NFL's Roger Goodell believes Bad Bunny 'understands' Super Bowl LX platform is meant to unite amid ICE outcry
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed questions about Bad Bunny possibly making a political statement during the Super Bowl LX halftime show and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations during his press conference on Monday.
Last year, Bad Bunny was chosen as the Super Bowl halftime show performer despite his scathing criticism of ICE. The Puerto Rican music star won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and had more criticism of ICE on stage in Los Angeles.
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"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 said. "But the other reason is he understood the platform he was on and 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."
As for ICE, officials were set to have a visible presence around Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said last month that federal officials were committed to working with local and state law enforcement to keep the Super Bowl safe.
"Security is obviously one of the things we focus on the most. It’s a SEAR (Special Event Assessment Rating) 1 level event that involves unique assets at the federal levels, state level and the local level all working together," Goodell said. "I see no change in that in the preparations for the Super Bowl. We have not seen that.
"We are 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. I think SEAR 1 has probably been the category we had since at least the turn of the century, if not before that. So, I just anticipate we’ll continue to do the work to make it the safest event."
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