Why The NFL is Standing Behind Their Choice of Bad Bunny for the Halftime Show

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Despite the almost immediate backlash from the Trump administration and its supporters, the NFL has stood by its decision to book Bad Bunny for the Feb. 8 game in Santa Clara, California. It's a departure from how the league reacted to the president's criticism nearly a decade ago when some players began kneeling during the national anthem. According to interviews with and public statements by several high-level club and league office executives, the NFL has remained steadfast despite the blowback because Bad Bunny, one of the most popular artists in the world, helps fulfill a top business objective: growing the NFL's international and Latino audience.

One high-level club executive who regularly attends the NFL's league meetings said that some owners at first were concerned about Bad Bunny's fit because he sings primarily in Spanish and that many were unfamiliar with him.

"And then I think everybody was just kind of like, 'OK, we're going to get on board, because the goal is global reach,'" the executive said. "And this guy has a massive global reach."

THE NFL HAS a long-standing goal of growing its international audience. This season, the NFL played a record seven games in five international cities: Sao Paulo, Dublin, London, Berlin and Madrid. The league will add Australia in 2026. In September, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he wants each team to play a game abroad every year.

More specifically, the league has been focused on growing its Latino audience, inside the U.S. and in Latin America. Marissa Solis, the NFL's senior vice president of global brand and consumer marketing, told ESPN in November that the league first identified the U.S. Latino population as a "critical growth area" several years ago.

"It is a community of more than 70 million people here in the U.S. ... so it was very important for us to ensure that we were relevant," Solis said.

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"People don't see it, but to the broader global and Latino community, they're like, 'Wow. The NFL gets me,'" Farfan, who still consults for the league, said in an interview with ESPN in December. "And then now, they're seeing [Bad Bunny] and it's like, 'Wow, they really get me.'"

Since 2019, the NFL has partnered with rapper and business mogul Jay-Z and his entertainment company Roc Nation to advise on the selection of halftime performers and promote "culture- and cause-focused initiatives," according to a statement at the time announcing the arrangement.

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WITHIN THE NFL, at least one owner met the decision to book Bad Bunny with skepticism, particularly considering the league's pending agreement to sell the NFL Network and other assets to ESPN in exchange for a 10% stake in the media company.

Shortly after the Bad Bunny announcement, an NFL owner told Goodell that he feared the decision could threaten the government's antitrust approval of the pending deal, a source with firsthand knowledge of the discussion told ESPN.

"I told Roger he should've thought through that better," the owner said, according to the source.

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