HALFTIME DEBACLE FOR ‘5’ & NFL
Kaepernick controversy results in dull retread
The NFL got sacked at the Super Bowl when it got stuck with second-rank pop-rock band Maroon 5, which turned in a middling-at-best halftime act.
Big names like Rihanna, Pink, Jay-Z and Cardi B reportedly rejected the league in support of banished quarterback Colin Kaepernick. So the NFL settled for the “Don’t Wanna Know” singers, who along with backup performers Travis Scott and Big Boi, were the only performers who would agree to take the stage at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The show was a hot mess. Front man Adam Levine struggled through renditions of “Harder to Breathe” and “This Love.” Travis Scott was next up — his performance included a half-hearted intro from Spongebob Squarepants, in honor of creator Steven Hillenburg, who died in November, after a viral petition had requested the animated show’s theme song be played. However, all fans got was a very brief clip of Squidward and SpongeBob — confusing many viewers.
With Cardi B staying far away, Levine replaced the Bronx rapper with a gospel choir for “Girls Like You.” Then came Maroon 5’s old-school — and pre-sellout hit — “She Will Be Loved.”
Outkast alum Big Boi showed up in an impressive fur coat. But the entire show just reeked of what could have been, squeezed in between the Patriots’ 13-3 victory and their sixth Super Bowl title since 2001.
Controversies overshadowed the halftime show, despite Levine’s attempts to defend taking the stage while Kaepernick remains persona non grata with the league’s owners.
“I spoke to many people. Most importantly, though, I silenced all the noise and listened to myself, and made my decision about how I felt,” he told Entertainment Tonight ahead of the performance.
“We’d like to move on from it and … speak through the music.”
But Kaepernick’s attorney, Mark Geragos, didn’t accept that response.
“If you’re going to cross this ideological or intellectual picket line, then own it, and Adam Levine certainly isn’t owning it,” he said on “Good Morning America” Friday.
“It’s a copout when you start talking about, ‘I’m not a politician; I’m just doing the music.’ Most of the musicians who have any kind of consciousness whatsoever understand what’s going on here.”
Gladys Knight, an Atlanta native, stunned the crowd when she opened the game with a gorgeous rendition of the National Anthem. But she, too, faced questions about promoting the NFL after the league turned its back on Kaepernick in light of his protests of police brutality.
“I understand that Mr. Kaepernick is protesting two things, and they are police violence and injustice,” Knight said in a statement ahead of the game.
“I am here today and on Sunday, Feb. 3, to give the anthem back its voice, to stand for that historic choice of words, the way it unites us when we hear it and to free it from the same prejudices and struggles I have fought long and hard for all my life, from walking back hallways, from marching with our social leaders, from using my voice for good — I have been in the forefront of this battle longer than most of those voicing their opinions to win the right to sing our country’s anthem on a stage as large as the Super Bowl LIII.”