If the NFL's goal is to go global, then who should be on the world's biggest stage? One of the world's biggest musicians.
"The world's biggest artist happens to be a proud Puerto Rican who speaks Spanish, who performs in Spanish, who represents for his culture and who makes other people proud to be Puerto Rican, to be Latino and to be themselves," says Vanessa Díaz, a Loyola Marymount University professor who has taught courses on 2026's Super Bowl halftime show headliner Bad Bunny.
As the countdown to the Big Game on Feb. 8 winds down, it's clear just how politicized Bad Bunny's upcoming performance has become.
"The best decision in terms of superstar status also happened to be a really politicized musical figure, and that's the tension … those two things don't always coincide, but in this moment, they did," says Díaz, coauthor of "P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance."
The NFL's push for international growth has been in place long before Bad Bunny, who made Grammys history Feb. 1 when his “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” became the first Spanish-language album of the year winner, was announced as the halftime headliner.
