When the NFL announced Bad Bunny as the headline performer for the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show, it was met with a wide range of heavily polarized reactions. While many were simply excited because they enjoyed Bad Bunny’s music, others praised the NFL for highlighting Latino culture and music on one of the biggest stages in the United States. Another large group heavily criticized the league, even going as far as to claim it was an “un-American” choice.
The motives behind the NFL’s choice for the halftime show are hard to detach from their end goal of promoting a profit and expanding publicity as a massive corporation. But what is evident is the expansive influence the league has on the culture, and even the politics, of the United States.
On Feb. 8, during the tail end of his halftime show performance, Bad Bunny looked into the camera and said “God bless America” and listed the names of North, Central and South American nations, including the United States at the end. During this, flags of these nations waved and were carried by dancers behind him as a screen in the stadium displayed “THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE” in bold lettering. Before spiking the football he carried, Bad Bunny showed the camera, which said “Together we are America.”
There is no doubt about how culturally relevant sports are in the United States. American football is by far the most popular sport in the U.S., with 43% of American adults watching regular-season games. Since 2010, the Super Bowl has averaged over 100 million viewers annually, with a record-breaking 127.7 million viewers at its peak in 2025. All to say, much of the United States’ attention is historically focused on the Super Bowl. According to CBS, early figures show that Bad Bunny’s performance has an estimated more than 135 million viewers.
In addition to Bad Bunny, the NFL also chose Green Day to perform during the 2026 Super Bowl opening. Green Day is no stranger to the political realm. One of their most popular songs, “American Idiot,” when originally released in 2004, was a criticism of President George W. Bush. The group has revised the lyrics in recent performances to “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda” to criticize current President Donald Trump. While Green Day did play “American Idiot”, it did not feature the lyric change, nor any other political element to their performance.
At the end of the day, the NFL functions as a business for monetary gain. While choosing Bad Bunny and Green Day may not be an inherently political choice, the outrage from some conservative groups in the country is very telling. President Trump reacted to the choice saying, “I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.” Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit founded by the late Charlie Kirk, created its own alternative halftime show, called The All-American Halftime Show, with the purpose of “celebrating faith, family, and freedom.”
When accepting the Grammy for best música urbana album on Feb. 1, Bad Bunny began his speech with “ICE out” and continued with “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.” After winning the Grammy for album of the year, he dedicated the award to “all the people who had to leave their homeland, their country, to follow their dreams.”
It is hard to say that the NFL was entirely making a political statement by choosing Bad Bunny for the halftime show. It equally and realistically could have been functioning as a business, strategically attempting to grow viewership as well as increase publicity. But what is clear is the impact and influential power the NFL, as well as sports in general, has on culture as well as politics in the U.S. Bad Bunny’s performance helped restore and broaden the scope of what it means to be American during a time where who is and what makes a true American is heavily disputed. Bad Bunny’s performance rightfully and skillfully makes us question the very idea of what we mean when we say “American”, and the implications that it has on our ideas of nationhood and identity.
