RT NFL commissioner Roger Goodell responds to Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show backlash: ‘Uniting moment’

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has responded to the growing backlash over announcing Bad Bunny as the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show performer, confirming that they aren’t reconsidering their decision despite complaints from conservative viewers including President Donald Trump.

“It’s carefully thought through,” Goodell said at the NFL’s fall meeting. “I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism. It’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching.”

The commissioner added that they’re “confident it’s going to be a great show” from the Grammy-winning Puerto Rican artist.

“He understands the platform that he’s on,” Goodell said. “And I think it’s going to be exciting and a united moment.”

Bad Bunny, who is currently one of the biggest musical artists on the planet with over 107 billion streams on Spotify and 49.5 million followers on Instagram, was named the halftime show performer on Sept. 28. The show will be his only performance in the continental U.S. to promote his latest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos. He has otherwise opted to avoid the area in favor of a residency in his native Puerto Rico (which is a U.S. territory) and a world tour in Latin America, Australia, and Europe.

The artist, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, explained that he declined to bring his tour to the U.S. out of fear that ICE would target concertgoers. “I’ve enjoyed connecting with Latinos who have been living in the U.S.,” he told i-D. “But there was the issue of — like, f—ing ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has since vowed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will monitor the Super Bowl in February. Prior to that, former Trump campaign manager and Noem’s informal advisor Corey Lewandowski threatened this possibility during a visit to The Benny Show, where he stated, “There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else.”

Trump blasted the decision to feature Bad Bunny during the Super Bowl halftime show. “I’ve never heard of him,” Trump said earlier this month about Bad Bunny, who last year boasted the third-most streams globally on Spotify, despite not releasing a new album. “I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter they hired to pick up entertainment— I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Other right-wing commentators have expressed outrage over the halftime show pick as well, including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and more.

However, Bad Bunny hilariously addressed the backlash while hosting Saturday Night Live, telling the crowd, “I’m very happy and I think everyone is happy about it. Even Fox News.” The show then played a series of clips from various network discussions, edited together to make them say, “Bad Bunny is my favorite musician and he should be the next president.”

He went on to deliver a speech, partially in Spanish, speaking directly to “Latinos and Latinas across the world, and here, in the United States.” At the end, he told viewers, “And if you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn.”