By Daniel Paiz

The NFL has accepted what some fans cannot, and that’s creating an interesting narrative around both the sport and larger US society today. Guys like Roger Goodell, Robert Kraft, the Walton family and others know how to run businesses and to make money. However, they do not know what is popular when it comes to subjective areas such as musical tastes. Rather than having to divert more attention to this area, their solution is to hire Jay-Z and Roc Nation to do that work for them.

Makes sense for the NFL, but some football fans are clearly upset with the performers selected for the Super Bowl halftime show.

Halftime Divide

The NFL appears to be aware that they are not current with the musical pulse in the United States and the world. The league is also behind on larger issues such as seemingly forgetting about the Rooney rule (teams must interview two minority candidates before hiring someone) and being inconsistent with what’s a penalty this season. This is something easy for the league to work on.

Who plays the halftime show is really window dressing in terms of making progress. Bad Bunny in this case created a cultural moment for folks across North, Central, and South America. This performance also allowed for another culture war entry to distract from aforementioned issues the league is doing little to fix.

For those upset with the Puerto Rican superstar, the excuses are endless for why Benito shouldn’t have been selected.

“Bad Bunny isn’t from America!”

Puerto Rico has been part of the United States as a territory since the end of the Spanish-American War, where the island joined the stars and stripes in 1898. Puerto Ricans are considered American citizens, although they aren’t allowed to vote in presidential elections nor have any representation in the US Senate. Outside of representation on the national level, this territory has a similar structure to US states.

Therefore, Bad Bunny and all of those folks on that island are US citizens.

Another important distinction is that the United States does not have an official language in terms of such a declaration being passed by Congress. English is the most spoken, but that doesn’t deny the other 300+ languages spoken in this 250-year-old country. This seems to anger English-only speakers, who have not been forced or even asked to learn another language (such as Spanish in this instance).

“You won’t be able to understand the halftime show”

When artists selected for the halftime show perform in English, there’s not much discussion about it. The first-ever predominantly Spanish performance at the Super Bowl stirred such an outcry, which is kind of silly. The most streamed artist in 2025 seems like a no-brainer choice, and those fans who didn’t know Bad Bunny likely cannot accept how out of touch they are.

This is another example of privilege unchecked. White men complain the most about things that don’t center them since most of US society does. Commissioners of the four major US sports leagues are run by white men. The majority of representatives in Congress are also white men. The wealthiest people in the US are white men. The list goes on and on.

There are men who are not white who also make these complaints, possibly due to trying to gain approval from those in charge, internalized oppression, and insecurity (that last one is layered and could lead to thesis papers and other steep studies outside the scope of this article). Not to mention that women are even more important, especially in communities of color; yet they are largely relegated to background roles.

The women highlighted in the halftime show are recognized as being at the core of community, especially the deservedly celebrated Toñita, the Caribbean Social Club in Brooklyn owner known as María Antonia Cay. Women from across the Americas were represented in numerous settings, from the opening dance numbers to the powerline scene about midway through the show. Lady Gaga also added to the set in delivering some English but primarily to highlight language wasn’t the point of the show: music, community, and love are.

This isn’t a new trend

2026 revisits similar complaints made in 2025 when multiple Grammy winner and Nobel Prize winner Kendrick Lamar took center stage and had his own love letter to his hometown. What makes Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar so threatening to those in charge is their defiance through love and joy. Recognizing what made them who they are today, appreciation and memories of those who built them up in this thing called life, and refusing to shrink their heart and talent.

Daring to point out inconsistencies in their hometowns and communities that those in charge ignore or blame said communities for. Blame rather than accepting the systemic creation of such difficulties caused by what’s in place in the United States today is the name of the game. Anything that celebrates culture seems to make those disconnected with their own fairly uncomfortable.

60 years of the Super Bowl and less than a dozen or so that have highlighted artists who aren’t largely white appears to make for continued discomfort. Those fans who are upset with this don’t seem to realize or accept the NFL will continue to defer to their third-party music experts. There might be some in the league in higher positions who do truly appreciate all peoples and cultures in the US.

However, the NFL’s favorite color is green and whatever continues to reflect that palette is what the NFL will do.