Roger Goodell Defends Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, Calls It “A Celebration That Brought People Together”

“I’m not sure we’ve ever select­ed an artist where we didn’t have some blow­back or crit­i­cism,” Good­ell said.

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.

NFL Com­mis­sion­er Roger Good­ell has addressed the back­lash sur­round­ing Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half­time per­for­mance, call­ing it a “unit­ing moment” that cel­e­brat­ed cul­ture and diver­si­ty. Some fans crit­i­cized the show for being “too polit­i­cal” or “not Amer­i­can enough,” but Good­ell pushed back, say­ing the per­for­mance rep­re­sent­ed the mod­ern spir­it of the NFL — one that brings togeth­er fans from all back­grounds.

“We’re proud of what Bad Bun­ny brought to that stage,” Good­ell said dur­ing a recent inter­view. “It was ener­getic, authen­tic, and it con­nect­ed with peo­ple around the world. That’s what the Super Bowl is all about.”

Despite the mixed reac­tions online, the per­for­mance broke view­er­ship records on stream­ing plat­forms and sparked glob­al con­ver­sa­tions about rep­re­sen­ta­tion and cul­ture in one of the world’s most-watched events.