Phase 1: The Initial Disgust & Disconnection
From Warm Pretzels to Cold Reality: My Childhood Disinterest in the NFL
I know very little about the NFL as an organization. My personal experience with the NFL is mostly rooted in a few fuzzy childhood memories of being my dad’s last choice to be his +1 to a Detroit Lions game. I’m not saying my dad didn’t love spending time with me, but I’m pretty darn sure that I was only offered the game because his fellow football-loving friends weren’t available. And generally, his kid-friendly PR strategy for the game was to bribe me with the promise of a warm pretzel and a hot dog.
Having three kids and a husband who enjoys watching football, watching the Super Bowl has become a family affair. The kids and I primarily watched for the halftime show and the commercials. As the owner of a marketing agency, I was the person who talked during the game, but yelled at everyone to be quiet during the commercials. Some years, that was the only game I would watch.
Beyond the Game: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis and Exploitation of Players
When I watched the movie Concussion with my then-younger teen son, it left a strong (negative) impression on me – that football is horrible. The NFL knowingly harms young men–mostly of color– exploiting them for profit. The data backs up this concern: African American athletes comprise approximately 53.5% of all NFL players, representing the largest ethnic group in the league and far surpassing their relative share of 14.4% in the U.S population. This over-representation among a high-risk population for CTE reinforces the moral injury felt by many fans when considering the league’s history of denial regarding player safety.
All this was reinforced under a series of subsequent lawsuits. In particular, a 2020 lawsuit dropped the bombshell that the NFL had participated in race norming when evaluating cognitive decline in former players. Essentially, the testing procedures adjusted the cognitive baseline of black players upwards, which meant, in practical terms, they had to show a higher cognitive decline score than their white counterparts to qualify for a concussion settlement payout.
All bad stuff. I didn’t want to be a part of supporting this, and I didn’t watch another football game for a couple of years after that.
The Kaepernick Fallout: When the NFL Took the Wrong Side of History
Remember Colin Kaepernick? He took a knee to quietly protest police brutality and the killing of black people in our country. And he lost his job for it. The NFL disagreed with his right to free speech. The NFL was on the wrong side of history here. More bad stuff.
Phase 2: Accidental Awareness and Cultural Convergence
The DC Commander Controversy: When the NFL Became Local Conversation
Living in the DC area, the bru-haha around the renaming of our NFL team from the Redskins (horribly offensive) to ‘The Washington Football Team’ (unbranded, in retrospect, ballsy and kinda on the nose effective) to ‘The Commanders’ in 2022 was increasingly part of daily conversations even amongst non-football-fan locals. In my circle of marketing professionals, we all wondered who was driving the NFL’s PR strategy.
Personally, I don’t like ‘The Commanders’. The renaming happened almost at the same time that an MLB team was renamed to the Guardians. Both names give The Handmaid’s Tale vibes. [If you haven’t read it – omg where have you been?! Please read the book and THEN watch the Hulu original series. And then I will take you to coffee, and we can talk about it, ok?!]
But I digress. My point here is that, even though I didn’t seek to ponder the NFL’s brand and storied history, my awareness of it grew anyhow.
The Taylor Swift Effect
And then came September 24, 2023, the day Taylor Swift attended her first Kansas City Chiefs game in support of her new boyfriend, the Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce. Suddenly, the rise of the Taylor/Travis love story made football the topic of conversation, even at my book club. Like many a Swiftie, my interest in the sport was sparked.
Kendrick Lamar and the Power of the Super Bowl Halftime Show
Last year, those Detroit Lions got <this close> to the Super Bowl for the first time. They made it further in the playoffs than they ever had before. My Detroit pride made me pay closer and closer attention to the sport… And then there was the Super Bowl. Kendrick Lamar.
My kids were very excited, anticipating the halftime show. While we all watched – completely enamored by his performance – and despite not understanding all of his lyrics or the symbolism as it unfolded in real time – I knew, in my tingling toes and my kids’ exclamations, that the halftime show was one for the books!
I rewatched that halftime show a dozen times. I also watched a ton of social media commentary content. I learned so much about what Kendrick Lamar was communicating, and it made me so happy.
Phase 3: The Bad Bunny Hot Take and PR Strategy
Now here we are, 2026, in a divisive political atmosphere, cultural chaos, and fundamental protections and free speech aren’t things I can even begin to take for granted. (Reminder, go read The Handmaid’s Tale.) Everything we are seeing in tv shows and online content feels relevant and meaningful. Staying silent speaks volumes in our charged, authoritarian atmosphere. Politics isn’t at the center stage anymore: we are a country fighting to define our cultural identity.
The Racist Backlash and the Silence of the NFL’s Wealthy Base
The fallout from the fall announcement is beyond disgusting. There will be a “counter halftime show” in protest of a Puerto Rican performer. Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States. And like DC, they have a nonvoting member in Congress.
The conservative backlash was loud and immediate, but the NFL has stood firm. Commissioner Roger Goodell defended the selection, calling the decision “carefully thought through” and praising Bad Bunny as “one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world.”
Why Bad Bunny? Analyzing the NFL’s Strategic Halftime Show Selection
The NFL’s selection of Bad Bunny for the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show is a calculated, culturally significant choice.
Bad Bunny didn’t tour in the States this year. He knew his fan base would be the target of harassment and ICE raids, and he didn’t want to put them in the position of choosing his concert or their dignity. In coming to perform at the Super Bowl, where, let’s be clear, average working people don’t go to the game, they watch from the safety of their large screen TVs at home or at watch parties, Bad Bunny is giving his fans a free concert – honoring his fans with his brilliant music without putting them in harm’s way.
Despite being a US Citizen, the racists in our country are screaming that this choice is anti-American. And the NFL and its PR strategy team had to know that would happen.
Quiet Confidence or Progressive PR Strategy? The NFL’s Reputation Management Plan
So here’s my hot take: the NFL has been trying to rebuild its in-the-toilet reputation. For all the bad stuff that I noticed with the NFL over the years, and more. [The sexual abuse, yeah, that too.] I think the reputation management/PR strategy people advising the NFL came up with a plan to quietly start making a statement without actually making one. They aren’t defending their choice of Bad Bunny. They aren’t saying “look how progressive we are and pro-liberal we can be”, they are just making decisions that the alt-right, racist, rich, powerful, right are not going to like.
Quiet confidence?
Rebuilding trust with us, woke Americans who grew increasingly angry at the NFL’s treatment of black men, women, and communities?
Maybe not. This could be all about Bad Bunny being the hottest musician right now. But this does make me just a little more inclined to watch football, even though Detroit didn’t get as far this year.
