Jack White And Eminem Just Exposed How Awful Super Bowl Halftime Shows Have Become
NFL needs the guts to let different worlds collide and let the music speak for itself
The NFL actually woke up for a minute during the Packers-Lions halftime show on Thanksgiving.
Wild, I know. Jack White comes out swinging his guitar as if it owes him money, Eminem jumps in, the crowd loses its collective mind, and suddenly halftime isn’t the usual NyQuil-adjacent corporate lullaby. Imagine that — a show with an actual pulse. Somebody alert the league office.
Because let’s be real: the NFL’s Super Bowl halftime strategy over the last decade has been formulaic and stale. And it won't end this season with Bad Bunny booked.
For years, it's been one genre. One vibe. One "approved" playlist. Same flavor, different artist. It’s like watching Roger Goodell trying to earn street cred — stiff, awkward, and begging for approval from people who don’t even care.
But here’s what happened on Thanksgiving: two completely different styles collided, and instead of clashing, it blew the roof off of Ford Field. Rock, hip-hop, whatever — people didn’t care what box it checked. They cared that the energy was real. They cared that nobody was babysitting the performance to make sure it fit some marketing spreadsheet.
Hit Twitter and scroll for two seconds — people were losing it as if they'd been, um, entertained.
And let’s be honest, this country could use a moment where everyone’s not ready to toss a folding chair at each other. If 12 minutes of rock and rap on the same stage gets people nodding their heads instead of pointing fingers, I'm all for it. It might not be world peace, but hey, it’s a start.
Halftime Doesn’t Have to Be a One-Genre Prison
Football fans aren’t one thing. Never have been. So why is the halftime show always one thing? The NFL markets itself like it's the great unifier on Sundays, then hands halftime over to a single genre like it’s performing surgery and doesn’t want to risk startling anyone.
Imagine a Super Bowl where the league actually grows a spine:
Chris Stapleton with Kendrick Lamar. Metallica with Post Malone. Foo Fighters with Dua Lipa. Crossovers that shouldn’t work on paper but destroy in real life. Stuff that makes the whole stadium go, "Okay, didn’t see that coming — but damn."
Stop picking a genre — especially the same one EVERY single year. Start throwing genres in a blender and letting the sparks fly.
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Thanksgiving at Ford Field proved people want a show that feels alive — not sanitized, not focus-grouped, not built to keep everyone’s heart rate at a resting 60. Give them artists who shouldn’t work together but somehow do. Give them a moment nobody saw coming.
DETROIT, MICHIGAN - NOVEMBER 27: Eminem and Jack White perform during halftime of a Thanksgiving NFL football game between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers at Ford Field on November 27, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
The NFL’s Got the Blueprint — If They Don’t Screw It Up
Jack White and Eminem didn’t reinvent halftime. They just showed what happens when you stop babying the audience and let artists who have cross appeal cook. No gimmicks. No training wheels. Just a real show with real energy — you know, that thing the NFL keeps insisting it totally cares about every year right before giving us another snoozer.
If the NFL wants to fix the Super Bowl halftime show, it doesn’t need a committee. It doesn't need a think tank. It definitely doesn’t need a 47-page PowerPoint from some marketing intern.
It just needs the guts to let different worlds collide and let the music speak for itself.
Do that, and halftime stops being something you tolerate, and turns back into something you can’t wait to see explode.
Because if Detroit just showed us what halftime can be, February’s Super Bowl is gonna feel like the NFL downgraded from dynamite to a scented candle.