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The NFL’s big reveal this week—that global superstar Bad Bunny will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Feb. 8, 2026—should have been a moment of national celebration, but instead it exposed how far the league has drifted from the tastes of everyday Americans. The announcement from the NFL, Roc Nation and Apple Music landed during Sunday Night Football and made clear that the halftime stage will once again be used to chase a younger, global audience rather than honor broad, mainstream appeal.
Conservative viewers weren’t surprised to see the predictable outrage follow, with MAGA-aligned influencers and commentators already mobilizing against the choice and even proposing nostalgic, all-American alternatives. The backlash didn’t come from thin air; it springs from real frustration that the Super Bowl, a rare national unifier, is repeatedly handed over to performers whose politics, language and cultural signals feel less like celebration and more like a statement.
Look, Bad Bunny is not unknown—he’s one of the most streamed artists on the planet and the NFL can point to those numbers as justification. But popularity isn’t the same as suitability for an event watched by tens of millions of Americans who expect halftime to be family-friendly and unifying, not a political platform or a showcase for niche long-form identity politics. The NFL’s ongoing partnership with Roc Nation makes sense from a diversity-and-streaming playbook, but it also signals that profit and hip cred now outweigh the common-sense considerations of its core audience.
Bad Bunny himself has been open about his identity-driven messaging and his refusal to simply play by the old rules—he’s even suggested his Super Bowl set will be for “my people,” and has reportedly said he plans only one U.S. date outside of his tour. Those are facts the league knew going in, and conservatives have every right to ask whether the NFL is booking stars or booking controversy. Fans who want a halftime show that celebrates shared American culture deserve to have their objections heard.
There’s also the broader concern about where this pattern leads: when the biggest stages in America become predictable outlets for political signaling, we lose neutral cultural spaces that once bound us together. That’s not a call to cancel artists—performers should be free to sing in any language and speak their minds—but it is a call for the NFL and corporate sponsors to remember they answer to a broad American public, not just the cultural tastemakers and streaming metrics. Conservatives are rightly suspicious when major institutions start valuing “woke” optics over national unity and family values.
If the NFL won’t course-correct on its own, then Americans should use the only language institutions understand: dollars and attention. Sponsors who bankroll these halftime pageants should be hearing from customers, and viewers can choose where to spend their time and money on game day. When a national institution repeatedly sidelines traditional American tastes for trendy cultural experiments, pushback isn’t just permitted—it’s patriotic accountability.
At the end of the day, hardworking Americans want an event that brings families together on a Sunday night, not another politicized spectacle that divides us. Greg Kelly’s blunt “I do not like Bad Bunny Rabbit” sentiment captures how many feel: tired of elites deciding what qualifies as entertainment for the country. If the NFL wants to remain a genuine national celebration, it should pick performers who unite more than they polarize and stop treating the Super Bowl halftime like a laboratory for culture-war experiments.
