By Jared Bahir Browsh
Donald Trump, it is fair to assume, will be switching channels during this year’s Super Bowl halftime show.
The U.S. president has already said that he won’t be attending Super Bowl LX in person, suggesting that the venue, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, was “just too far away.” But the choice of celebrity entertainment planned for the main break – Puerto Rican reggaeton star Bad Bunny and recently announced pregame addition Green Day – didn’t appeal. “I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible,” Trump told the New York Post.
National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell likely didn’t have the sensibilities of the U.S. president in mind when the choice of Bad Bunny was made.
One of the top artists in the world, Bad Bunny performs primarily in Spanish and has been critical of immigration enforcement, which factored into the backlash in some conservative circles to the choice. Bad Bunny’s anti-ICE comments at this year’s Grammy Awards will have only stoked the ire of some conservatives.
But for the NFL hierarchy, this was likely a business decision, not a political one. The league has its eyes on expansion into Latin America; Bad Bunny, they hope, will be a ratings-winning means to an end. It has made such bets in the past. In 2020, Shakira and Jennifer Lopez were chosen to perform, with Bad Bunny making an appearance. The choice then, too, was seen as controversial.
Al Bello/Getty Images
Raising the flag overseas
As a teacher and scholar of critical sports studies, I study the global growth of U.S.-based sports leagues overseas.
Some, like the National Basketball Association, are at an advantage. The sport is played around the globe and has large support bases in Asia – notably in the Philippines and China – as well as in Europe, Australia and Canada.
The NFL, by contrast, is largely entering markets that have comparatively little knowledge and experience with football and its players.
The league has opted for a multiprong approach to attracting international fans, including lobbying to get flag football into the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Playing the field
When it comes to the traditional tackle game, the NFL has held global aspirations for over three-quarters of a century. Between 1950-1961, before they merged, the NFL and American Football League played seven games against teams in Canada’s CFL to strengthen the relationship between the two nations’ leagues.
Developing a fan base south of the border has long been part of the plan.
The first international exhibition game between two NFL teams was supposed to take place in Mexico City in 1968. But Mexican protest over the economy and cost of staging the Olympics that year led the game, between the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles, to be canceled.
Instead, it was Montreal that staged the first international exhibition match the following year.
In 1986, the NFL added an annual international preseason game, the “American Bowl,” to reach international fans, including several games in Mexico City and one in Monterrey.
But the more concerted effort was to grow football in the potentially lucrative, and familiar, European market.
After several attempts by the NFL and other entities in the 1970s and ’80s to establish an international football league, the NFL-backed World League of Football launched in 1991. Featuring six teams from the United States, one from Canada and three from Europe, the spring league lost money but provided evidence that there was a market for American football in Europe, leading to the establishment of NFL Europe.
But NFL bosses have long had wider ambitions. The league staged 13 games in Tokyo, beginning in 1976, and planned exhibitions for 2007 and 2009 in China that were ultimately canceled. These attempts did not have the same success as in Europe.
Beyond exhibitions
The NFL’s outreach in Latin America has been decades in the making. After six exhibition matches in Mexico between 1978 and 2001, the NFL chose Mexico City as the venue of its first regular season game outside the United States.
In 2005, it pitted the Arizona Cardinals against the San Francisco 49ers at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Marketed as “Fútbol Americano,” it drew the largest attendance in NFL history, with over 103,000 spectators.
The following year, Goodell was named commissioner and announced that the NFL would focus future international efforts on regular-season games.
The U.K. was a safe bet due to the established stadium infrastructure and the country’s small but passionate fan base. The NFL International Series was played exclusively in London between 2007 and 2016.
But in 2016, the NFL finally returned to Mexico City, staging a regular-season game between the Oakland – now Las Vegas – Raiders and Houston Texans.
And after the completion of upgrades to Latin America’s largest stadium, Estadio Azteca, the NFL will return to Mexico City in 2026, along with games in Munich, Berlin and London. Future plans include expanding the series to include Sydney, Australia, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2026.
The International Player Pathway program also offers players from outside the United States an opportunity to train and earn a roster spot on an NFL team. The hope is that future Latin American players could help expand the sport in their home countries, similar to how Yao Ming expanded the NBA fan base in China after joining the Houston Rockets, and Shohei Ohtani did the same for baseball in Japan while playing in Los Angeles.
Heading south of the border
The NFL’s strategy has gained the league a foothold in Latin America.
Mexico and Brazil have become the two largest international markets for the NFL, with nearly 40 million fans in each of the nations.
Although this represents a fraction of the overall sports fans in each nation, the raw numbers match the overall Latino fan base in the United States. In recent years the NFL has celebrated Latino Heritage Month through its Por La Cultura campaign, highlighting Latino players past and present.
Latin America also offers practical advantages. Mexico has long had access to NFL games as the southern neighbor to the United States, with the Dallas Cowboys among the most popular teams in Mexico.
For broadcasters, Central and South America offer less disruption in regards to time zones. Games in Europe start as early as 6:30 a.m. for West Coast fans, whereas Mexico City follows Central time, and Brasilia time is only one to two hours ahead of Eastern time.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
The NFL’s expansion plans are not without criticism. Domestically, fans have complained that teams playing outside the U.S. borders means one less home game for season-ticket holders. And some teams have embraced international games more than others.
Another criticism is the league, which has reported revenues of over US$23 billion during the 2024-25 season – nearly double any other U.S.-based league – is using its resources to displace local sports. There are also those who see expansion of the league as a form of cultural imperialism. These criticisms often intersect with long-held ideas around the league promoting militarism, nationalism and American exceptionalism.
For sure, the choice of Bad Bunny as the halftime pick is controversial, given the current political climate around immigration. The artist removed tour dates on the U.S. mainland in 2025 due to concerns about ICE targeting fans at his concerts, a concern reinforced by threats from the Department of Homeland Security that they would do just that at the Super Bowl.
But in sticking with Bad Bunny, the NFL is showing it is willing to face down a section of its traditional support and bet instead on Latin American fans not just tuning in for the halftime show but for the whole game – and falling in love with football, too.
Jared Bahir Browsh is Assistant Teaching Professor of Critical Sports Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Deirdre says
Good for them, he’s a fantastic artist, and I love Green Day too. Not a sports fan, but I doubt they’re going to get a lot of interest from countries that Trump is attacking or plans to attack.
People don’t even mention the total siege on Cuba, people are starving there thanks to him. I hope he enjoys all that Venezuelan oil money he’s putting straight into his own pocket. The corruption is unreal! He doesn’t even try to hide it!
Until he’s gone, as the Latino Community in the US is obviously under attack, I doubt people will want to play sports with America. I’m surprised we’re still planning on the World Cup or the Olympics here.
I’ve bet a lot of Hispanic American people wish they hadn’t voted for Trump! He probably won because of them, since the race was so close. Too bad about the Kid Rock cancellation lol.
This administration just can’t seem to see the writing on the wall, as they build more concentration camps around the nation they’re destroying our economy and our reputation on the world stage.
Why is it people can’t see that immigrants, primarily Latino, are essential for our economic well-being? They believe every stupid lie, including how illegal ‘invaders’ are voting. You can’t convince them otherwise with the facts.
Remember when Trump called Mexicans rapists? How he separated families and put kids in cages? At least seven kids died in his first term, who knows how many will now.
I can’t believe I couldn’t see just how racist this country still is – I’m a baby boomer but I thought we evolved. At least the NFL didn’t cave to Trumps demands. No profit in it! That’s always the bottom line.
Barbara says
Well stated Deirdre. I too am a baby boomer and never thought the US would become an embarrassment and booed on the world stage, let alone have a convicted felon as president.
JimboXYZ says
I tried listening to the music on YouTube, just couldn’t sit thru any given hit or song the artist has done. I know I’ll be turning the halftime show volume down & playing my own custom playlist for that. Honestly, I can’t recall any halftime show that I would rate as a great one ? And that goes back to the era of SB halftime shows that had Marching bands. But at least the shows were real live music then, but I guess they could fake a marching band ? But why would they ?
If Bad Bunny is a NFL Hail Mary ? Music is in trouble. I’d rather watch Dua Lipa perform one of her choreographed covers with dancers ? I think Taylor Swift would be a much better show than BB. But we’d never hear the end of it that a White Female artist was selected ? And what a Taylor Swift performance would cost her, the NFL doesn’t pay for the show as I understand it. Maybe why Bad Bunny is doing it for free, he’s just a catalog of a collection that nobody is going to rave about the day after the Super Bowl. It certainly isn’t even on the same level Ted Nugent is capable for a performance in his 70’s ? Name a Bad Bunny hit ? Stack that up to Nugent’s Stranglehold (1975). That’s just one 51 year old song that is a timeless classic that will be better than anything Bad Bunny ever performs ? The trouble with a custom playlist would be to stay within the time allotment. I don’t think Bad Bunny is going to retain audience for the intro to his first song ? He better have some really hot looking women dancing around him. And I most likely give him that much airtime before my custom playlist is played over the TV video of what is going on. 20 minutes of Bad Bunny, is there that much in his catalog ? That’s going to be excruciatingly painful to sit thru. I’d rather perform root canal in my garage with a dremmel tool with no anesthesia than sit thru Bad Bunny. A Justin Beiber performance is starting to look like a legitimate SB halftime show.
go bunny go says
2007 Super Bowl XLI…Prince purple rain in the rain I think might be the absolute, honestly the best.
Also while I respect one’s own right to personal opinions, Bad Bunny has a world tour going on, and he’s been on 6. Ted, while a GREAT artist in his genre, hasn’t ever done one world tour. Based off this alone I’d guess the Bunny has a following of many who enjoy his music.
TR says
He may have a world tour coming up. But how many of those dates have any concerts in the USA? He said himself ” I will never do a concert in the USA because the Americans are stew-pd. I guess he was talking about the non Hispanic Americans being he’s an American who just so happens to live in a territory of the US.
Ed P says
But not be subjected to US federal income taxes.
BillC says
There’s always the alternate super patriotic Turning Point USA’s All-American Super Bowl Half-Time Show starring the 55 year old “Kid” Rock, along with Brantley Gilbert. Should be an exciting experience, a regular barn burner.
Deirdre says
Listen to Kid Rock’s song ‘cool daddy cool’ about having relations with underage girls, “some say it’s statutory, I say it’s mandatory.”
Is this the standard now for turning point USA, who claim to be Christians? I’ve got a problem with that.
Laurel says
ZZZZZZzzzzzzz ….
The dude says
MAGA truly believes the world revolves around them, when in reality the world is moving on.
Go ahead and admit you want to watch Kid Rock, no one will be surprised.
Laurel says
I liked Bad Bunny! My complaints are, though, I don’t like twerking, very tacky, very sexist. I also wonder how the audience could see the show with all the tall sugarcane. I get the sugarcane though. I also enjoyed Ricky Martin and Lady GaGa.
What I love, love, love is the Caribbean beat! So good (love the food, too)! Love salsa, music and food.
You can see a replay on YouTube.
The game was okay, glad the Seahawks won. I’m not a football fan, it’s too slow. I think it would be far more interesting if there were six players on each side.
Al says
I’m not a scholar in sports whatever, I played in them. I played pop warner, junior high, high-school and college. I loved the sport but ever since that nappy headed jerk took a knee I haven’t watched any pro football. I won’t watch the superbowl this year either. I’m not thrilled with what’s going on at the college level as free agency I feel is destroying the game. Anyway the NFL can go to hell.
Laurel says
“All it does is sow hatred” says Trump. Ah huh. He’s so full of it!
I’ll tell you what I think sucks, it’s the NFL requiring fans to purchase multiple channels if they want to watch a whole season! ABC for this team, Fox for that team, cable if you don’t have over the air, Sling for a couple other teams, Fubol for a few hundred dollars, and YouTube TV for a few more, and so on.
It’s totally obnoxious.
Dusty says
Our TV will be turned off during Superbowl halftime this year. Thank you.
Laurel says
Too bad. You missed a good show, based on a U.S. territory.
“God bless America!”
– Bad Bunny.
The dude says
Why?
Unable to allow yourselves to be exposed to anything outside your comfortable little MAGA bubble?
You think watching Bad Bunny will turn you into a brown skinned person?
You know nothing, and I mean nothing about this artist other than you KNOW you can’t be exposed to his art… how sad and small of you.
Lisa says
If I wasn’t half asleep I would have changed the channel and watched Everybody Loves Raymond. That was the worse game and by far the worse entertainment I watched with one eye open and the other closed. Could not for the life of me understand one lyric that he sung and kind of hard to look at, forget the dancing I don’t even have words for that. I’m sorry to be so negative but I was very disappointed. If things were different here or perhaps we had a different leader I can bet my bottom dollar that Superbowl viewers and halftime viewers would have complained about the entertainment once it was announced instead of praising it, seriously. I don’t care if you are D or R the Superbowl halftime entertainment should be just that, this was not. There have been many Latin halftime entertainers and if my memory serves me right they sang in English and actually sang songs lyrics you can understand. And correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) once say he was renouncing his citizenship and F–k America? What was he doing here causing more chaos and to be more honest I LOVED Green Day’s music and very much enjoyed watching Billie Joe Armstrong on stage, unfortunate for me now.
Skibum says
Lisa, complaining about not being able to understand one single lyric of Bad Bunny’s songs that he sang in Spanish, highlighting his Puerto Rican ancestry and culture. I suppose Lisa would be one of the truly bright individuals who would get all dressed up and go to the opera, only to be disgusted and return to the booth to demand a refund because she couldn’t understand one single word of the opera songs sung in Italian! Go figure.
Gina says
It’s called multiculturalism. Whatever happened to America is a “MELTING POT”
President Trump once again MISSED THE POINT and instead of once again
uniting our country, boldly SEPARATES people just like he builds a ballroom
costing millions of dollars in our White House to entertain his corporate buddies,
just like he paved over the Rose Garden and blamed it on women getting their
heels stuck in the dirt. Does he even speak Spanish???? Did he ever hear about
Spanish as a second language taught in our school system??? There are over
50 million people who speak Spanish in our country, 88 per cent of elementary
schools with language programs teach Spanish, and 70 percent of K-12 students
choose to study Spanish as a second language. I have European friends who speak
several languages. Trumps words are all part of the dummying of America, we
should be encouraging our youth to expand their horizons and he should not
preach that Bad Bunny should have sang his songs in English like he did.
Notice once again he race baits as there was nothing he could say about Bad
Bunny’s flawless performance, Trump will not speak of the performers talent,
the dancer or others performers who to millions had their heads in the right
direction of interpreting this as a love amongst all Latinos for our country. Very
sad and hateful indeed. Trump should take some Rosetta Stone lessons and
educate himself instead of continuing to bully.
Skibum says
I loved Ana Navarro’s on point response to all of the maga mush brains who spouted faux outrage over the Bad Bunny halftime show and because as a Puerto Rican American he sang his songs in Spanish. Yes, it isn’t hard to imagine many of the maga cult members sitting there eating chips and salsa, guacamole, nachos, etc. while complaining about Latino culture being highlighted. Ole!
Sherry says
Bad Bunny’s Super bowl halftime show had the largest audience in history! Each and every US Citizen should listen to this history of Puerto Rico. . . leading up to the performance and impact of Bad Bunny!
This from Heather Cox Richardson:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-9-2026-193?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=20533&post_id=187551924&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=listen_now_button&r=3ytnjf&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Laurel says
Glad you like Heather Cox Richardson, she’s a historian, and known as “The Explainer.”
Regarding the show, I think it was still too sexy for the family audience, but then again, football is too violent. Sex and violence, there ya go!
However, I loved Lady GaGa and Bad Bunny together. They were kick ass!
We have family and friends from the Caribbean, and one told me that all the vendors in the halftime show were authentic. The field workers, and residents, did climb the poles, risking their lives to try to get electric power back on. Their power had been off for a year. Can you imagine? Trump threw them rolls of paper towels. Well, they can’t vote, so…
It’s somewhat amusing that people who are English speaking, and can barely get it on paper, are upset by the bilingual folks. Better to condemn than learn, I guess.
By the way, “Bad Bunny” got his name from a picture of him, as a kid, in a bunny costume, with an annoyed look on his face. Cute!
Sherry says
Hand in Hand
Bad Bunny is an American
Bilingually he speaks
To all of us in America
Who will listen in time to the beat
A universal language
That we all can understand
And appreciate—where love trumps hate
Every color hand in hand
The Cream of the Crop
The Epstein Class is full of regret
Regret that they got caught
With their names on a list they’d hoped would be missed
In the sands of time but was not
Repercussions aplenty
In many far-flung places
Where sense trumps sensibility
Among the guilt-stricken faces
Except here in America
Dear Donald and his friends
Our cream of the crop make clear they will stop
At nothing to save their skins
Shits and Giggles
I was wrongfully convicted
But I need to plead the Fifth
In case I beat my felony rap
There’s nothing I dare admit
However, this much I’ll tell you
Both Presidents, Bill and Don
Are pure as the driven snow in this
No, neither did anything wrong
I’d gladly say the same under oath
If Donald would grant me clemency
Just thought I would throw it out there in
The interest of full transparency
And one more thing—a favor
It’s just for giggles and shits
Could you please check the cameras outside my cell?
Jeffrey’s seemed to be on the fritz
P.S. – If this type of content resonates with you, please consider subscribing to our “Never Trump Poetry Substack” free of charge. Subscribers receive email notifications of my twice-daily pro-democracy poems, together with audio narrations and insightful commentary from my editor, Michael Broder. Thank you.
Sherry says
Just the end of Heather Cox Richardson’s substack posting:
Last night, Bad Bunny highlighted Puerto Rican history, beginning with the workers at the heart of colonial sugar production and moving through to those same cane workers hanging from electric poles in an evocation of the recent blackouts in the country’s inadequate electric grid, poorly addressed by the U.S. government after Hurricane Maria wiped out the system in 2017. He carried the flag of the island from before the U.S. takeover—an independence flag banned from 1948 to 1957— its light blue triangle picked up in various fabrics throughout the performance.
He ended by shouting “God Bless America” in English, echoing the United States mantra in an answer to right-wing critics. And then he rejected the idea animating the current U.S. administration’s deportation of Black and Brown people with the claim they are not Americans and their culture will undermine American culture.
After saying “God Bless America, Bad Bunny listed in Spanish: “Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Antilles, United States—not Estados Unidos—Canada, and Puerto Rico.”
“Together,” the football he carried said, “we are America.”
A Concerned Observer says
Bad Bunny’s “show” was the most disgusting, offensive, crotch grabbing exhibition I’ve ever seen on broadcast television. If Bad Bunny and his troop want to be on television let him and his twerking cast move to Telemundo. The producers of this half-time “entertainment” finally found something worse than half-time performance of Roseanne Barr screeching our National Anthem. Thank You Budweiser for the best commercial of this dismal production. Whomever chose Bad Bunny and his cast of twerking Putas for this national event should be fired and forever band from any other opportunity to spread this filth.
Pierre Tristam says
Cotton Mather lives!
Laurel says
I don’t like women twerking either. The sexism in this country is alive and well. No matter what the show, or whatever, men are in long pants, and women are in their underwear. Same at the beach. Men in long baggies, women with strings up their butts. I’d rather see people naked, but I don’t want to sit where they sat!
I believe that it should be the men behaving as peacocks, and women being the selective sex. So many years ago, I did see a documentary about a tribe (Africa?) where the women sit back and judge the men, who paint and dress themselves up, showing themselves to be the most desirable. Most of nature selects partners this way. We should be no different.
Unfortunately, human females have been put down for so many years, that they feel they are the ones who need to flaunt. Wrong!
Now, regarding the halftime show, nobody gave a damn until Trump Cotton Mather spewed his divisiveness. I seriously doubt that Concerned Observer ever posted a complaint about Madonna’s shows and songs. This is just more maga generated stuff.
Skibum says
You don’t need an investigation by a presidential commission, a new law, or even the hopeful firing of someone else in order to permanently ban such “disgusting, offensive, crotch grabbing” filth as you call it from ever displaying itself on your TV.
See, there is a remarkable invention called a REMOTE CONTROL that allows anyone with half a brain to switch channels and watch something more to their liking.
In your case, I would recommend something more attuned to your level of intelligence – Nickelodeon.
BillC says
It was so disgusting and offensive you watched the whole thing!
Sherry says
Excellent Points Skibum, Bill C and Laurel!
A Concerned Observer says
Not that some commenters care about making false assumptions, but I was watching a football game. I muted the sound a few moments into that “entertainment segment”, leaving the video on, only to know when it was over. Skibum’s comment speaks more to his level of inelegance than this author.
I lived in Thailand for a while in the 70’s, and I learned a little of their language and grew to learn and accept their way of life and what mattered to them. I never became fluent in their language in my one year living there, but enough to get by and interact respectfully with the gentle people that lived there. I did not demand or expect them to learn my language or adopt my way of life. I also lived in Germany for some years and learned their language and, through personal interaction with the people, and that their way of life and culture worked fine for them and respected them. I was a visitor in their country and had no right to expect them to change their way of life to whatever suited me. My time living there was extremely enjoyable. The people I lived with there were incredible. Bad Bunny, not so much…
Laurel says
Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican U.S. citizen, as Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. Both English and Spanish are the official languages of Puerto Rico. So I fail to see the outrage over Spanish songs at a U.S. football game.
Trump just loves to stick his damn nose into every aspect of U.S. citizens’ lives, and stir it up with the full intention of dividing us up further. Turning Point is no better.
Skibum says
Yep… Nickelodeon for sure if you don’t even know that Puerto Ricans are AMERICAN citizens, not visitors to the U.S. But thanks so much for revealing your appalling lack of knowledge about the nation you call home. Maybe a little less fauxinfotainment and a little more PBS might help?
Skibum says
Updated audience viewership totals just reported from Athlon Sports regarding Bad Bunny’s halftime show:
“According to Roc Nation, the Puerto Rican artist’s performance generated 4.157 billion worldwide views within the first 24 hours. This figure includes U.S. and international broadcast audiences, as well as views across digital platforms such as YouTube and other online properties.
Roc Nation stated that this marks the highest viewership in Super Bowl Halftime Show history.”