super Bowl antennas" out of coat hangers, following instructions in The KRLA Beat and other off-beat publications, so they could get the broadcast from San Diego. But we listened to it on our Blaupunkt car radio as we were going shopping on that sunny Sunday afternoon.

49 posted on 02/11/2026 4:17:14 PM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: nickcarraway

I watched Super Bowl XXI (1987) ripped off of You Tube.

The theme was Disney Salutes Hollywood on its 100th Birthday.

It was not today’s Superbowl. Introduced by a 91 year old George Burns with Snow White as arm candy. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale made short dance appearance with a cameo by Mickey Rooney.

The music was canned, and the performance was marching band and big dance number themed.

Even the commercials during the game were better.


50 posted on 02/11/2026 4:18:36 PM PST by themidnightskulker
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To: nickcarraway
Even if you couldn’t understand the lyrics, the stagework, choreography, and overall video production was first class.

Uh-huh.

The few clips I’ve seen of it show twerking, air-humping and a bunch of people jumping up and down. I didn’t see the show itself, so maybe I missed the first class choreography?

51 posted on 02/11/2026 4:20:20 PM PST by Allegra (We will not be emotionally blackmailed into backing off what we voted for. )
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To: nickcarraway; TalBlack
The author of this story can’t be older than some of the plants on BB’s set.


52 posted on 02/11/2026 4:22:50 PM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: Enterprise
Well sure, if you are 12 years old.

I think the author is.

53 posted on 02/11/2026 4:23:09 PM PST by BookmanTheJanitor
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To: escapefromboston


The youngsters won't get most of the parodies (e.g. "My Bologna") and some the ("The Force Awakens") don't trasnalte well to a giant stadium.

54 posted on 02/11/2026 4:27:29 PM PST by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: nickcarraway

NFL needs to revert to the original kick-off rules, eliminate the “Black anthem” and ban ANY political/cultural messages by the players or teams.


55 posted on 02/11/2026 4:28:43 PM PST by PhiloBedo (You gotta roll with the punches, and get with what's real..)
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To: themidnightskulker

Change isn’t always good. I liked the Chevrolet commercial but the original sung by Dinah Shore was better. They could have even reprised that and it would have been a hit!

Just like the rendition of “God Bless America” by Kate Smith!
There is none better.

But, that’s just old school, boomer me!


56 posted on 02/11/2026 4:32:34 PM PST by old school
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To: old school
And, that is precisely why American “football” will never catch-on elsewhere in the world, save for a small band of aficionados!

This is the right answer.

The Neutered Football League has figured out the average UK yob in the stands is far more rassist than anyone in the US stands, and so is pivoting to the mojados:


57 posted on 02/11/2026 4:33:53 PM PST by StAnDeliver (Trump II)
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To: bigbob
But why not just put on some marching bands, which is traditional?

When they showed the Marching Bands, the audience was 85%+ male. Now it is pretty close to 50-50, and the NFL likes it that way.

I went to our shipping department to pick up a delivery, and the 20-something fellow told me when I asked him about the game, responded that he didn't watch the football game, just the halftime show. I chuckled and told him I did the opposite, and suggested that they might have done us both a favor and put them on different channels.

The NFL wants to make money, and it has to do enough to keep everyone on board, including busybody bureaucrats and professional subversive NGOs. Plus they want to get the guy in the shipping department to tune, so the Super Bowl is Too Big To Ignore. By every measure except that of the conservatives and old line football fans who like good sports, they have succeeded.
58 posted on 02/11/2026 4:34:32 PM PST by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: Dr. Sivana

The age of music superstars is over.


59 posted on 02/11/2026 4:34:33 PM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: Dr. Sivana

When they showed the Marching Bands, the audience was 85%+ male. Now it is pretty close to 50-50, and the NFL likes it that way.


Globalism is the main driver now.


60 posted on 02/11/2026 4:35:03 PM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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