NFL and Roger Goodell Position Super Bowl To Be Anti-Trump, Anti-ICE Slopfest
At minimum, the NFL has placed too much trust in Jay Z to choose artists appropriate for the league’s biggest stage.
Though NFL commissioner Roger Goodell insists that Bad Bunny and other musicians involved "understand" the Super Bowl is a "platform to unite people," it is difficult to believe they will ultimately stick to music.
Bad Bunny, the halftime headliner, will draw the most attention. He is an outspoken critic of President Trump and his policies, particularly the administration’s use of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to combat illegal immigration. In a September 2025 interview, Bad Bunny explained why he skipped U.S. stops on his world tour.
"There was the issue of f****** ICE could be outside my concert," he told i-D magazine. "And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about."
After announcing Bad Bunny, the NFL added Green Day and Brandi Carlile to the Super Bowl LX lineup. Both artists have been just as vocal, if not more so, in their opposition to Trump.
Green Day has recently altered lyrics from its most popular songs to target the Trump administration directly. Last month, lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong changed a line in "American Idiot" from "I’m not part of the redneck agenda" to "I’m not part of the MAGA agenda."
He also referenced Vice President JD Vance during a performance of "Jesus of Suburbia" in Melbourne, Australia.
"Am I retarded or am I just JD Vance?" Armstrong sang, replacing the original lyric, "Am I retarded or just overjoyed?"
Carlile is scheduled to perform before kickoff, singing "America the Beautiful." For those unfamiliar with her work, she wrote a song titled "Church & State" on the night Trump won the 2024 election. The song falsely accused the administration of a plan to erode the separation between religion and government.
Despite Goodell’s comments, it is hard to look at this lineup and not question whether the NFL is trying to send a political message. In such a divisive climate, are we supposed to believe the league coincidentally selected three artists with such documented histories of partisan political activism?
OutKick asked the NFL whether the selections of Bad Bunny, Green Day, and Brandi Carlile were strategic. As of publication, the league has not responded. NBC also declined to comment on whether it has concerns or contingency plans should a musical performance turn political.
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 29: Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day holds a Donald Trump mask while performing onstage as Green Day kicks off their Saviors North America Stadium Tour at Nationals Park on July 29, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation)
At minimum, the NFL has placed too much trust in Jay Z’s entertainment company, Roc Nation, to choose artists appropriate for the league’s biggest stage.
Few brands in America understand the consequences of blending politics and entertainment better than the NFL. The league suffered double-digit viewership declines in 2016 and 2017 as Colin Kaepernick and other players knelt during the national anthem.
In fact, it was not until last February that the NFL regained the Republican support it had lost during that period.
Earlier this week, comedian Adam Carolla compared the NFL selecting Bad Bunny for halftime to Bud Light partnering with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, the latter of which cost the beer brand its No. 1 status for the first time in more than two decades.
"Bud Light thought they had their fans and they weren’t going anywhere, and Cracker Barrel thought they had their fans and they weren’t going anywhere," Carolla said. "It’s happened more than once where companies decide they’ve got their audience locked in, so let’s go chase a different one."
What's more, this was all so avoidable.
No one is asking the NFL to book MAGA-friendly musicians for the Super Bowl. Rather, critics are asking for performers who can handle the responsibility of entertaining the country during its biggest sporting event without alienating half or more of the audience.
If the Super Bowl turns into an anti-ICE demonstration, it will cost the NFL popularity. And Roger Goodell will bear responsibility for pretending he didn’t expect it.