NFL commissioner Roger Goodell championed Grammy Award-winner Bad Bunny‘s ability to “unite people” after the artist condemned President Donald Trump’s ICE raids on America’s citizens ahead of his Super Bowl halftime appearance.
“Bad Bunny … is one of the greatest artists in the world, and that’s one of the reasons we chose him,” Goodell said Monday at his annual pre-Super Bowl press conference. “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. I think artists in the past have done that. I think Bad Bunny understands that, and I think he’ll have a great performance.”
Goodell made his comment when asked whether he expected Bad Bunny or anyone else to make further statements against the current state of the country at the Super Bowl. The commissioner seemed to be implicitly asking the musician to leave the most controversial parts of his protest at the Grammys.
On Sunday night, when Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS became the first Spanish-language album to win album of the year, he got on stage and said: “Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say: ICE out. We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”
There had been reports in recent weeks that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was planning immigrations operations at Sunday’s Super Bowl, but in a Monday memo first reported by the Washington Post, the Bay Area’s host committee informed elected officials in San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Jose in a memo that “there are no planned ICE immigration enforcement operations associated with SBLX.”
Goodell assured the priority was to create a “safe environment” for everyone at the big game. He did not mention ICE by name, even though he was asked about it, but the implication was that Goodell understood their presence would compromise the league’s goal.
“Security is obviously one of the things we focus on the most,” Goodell said. “It’s a SEAR One level event that involves unique assets at the federal level, state level and local level all working together. I see no change in that in the preparations for this Super Bowl. We have not seen that.
“We are 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,” he added, “including this administration and every other administration before that. So I anticipate we’ll continue to do the work to make it the safest event.”
Bad Bunny, who was born in Puerto Rico, has publicly opposed Trump and his policies before.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, he supported former Vice President Kamala Harris after a comedian at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally mocked Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
Days later, Bad Bunny posted a video showcasing Puerto Rico’s beaches and artists, captioned simply: “garbage.” And he has remained vocal since Trump took office.
Sunday will be the biggest stage he ever graces. His idea of uniting people could just mean music. Or it could mean another statement.
