San Jose, California
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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wants Super Bowl LX to be a unifying event, a moment for all football fans – and those who tune in once a year for the season’s biggest game – to put aside the things that divide us and come together for some pigskin.
It’s one of the few times that the NFL commissioner is very unlikely to get what he wants.
Megastar Bad Bunny is set to be at the center of the entertainment universe at halftime of Super Bowl LX, a fact that has been the subject of culture war contretemps ever since it was announced this fall. Goodell was asked at his annual Super Bowl news conference Monday whether he’s expecting any political statements during the performance. His response, essentially, boiled down to “Boy, I hope not.”
“Listen, Bad Bunny is – and I think that was demonstrated last night – one of the great artists in the world, and that’s one of the reasons we chose him,” Goodell said.
“But the other reason is he understood the platform he was on, and that this platform is used to unite people, and to be able to bring people together with their creativity, with their talents, and to be able to use this moment to do that. And I think artists in the past have done that. I think Bad Bunny understands that, and I think he’ll have a great performance.”
That came just the day after the artist used some of his time on the Grammys stage to criticize recent actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even if his “ICE out” message sounded louder to those in the wings of social media than his message of unity.
This tension is why Super Bowl LX is positioned to be unlike many of the 59 previous editions of the game. In Minneapolis and other cities around the nation, President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement operations are drawing increasingly intense condemnations as protests pop up around the globe. The killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have seized the national consciousness. The Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are under the microscope as their heavy-handed tactics are subject to ever-increasing scrutiny.
An acceptance speech at the Grammys is a big audience for any performer. The Super Bowl halftime show is a whole different animal. Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican icon who raps and sings in Spanish, is not shy about seizing the moment, and he’s about to have a spotlight unlike any other in his career.
Goodell has had his run-ins with Trump in the past, particularly in the president’s 2016 campaign, when players began kneeling during the national anthem in order to protest racism and police brutality in America. Goodell supported his players’ right to speak their minds, something Trump criticized.
For a long time, the president spent an outsized amount of energy criticizing the league, its players, its ratings, its gameplay and more. But that icy relationship has thawed in recent months with Goodell even making a warm appearance in the Oval Office last spring to announce the NFL Draft coming to Washington, DC, in 2027.
The choice of Bad Bunny as halftime show performer has stuck in Trump’s craw, but he’s largely stuck to criticizing the artist rather than the league or Goodell. In fact, much of his football-related comments recently have been centered on his dislike of the new dynamic kickoff and pushing for a return to the old rules – something that even presidential posts on social media aren’t going to affect.
Some in conservative circles have opposed Bad Bunny’s appearance on sports’ biggest stage since it was announced, stemming from the fact he excluded the continental United States from his 2025-2026 concert tour, a decision he said he made out of fear that ICE could potentially raid the venues. Others on the right have been critical of Bad Bunny’s music catalogue, which exclusively contains Spanish songs.
It should not come as a surprise if ICE has some presence on the ground in the Bay Area this week as part of Super Bowl LX security. Deemed a SEAR-1 level event – the top level in the Special Event Assessment Rating by the Department of Homeland Security – the Super Bowl draws massive security presence from state, local and federal law enforcement every year. Given the Department of Homeland Security’s role in coordinating those security operations, ICE officers should be expected.
“Security is obviously one of the things we focus on the most,” Goodell said when asked about the possibility of ICE being on the ground.
“It’s a SEAR-1 level event that involves unique assets at the federal level, state level and the local level, all working together. I see no change in that. … We’re working with all three of those levels and doing everything we can to make sure it’s a safe environment. And the federal government is a big part of that, including this administration and every other administration before that.”
More details on the security operation for the weekend are expected at a news conference later this week.
Ultimately, Goodell has more than just Bad Bunny to worry about when it comes to an artist making a political statement on Sunday.
Green Day, the legendary punk rock band that formed in the East Bay and was seminal part of the early 1990s Bay Area music scene before going on to massive mainstream success, is the main performer of the Super Bowl’s opening ceremonies on Sunday. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has never been shy about letting his thoughts known, whether that’s a political statement or displeasure at how much time his band has been given at a radio concert.
The 2004 release of “American Idiot,” a roar of anger at President George W. Bush’s America, cemented the band as one of the leading political voices in popular music. Age has not seemed to mellow out Armstrong and his bandmates – they’ve regularly been criticizing the Trump administration while on tour before their Super Bowl performance, changing a lyric from a track from that Bush-era album to “I’m not a part of a MAGA agenda.”
Punk rock ethos demands making the powerful feel uncomfortable whenever possible. Green Day, for more than 30 years now, have tried to embody that spirit. When they take the mic at Super Bowl LX, it’s hard to imagine Armstrong won’t be relishing the idea of making a big statement on the big stage.
