For fans of both football and pop culture, one of the highlights of the NFL’sinaugural Christmas Day doubleheader on Netflix last December was a halftime performance by Beyoncé.
The pop star’s set during the matchup between the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens—which pulled heavily from her now Grammy-winning country album,Cowboy Carter, and featured Shaboozey and Post Malone as surprise musical guests—drew approximately27 million viewers, the peak of the entire day’s slate. For this reason, many social media users dubbed it the “Beyoncé Bowl.”
The exact amount of money Beyoncé earned for her marquee performance remains unknown, but areport byUS Weekly suggests the NFL may have taken a chunk out of the final figure for a rather peculiar reason.
An insider told the magazine that the league made Beyoncé and her team agree to a $500 fine for each crystal that fell off her costume during her halftime set. “It’s for players’ safety because anything like that on the field could cause injury,” the source explained.
The NFL has along history of fining players for on-field fashion choices, but this may very well be the first time the league has imposed any kind of preemptive financial penalties for a performer. And while it’s still unclear whether the Houston-born singer ended up actually paying any fines, the potential for substantial monetary damage was certainly there; the bodysuit, chaps and boots she donned for the performance were each covered in crystals.
Regardless, that the NFL would threaten fines against someone as powerful and famous as Beyoncé is yet another signal of how seriously the league is taking its Christmas Day pursuit.
Earlier this year, the NFL announced that it isexpanding its holiday presence from two games to three in 2025. Netflix will retain ownership of two games, while Amazon Prime will air the third, as Christmas falls on a Thursday this year and Amazon holds the rights to Thursday Night Football through 2033. The former just sold out all of itsad inventory for the broadcast more than four months ahead of time.
With all kinds of tech giants andmegastars at its beck and call, each day the prospect of NFL world domination seems more and more likely.