Performing at the Super Bowl halftime became a highly controversial gig to take on amongst the musicians that the NFL reached out to because of two words: Colin Kaepernick.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of celebrities who refuse to have anything to do with the Super Bowl because they believe the league blackballed the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and therefore they want nothing to do with the biggest sporting event of the year.
One embattled Super Bowl rapper insisted that the NFL do one thing in order to perform because of the immense backlash he received from his peers.
Many musicians and artists were approached to perform at the Super Bowl like superstar rapper Jay-Z, pop star Rihanna, rapper Meek Mill and rapper Cardi B.
They all claimed not to do so because of their love for Kaepernick who has been donned as some sort of cultural icon by them on the level of Muhammad Ali or Martin Luther King Jr. It’s like he martyred himself over the movement.
Nevertheless, the NFL persisted and they finally landed on Atlanta natives Maroon 5 – the Super Bowl this year will be in Atlanta and they wanted homegrown talents. As soon as Maroon 5 accepted the gig, the liberal mob and their pitchforks came out of the woodwork to shame the band for accepting.
But that shaming was nothing compared to when rapper Travis Scott signed on the dotted line. It shocked his fellow rappers because the logic is that since he accepted then that must mean he doesn’t support Kaepernick. It’s unclear how he feels about it.
Probably in order to taper down the backlash, Scott demanded in his Super Bowl halftime contract that the NFL must commit money to spend on social justice causes, which was agreed upon and is an undisclosed amount right now.
Also, Outkast musician, Big Boi, will join Maroon 5 and Travis Scott for Super Bowl LIII at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Boycott or not, you can’t deny the Super Bowl is the biggest American sporting event of the year because of all the things that are associated with it. It’s not just the actual matchup between the teams or the Super Bowl halftime performance, but Super Bowl commercials are a big part of the event as well.
Some hilarious and sometimes even touching commercials have premiered during this worldwide event. In a lot of cases, it’s been a significant pop culture event since the mid-1980s.
Do you remember the Budweiser “Whasssup?” commercial from 1999? Or how about the Budweiser: Singing Frogs commercial from 1995 when different frogs would sing the three different syllables out of order until it finally makes sense in the end with “Bud-Weis-Er.”
The Super Bowl also birthed the rather bizarre Old Spice commercials, it was the first time we saw the McDonald’s Larry Bird vs. Michael Jordan where they play HORSE and lastly it was where the world saw the iconic Orwellian Apple Macintosh commercial back in 1984 for the first time.
But there are celebrities like Amy Schumer who announced to the world that she refused to do anything associated with the Super Bowl.
Like it matters what she announced because most of the world won’t miss anything that she refuses to do. It’s not like it’s a big loss.
The Super Bowl is definitely an event in America and it’s important to remember that sometimes all of what appears on television is an afterthought because it’s more about being together with friends and family.
You can tell that purely by the fact that a majority of the people that watch the Super Bowl is the only NFL game they’ve seen all year.
The proof is in the numbers because the Super Bowl averages approximately 110 million viewers but even the biggest Sunday Night Football regular season matchup will top out around 30 million viewers – and that would be between the two most popular teams.
This year the ratings did trend upwards, however, because there are only a handful of anthem-kneeling players left in the NFL. It appears that Kaepernick has likely seen his last days as a player in the NFL so these artists who boycotted the halftime show will have to continue their efforts.