From kneeling to Spanish anthems: How the NFL lost Middle America at halftime
After the chaotic early 2020s, when the NFL led the way by leaning into woke nonsense like kneeling for the national anthem or introducing "Lift Every Voice" as a separate anthem for Black Americans, there’s been a lack of trust between the average football fan and the Super Bowl halftime production. The sense is, "What are they going to try this time?"
The NFL responded with an all-Spanish halftime show and effectively challenged Americans to have a problem with it. What are viewers going to do — not watch?
But many didn’t.
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Turning Point’s "All-American Halftime Show" was announced a few months ago to contrast with what many expected would be a politicized halftime show by Bad Bunny, an artist whose songs are exclusively in Spanish and who has made political statements in the past, including "Ice Out" at the Grammy Awards and "F--- Trump" during the Black Lives Matter protests.
The New York Times puts the number of concurrent viewers of the alternative show at 6.1 million, while Turning Point says its total viewership was around 9 million. The show aired on streaming platforms like YouTube and Rumble. That number may be a fraction of the "official" halftime show, but the Super Bowl halftime show is one of the most expensive productions in entertainment, often running more than $10 million, and the artists, who are not paid, perform for the exposure.
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To lose anywhere from 6 million to 9 million viewers is not a win for the official show. That Turning Point was able to compete at all, with stars like Gabby Barrett and Kid Rock, is a testament to how much Americans are craving a normal show — one with performers who don’t hate them, don’t attack law enforcement and don’t despise the president they just re-elected.
There was some irony in the show, such as when Ricky Martin joined Bad Bunny on stage for the song "Lo Que Pasó en Hawái," which translates to "What happened to Hawaii." What happened to Hawaii is that an influx of people moved in unchecked, and the local population was displaced, with some forced to leave their homes.
The lyrics could easily be applied to concerns many Americans have about unchecked, massive, illegal immigration during the Joe Biden presidency:
"Quieren al barrio mío y que tus hijos se vayan (They want my neighborhood and want your children to leave) / No, no suelte' la bandera ni olvide' el lelolai (No, don’t let go of the flag or forget the lelolai) / Que no quiero que hagan contigo lo que le pasó a Hawái (I don’t want them to do to you what happened to Hawaii)."
Before the show, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called Bad Bunny "one of the great artists in the world," saying the performer "understood the platform he was on" and that the platform is used "to unite people and bring them together through creativity and talent."
He didn’t.
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His only spoken phrase in English — still the primary language of most Americans — was "God bless America," followed by a list of countries in Central and South America. The point, of course, was that America — the United States of America — is not special and not something worth celebrating.
That’s the problem with choosing someone like Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl halftime show. His music is fine on a beach, a few beers in, playing in the background. But the halftime show is supposed to be something else. As Goodell said, it’s supposed to unite.
We’re in a new moment as Americans — a "vibe shift" following the re-election of Donald Trump — where we know we have something worth preserving and celebrating.
Bad Bunny doesn’t get that, and it showed.