{"id":2109721,"date":"2025-10-23T03:21:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T03:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2109721"},"modified":"2025-10-23T03:21:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T03:21:23","slug":"nfl-defends-bad-bunny-super-bowl-performance-amid-trump-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/nfl-defends-bad-bunny-super-bowl-performance-amid-trump-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL defends Bad Bunny Super Bowl performance amid Trump backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div id=\"videoWrap\" class=\"spacer-large videoWrap\" style=\"position:relative\"><media-video video-id=\"86416237007\" title=\"Bad Bunny to perform at Super Bowl LX halftime show in California\" poster=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2025\/09\/29\/USAT\/86416254007-20250929-vpc-bad-bunny-to-headline-super-bowl-thumb-00-00-00-22-still-004.jpg?crop=1919,1079,x0,y0\" util-module-path=\"elements\/media\" placement=\"snow-video-story-priority\"><\/p>\n<div id=\"uwVideoPlaceholder\" slot=\"placeholder\" style=\"z-index:19;width:100%;padding-bottom:56.25%;position:relative\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"vidplaybtn\" style=\"display:-moz-box;display:-ms-flexbox;display:-webkit-flex;display:flex;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,.4);border:2px solid #fff;border-radius:80px;cursor:pointer;height:80px;width:80px;position:absolute;top:50%;left:50%;transform:translate(-50%,-50%);z-index:10\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"vidplayicon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/appservices\/universal-web\/universal\/icons\/icon-play-alt-white.svg\" alt=\"play\" style=\"height:40px;margin:auto 18px auto 27px;width:40px\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div slot=\"videoDetails\" id=\"videoDetails\" class=\"videoDetails\" style=\"padding-top:8px;padding-bottom:8px\">\n<div id=\"videoDetailsContainer\" class=\"videoDetailsContainer\" hidden=\"\">\n<p>Bad Bunny to perform at Super Bowl LX halftime show in California<\/p>\n<p>Bad Bunny will perform at the Super Bowl LX halftime show in Santa Clara, California, he announced on social media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/media-video><\/div>\n<p>The NFL is standing behind its decision to have <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/09\/28\/super-bowl-2026-halftime-show-performer-bad-bunny\/86350766007\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/09\/28\/super-bowl-2026-halftime-show-performer-bad-bunny\/86350766007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bad Bunny on the Super Bowl stage in 2026<\/a> amid <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/10\/07\/trump-bad-buddy-super-bowl-reaction\/86566197007\/\">criticism from President Donald Trump<\/a> and a slew of <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/2025\/10\/08\/bad-bunny-super-bowl-mike-johnson-lee-greenwood\/86585967007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">other conservative politicians<\/a>.<\/p>\n<partner-banner util-module-path=\"elements\/partner\" class=\"spacer-large\" min-height=\"600\" fluid=\"\" outstream=\"\" momentum=\"\"\/>\n<p>NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Oct. 22 said choosing the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2023\/11\/16\/latin-artists-industry-recognition-latin-grammys\/71499909007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Grammy-winning Puerto Rican artist<\/a> as their halftime show headliner was &#8220;carefully thought through,&#8221; <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/46684916\/roger-goodell-nfl-reconsider-bad-bunny-sb-half-show\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/46684916\/roger-goodell-nfl-reconsider-bad-bunny-sb-half-show\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the controversy at a news conference following the NFL&#8217;s fall meeting, Goodell said, &#8220;I&#8217;m not sure we&#8217;ve ever selected an artist where we didn&#8217;t have some blowback or criticism. It&#8217;s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The 31-year-old, born <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/09\/22\/bad-bunny-puerto-rico-residency-impact\/86282319007\/\">Benito Antonion Mart\u00ednez Ocasio<\/a>, is also poised to become the first headlining act to perform solely in Spanish.<\/p>\n<partner-banner util-module-path=\"elements\/partner\" fluid=\"\" bottom=\"\" lazy=\"\" class=\"spacer-large\" min-height=\"390\" outstream=\"\"\/>\n<p class=\"related-link\"><span class=\"exclude-from-newsgate\"><strong style=\"margin-right:3px\">&#8216;I think everyone is happy about it&#8217;: <\/strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/tv\/2025\/10\/05\/bad-bunny-responds-fox-news-ice-super-bowl\/86423973007\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Bad Bunny&#8217;s &#8216;SNL&#8217; monologue hits back at Fox News<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world. That&#8217;s what we try to achieve. It\u2019s an important stage for us. It&#8217;s an important element to the entertainment value,&#8221; Goodell said, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/music\/music-news\/nfl-roger-goodell-bad-bunny-super-bowl-halftime-show-1236407099\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/music\/music-news\/nfl-roger-goodell-bad-bunny-super-bowl-halftime-show-1236407099\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><media-gallery-promo asset-id=\"86417592007\" class=\"column ten-column no-gutter spacer-large\"\/><\/p>\n<p>After the news was announced in September, politicians and social media users politicized <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/09\/29\/bad-bunny-super-bowl-halftime-jay-z\/86425743007\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/09\/29\/bad-bunny-super-bowl-halftime-jay-z\/86425743007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bad Bunny&#8217;s upcoming performance<\/a>. Republican lawmakers, including\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/politics\/mike-johnson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">House Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> \u2013 who said &#8220;God Bless the U.S.A.&#8221; singer-songwriter\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/10\/08\/mike-johnson-reacts-bad-bunny-super-bowl-halftime-show\/86591215007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lee Greenwood<\/a>\u00a0would be the &#8220;clear and obvious preference&#8221; \u2013 and Trump criticized Roc Nation and the NFL&#8217;s choice to name Bad Bunny as the headliner.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview on the conservative news network Newsmax, Trump claimed he had &#8220;never heard of&#8221; Bad Bunny, one of the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2023\/11\/29\/spotify-wrapped-2023-top-artists\/71730118007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">most-streamed artists globally<\/a> in recent years.<\/p>\n<partner-banner util-module-path=\"elements\/partner\" fluid=\"\" bottom=\"\" lazy=\"\" class=\"spacer-large\" min-height=\"600\" outstream=\"\" momentum=\"\"\/>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know who he is. I don&#8217;t know why they&#8217;re doing it, it&#8217;s like crazy,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Then they blame it on some promoter that they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it&#8217;s absolutely ridiculous.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bad Bunny has also been <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/10\/07\/trump-bad-bunny-beef-history-super-bowl\/86572644007\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/10\/07\/trump-bad-bunny-beef-history-super-bowl\/86572644007\/\">vocal in his opposition to Trump<\/a> and his policies in the past. During Trump&#8217;s first presidency, two back-to-back hurricanes, including Hurricane Maria, ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017, killing around\u00a03,000 people and displacing thousands more.<\/p>\n<p><cta-atoms-container-inline util-module-path=\"elements\/cta\" class=\"spacer-large\"\/><\/p>\n<p>At the time, the reggaeton star criticized the Trump administration&#8217;s response and lack of aid to the island following the natural disaster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"related-link\"><span class=\"exclude-from-newsgate\"><strong style=\"margin-right:3px\">More: <\/strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/10\/07\/trump-bad-bunny-beef-history-super-bowl\/86572644007\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">The history of beef between Trump and Bad Bunny<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><media-gallery-promo asset-id=\"86226636007\" class=\"column ten-column no-gutter spacer-large\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"presto-h2 wp-block-heading\">Despite backlash, Roger Goodell says Bad Bunny performance is &#8216;going to be a good show&#8217;<\/h2>\n<partner-inline util-module-path=\"elements\/partner\" class=\"spacer-large\" placement=\"native-article_link\" sizes=\"[[300, 250], [3, 3]]\" min-height=\"250\" fluid=\"\" outstream=\"\"\/>\n<p>A <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/replace-bad-bunny-with-george-strait-for-the-2026-super-bowl-halftime-show?source_location=search\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Change.org petition<\/a>\u00a0urging to replace\u00a0Bad Bunny\u00a0with\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/country-mile\/2024\/11\/21\/george-strait-2024-cma-awards\/76481844007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">George Strait<\/a>\u00a0as the\u00a0halftime show headliner has received 70,000 signatures and counting as of Oct. 22.<\/p>\n<partner-banner util-module-path=\"elements\/partner\" fluid=\"\" bottom=\"\" lazy=\"\" class=\"spacer-large\" min-height=\"390\" outstream=\"\"\/>\n<p>The online petition says that while music&#8217;s biggest stage has &#8220;leaned increasingly towards modern pop and international artists&#8221; in recent years, an artist like Strait &#8220;embodies the heart and soul of American music.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>USA TODAY reached out to representatives for Strait, Bad Bunny and Roc Nation for comment.<\/p>\n<partner-inline util-module-path=\"elements\/partner\" placement=\"native-article_link\" sizes=\"[[300, 250], [3, 3]]\" min-height=\"250\" fluid=\"\" outstream=\"\"\/>\n<p class=\"related-link\"><span class=\"exclude-from-newsgate\"><strong style=\"margin-right:3px\">More: <\/strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/09\/22\/bad-bunny-puerto-rico-residency-impact\/86282319007\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Bad Bunny&#8217;s 31-date Puerto Rico residency was a love letter to the island and its people<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Roc Nation, the entertainment company owned by\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/09\/29\/bad-bunny-super-bowl-halftime-jay-z\/86425743007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jay-Z<\/a>, has partnered with the league since 2019 to produce the halftime show. Performers since then have included Jennifer Lopez and\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/10\/21\/shakira-response-bad-bunny-super-bowl-halftime-show-2025\/86822141007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Shakira<\/a>,\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/celebrities\/2025\/09\/10\/nyfw-usher-harlems-fashion-row-event\/86051277007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Usher<\/a>,\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/celebrities\/2025\/09\/24\/rihanna-gives-birth-asap-rocky\/86335568007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rihanna<\/a>,\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/06\/24\/the-weeknd-cancels-las-vegas-concert\/84333220007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Weeknd<\/a>,\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/02\/09\/kendrick-lamar-super-bowl-halftime-show-review\/78290811007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kendrick Lamar<\/a>\u00a0and a lineup featuring\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/celebrities\/2025\/10\/16\/snoop-dogg-lgbt-stance-jeremy-beloate-love-is-love\/86733961007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Snoop Dogg<\/a>, Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre and more.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re confident it&#8217;s going to be a good show. (Bad Bunny) understands the platform that he is on, and I think it&#8217;s going to be (an) exciting and uniting moment,&#8221; Goodell said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Contributing: Rebecca Morin and Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY<\/em><\/p>\n<lit-timestamp class=\"column ten-column no-gutter spacer-small\" slot=\"timestamp\" publishdate=\"2025-10-22 18:58:03 +0000 UTC\" updatedate=\"2025-10-22 18:58:03 +0000 UTC\"\/><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.usatoday.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bad Bunny to perform at Super Bowl LX halftime show in California Bad Bunny will perform at the Super Bowl LX halftime show in Santa Clara, California, he announced on social media. The NFL is standing behind its decision to have Bad Bunny on the Super Bowl stage in 2026 amid criticism from President Donald [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2109722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[39915,306671,36149,22220,399431,30802,382746,399432,21751,239390,305457,22389,6297,21741,24362,363713,382747,21944,26246,22240,239389,21992,21739,298114,34210,348616,22773,325433,21738,304804,366314,30600,352929,22048,357383,366711,361699,362205,358090,21890,21861,21848,382745,372757,24638,239344,100640,239391],"class_list":["post-2109721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-affiliate","tag-american","tag-american-football","tag-arts","tag-bad","tag-bad-bunny","tag-bowl","tag-bunny","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrities-u0026-entertainment-news","tag-donald","tag-donald-trump","tag-eamotion","tag-entertainment","tag-football","tag-goodell","tag-halftime","tag-hip-hop","tag-johnson","tag-life","tag-life-now","tag-live","tag-local","tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","tag-mike","tag-mike-johnson","tag-national","tag-national-sports","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-night","tag-now","tag-party","tag-politics","tag-republican","tag-republican-party","tag-roger","tag-roger-goodell","tag-saturday","tag-saturday-night-live","tag-show","tag-sports","tag-super","tag-super-bowl-halftime-show","tag-trump","tag-u0026","tag-urban","tag-urban-u0026-hip-hop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/NFL-defends-Bad-Bunny-Super-Bowl-performance-amid-Trump-backlash.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2109721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2109723,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109721\/revisions\/2109723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2109722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2109721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2109721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2109721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}