Only someone living under a rock or in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s 1950s fantasy America, doesn’t know that the Super Bowl halftimeshow is one of the most anticipated performances of the year. It’s not just about football. It's a pop culture phenomenon and capitalism rolled into just 15 minutes.
Even people who don’t know the difference between an extra point and a field goal tune in for the music, the costumes, the surprise guests, and, inevitably, the flood of social media that explodes before, during and after the performance..
The halftime show is also a gold mine. Apple reportedly pays around $50 million a year for sponsorship rights. It’s a cash cow that depends on a single question, and that is, who will draw the biggest audience?
The artist has to be massive, commercially, culturally, and even globally. It’s an honor reserved for the most relevant performer of the moment.
Related: 10 of the Weirdest, Wildest Super Bowl Halftime Shows
That wasn’t always the case. The very first Super Bowl halftime show, back in 1967, was produced by Tommy Walker and featured trumpeter Al Hirt, marching bands from the University of Arizona and Grambling College, the Ana-Hi-Steppers, 300 pigeons, 10,000 balloons, and a flying demonstration by something called the Bell Rocket Air Men.
I guess the Beatles were busy, and kudos to the stadium crew for cleaning up after 300 pigeons.
For years, halftime was what you might call a very family-friendly parade of marching bands and flag twirlers, and pigeons I suppose. But then came Up With People, a group that felt like a cross between a church choir and a bar sing-along.
Does anyone else remember them? They popped up at four Super Bowls in the 1970s and ’80s with their squeaky-clean optimism and oh, too eager smiles.
Then in the 1990s, the NFL realized that the game was becoming TV’s biggest event, so there was room to make some money. It’s always about the money.
So the league went after pop stardom. New Kids on the Block, Gloria Estefan, Michael Jackson, and the Blues Brothers took the stage.
In 2004, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake gave us the infamous “wardrobe malfunction,” and the halftime show entered the modern age of cultural touchstone and must-see TV.
Related:Forget the Super Bowl, It's Janet Jackson Appreciation Day
Which brings us to today, where performing at the Super Bowl is arguably the most coveted invitation in entertainment. This year’s choice, and rightfully so, is Bad Bunny. He makes perfect sense. He’s one of the biggest global music stars alive, a streaming powerhouse, and a boundary-breaking performer who brings together fans across languages, borders, and identities.
Of course, that didn’t sit well with the far right, who were collectively and ridiculously outraged. Conservatives erupted, aghast at the idea of a Puerto Rican megastar headlining America’s biggest sports event.
And now along comes America’s cultural arbiter and hippest politician (and yes, I’m being sarcastic), Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who decided to weigh in on pop culture like he’s guest-editing Billboard.
Johnson, ever eager to show how wildly out of touch he is, said that instead of Bad Bunny, “a terrible decision,” the NFL should choose someone with a “broader audience.” So he suggested Lee Greenwood. Yes, that bellwether of hipness, Lee Greenwood.
The soon-to-be 83-year-old singer whose best-known song, “God Bless the USA,” has been the background music for Republican conventions, political rallies, and every “Real America” (read: conservative) cause since the Reagan years.
Greenwood’s first hit song, “It Turns Me Inside Out,” was released in 1981, Ronald Reagan’s first year in office. The Super Bowl was played that year five days after Reagan was sworn in, and the halftime act was the Southern University Marching Band. I think Greenwood may have had a shot at that halftime show, but in 2026, he’s an odd fit to say the least.
Johnson, who loves to preach about women’s roles, pornography, and the eternal damnation awaiting anyone who has gay sex (he loves to talk about gay sex), has now taken his crusade to the Super Bowl stage.
Related: Speaker Mike Johnson’s Obsession With Gay Sex
Like a town crier, he’s sending out his culture-war message in Morse code from a horse and buggy, trumpeting that what America really needs is less Bad Bunny and more 1980s patriotism.
Greenwood, for his part, was of course flattered by Johnson’sendorsement, which is fair. But Johnson’s reasoning is revealing. When he says “broader audience,” he means only MAGA. And in that narrow world, the musical choices are limited to Greenwood, Kid Rock, or Ted Nugent. It’s less “halftime show” and more a Newsmax interlude.
Imagine, just for a moment, the NFL replacing Bad Bunny with Greenwood. Everything that makes the halftime show exciting, the cultural relevance, the excitement, the billions of views, would vanish. No one is logging on to Threads to live-post “God Bless the USA.”
Perhaps the only audience Greenwood would get are those who have an analog TV with rabbit ears.
The suggestion doesn’t just highlight Johnson’s cluelessness, it smacks at something darker. Wanting to replace a Puerto Rican artist with an elderly white man from Tennessee is the same racism and xenophobia that animates so much of the far right.
Like many of his colleagues, Johnson probably needs a refresher that Puerto Rico is part of the United States.
And honestly, it’s unfair to Greenwood. He’s become a pawn in Johnson’s ongoing culture war, a symbol of an America that only exists in conservative nostalgia. This isn’t a comparison of apples and oranges. It’s a comparison of an EV to a horse and buggy.
So, what will the conservatives do? Turning Point USA said it would hold its very own show, “The All American Halftime Show,” which will surely consist of all white straight males and religious fanatics who say they are Christian but would rather give money to some alternative halftime show than to the poor. What a pathetic thing to do.
I hope it bombs, and I think it will.
Related: Bishop William Barber: Ignoring the poor means ignoring the Jesus factor and defying Christianity
If the NFL or Apple were to actually take Johnson’s advice, it would be business suicide. The league is desperate to attract younger audiences, and the idea that it would replace one of the world’s hottest artists with an octogenarian country singer for the sake of “patriotism” is laughable.
Imagine Apple shelling out $50 million to sponsor Lee Greenwood. That’d be like trying to sell a Macintosh from 1984.
Bad Bunny will take the stage in February at Levi’s Stadium, and he’ll be fantastic, because he truly does represent what the halftime show and the country actually look like today — young, diverse, global, and unbothered by what the far right deems acceptable..
And who knows? Maybe Donald Trump will boycott the game in protest. If that happens, it’ll make Bad Bunny’s booking look like a genius selection.
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