By STEVEN SLOAN and STEVE PEOPLES, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Don’t tune into the Tremendous Bowl hoping for a break from the tumultuous politics gripping the U.S.
The NFL is going through strain forward of Sunday’s sport between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots to take a extra specific stance in opposition to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement. Greater than 184,000 individuals have signed a petition calling on the league to denounce the potential presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the Tremendous Bowl, which is being held at Levi’s Stadium within the San Francisco Bay Space. The liberal group MoveOn plans to ship the petition to the NFL’s New York Metropolis headquarters on Tuesday.
In the meantime, anticipation is constructing round how Dangerous Bunny, the halftime present’s Spanish-speaking headliner, will deal with the second. He has criticized President Donald Trump on every thing from his hurricane response in his native Puerto Rico to his remedy of immigrants. On Sunday night time, he blasted ICE whereas accepting an award on the Grammys. His newest tour skipped the continental U.S. due to fears that his followers could possibly be focused by immigration brokers.
Trump has mentioned he doesn’t plan to attend this 12 months’s sport, not like final 12 months, and he has derided Dangerous Bunny as a “horrible alternative.” A Republican senator is looking it “the woke bowl.” And a distinguished conservative group plans to carry another present that it hopes will steal consideration from the primary occasion.
The Tremendous Bowl is likely one of the few remaining cultural touchstones considered by hundreds of thousands of individuals in actual time and the halftime present isn’t any stranger to controversy, maybe most notably Janet Jackson’s 2004 efficiency wherein her breast was briefly uncovered. However there are few parallels to this 12 months’s sport, which has the potential to develop into an uncommon mixture of sports activities, leisure, politics and protest. And it’ll unfold at a tinderbox second for the U.S., simply two weeks after Alex Pretti’s killing by federal brokers in Minneapolis reignited a nationwide debate over the Trump administration’s hard-line legislation enforcement ways.
“The Tremendous Bowl is meant to be an escape, proper? We’re purported to go there to not have to speak concerning the critical issues of this nation,” mentioned Tiki Barber, a former participant for the New York Giants who performed within the Tremendous Bowl in 2001 and has since attended a number of as a commentator. “I hope it doesn’t devolve, as a result of if it does, then I feel we’re actually dropping contact with what’s vital in our society.”
Dangerous Bunny has leaned into the controversy
The 31-year-old Dangerous Bunny, born in Puerto Rico as Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has elevated Latino music into the mainstream and gained international fame with songs nearly totally in Spanish — one thing that irks lots of his conservative detractors. He has leaned into the controversy, referring to the halftime present when he hosted “Saturday Night time Stay” in October by joking “everyone is comfortable about it — even Fox Information.”
He segued into a number of sentences in Spanish, expressing Latino satisfaction within the achievement, and completed by saying in English, “When you didn’t perceive what I simply mentioned, you’ve 4 months to be taught!”
Those that comply with him carefully doubt that he’ll again down now.
“He has made it very clear what he stands for,” mentioned Vanessa Díaz, a professor at Loyola Marymount College and co-author of “P FKN R: How Dangerous Bunny Turned the World Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.” “So I can’t think about that this might all go away with the Tremendous Bowl.”
The halftime present is a collaboration between the NFL, Roc Nation and Apple Music. Roc Nation curates the performers and Apple Music distributes the efficiency whereas the NFL finally controls the stage, broadcast and branding.
The NFL, which is working to develop its enchantment internationally, together with into Latin America, mentioned it by no means thought of eradicating Dangerous Bunny from the halftime present even after criticism from Trump and a few of his supporters.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday described the singer as “one of many nice artists on the planet,” in addition to somebody who understands the ability of the Tremendous Bowl efficiency “to unite individuals and to have the ability to deliver individuals collectively.”
“I feel artists prior to now have executed that. I feel Dangerous Bunny understands that. And I feel you’ll have an amazing efficiency,” Goodell informed reporters throughout his annual Tremendous Bowl press convention.
About half of People accredited of Dangerous Bunny because the halftime performer, in keeping with an October ballot from Quinnipiac College. However there have been substantial gaps with about three-quarters of Democrats backing the choose in comparison with simply 16% of Republicans. About 60% of Black and Hispanic adults accredited of the choice in comparison with 41% of whites.
Republicans are keen to keep up Latino help of their bid to maintain management of Congress. However because the Tremendous Bowl attracts close to, many within the GOP have stored up their Dangerous Bunny critiques.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, the previous head soccer coach at Auburn College who’s now operating for governor, derided the “Woke Bowl” on Newsmax final week and mentioned he’ll watch another occasion hosted by Turning Level USA.
The group based by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk mentioned Monday that Child Rock, a vocal Trump supporter, can be among the many performers at its occasion.
DHS received’t say whether or not immigration brokers will probably be at Tremendous Bowl
In current days, Division of Homeland Safety official Jeff Brannigan hosted a sequence of personal calls with native officers and the NFL wherein he indicated that ICE doesn’t plan to conduct any legislation enforcement actions the week of the Tremendous Bowl or on the sport, in keeping with two NFL officers with direct information of the conversations.
ICE just isn’t anticipated to be amongst greater than a dozen DHS-related companies offering safety on the sport, the officers mentioned, talking on the situation of anonymity to debate personal conversations.
Whereas that’s the plan, some fear that Trump and his MAGA allies who lead DHS can change their minds forward of Sunday’s sport given their current statements.
DHS official Corey Lewandowski, a key adviser to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, mentioned in October that ICE brokers can be conducting immigration enforcement on the sport.
“There’s nowhere that you could present secure haven to people who find themselves within the nation illegally, not the Tremendous Bowl, not wherever else,” he mentioned on the time.
Requested to make clear ICE’s position this week, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin refused to say whether or not federal immigration brokers will probably be current for the Tremendous Bowl.
“Those that are right here legally and never breaking different legal guidelines don’t have anything to concern,” she mentioned. “We is not going to disclose future operations or focus on personnel. Tremendous Bowl safety will entail a whole-of-government response carried out consistent with the U.S. Structure.”
The progressive group MoveOn will host a Tuesday rally exterior the NFL headquarters in New York to current a petition telling the league, “No ICE on the Tremendous Bowl.”
“This 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl must be remembered for large performs and Dangerous Bunny, not masked and armed ICE brokers operating across the stadium inflicting chaos, violence, and trauma on followers and stadium employees,” MoveOn spokesperson Britt Jacovich mentioned. “The NFL can’t keep on the sidelines, the league has a duty to behave like adults, shield Tremendous Bowl followers and stadium employees, and preserve ICE out of the sport.”
In an interview, San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie was optimistic that the occasion can be successful even in a politically tense local weather.
“We’re going to preserve everyone secure — our residents, our guests,” he mentioned. “Clearly with every thing occurring, we’re staying on prime of it, monitoring every thing. However I anticipate every thing to be secure and enjoyable.”
Peoples reported from New York.
