Students make unexpected appearance in 2026 Super Bowl

On Feb. 8, millions of Americans came together to watch the 60th Super Bowl. As is the case most years, many of these viewers don’t really care about football. Rather, the halftime show has become as much, if not more, of a spectacle than the actual game. This year, Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican rapper and singer, headlined the event, bringing international eyes like never before.

Bad Bunny began his set in a scene of tall grass and sugar cane, a reference to the history of the enslavement of Africans on the island. Many viewers noticed that the grass on the field was actually made up of actors in costumes, meaning they filed on and off the set, much to the amusement of viewers at home.

Turns out, a few of those grass people have ties to Stanford. 

“I heard about it through a friend who performed in Rihanna’s halftime show back in Arizona,” said fourth-year Ph.D. student Edward Apraku. “I grew up as a dancer in Arizona, and I had friends who were a part of the show. One friend sent me the field cast application and dancer application and told me to apply.”

Apraku applied for the show in September, before any information about the height requirement, time commitment or details about the costume was released. Luckily for him, he was 6 feet 2 inches tall and had the ability to shape his schedule around the show’s rehearsals, so when the team behind the show reached back out in January, he was completely on board.

“[I made] the long weekday schedule by working on my dissertation from 5 a.m. to 12 p.m. and then be[ing] at practice from 1 pm to 10 pm,” Apraku said. 

He had been learning Spanish for the past two years and coincidentally was listening to Bad Bunny at a Latin Night event in San Francisco when he found out he had been accepted to perform.

“I learned about Bad Bunny through friends during undergrad… ‘El Apagón’ is my favorite Bad Bunny song of all time,” Apraku said. “I went to Puerto Rico for my birthday this past September and loved the island, but couldn’t get tickets to his residency, so I thought the Super Bowl could be the next best thing.”

Although he is not Latino, Apruko resonated deeply with the message behind Bad Bunny’s latest album, “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS,” as it reminded him of his own visits to Ghana to see his grandparents and extended family. 

“That plastic chair on the album cover transcends borders, language and cultures, and I always wish I took more photos with my community,” he said. 

The actors playing the grass during the halftime show stole the show in many ways. Their somewhat invisible presence kept fans, including those at Stanford, entertained during the time in between the game and the show itself.

“As a Puerto Rican student, the Bad Bunny show was so meaningful to me,” said Emily Ocasio ’27.  “When I first saw the grass actors, I thought it was funny, but also such an amazing example of how much care and effort was put into literally every detail of the show. I was then super jealous to learn that other Stanford students got to be the grass.” 

Ocasio isn’t a football fan by any means, but she, like many other Latinos around the globe, tuned in because of the NFL’s monumental decision to have a Spanish-speaking artist headline the event. The halftime show averaged 128.2 million viewers from 8:15 to 8:30 pm ET on the day of the Super Bowl, making it the fourth-most-watched halftime show in history.

“As I was going through my Instagram later that day after the game, I saw my mutuals who go to Stanford posting in their costumes,” Mercy Haub ’27 said. “And not only was I realizing that I was three or four degrees away from the icon Benito himself, but it was also cool to see that even though it was such a huge performance, there were so many local people involved.”

Given that this year’s Super Bowl was played right here in the Bay, it’s only right that Stanford played a part in the spectacle.

“My favorite part of participating was just being a part of history and Bad Bunny’s legacy as the first Spanish speaking artist to perform at the Super Bowl,” Apraku said. “It was amazing to see his vision come together from the plantations of Puerto Rico to the barrios of NYC… I made so many lasting friendships from this experience.”

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