Arguably, the largest American annual cultural event is the Super Bowl. If it weren’t always held on a Sunday, many would argue to turn it into a Federal Holiday. Every year, more than 100 million Americans tune in to watch the game and the halftime show, and a good portion of them to JUST watch the commercials.

This year, if you’re active on social media at all, you’ll notice that practically no one talked about the game. Although, why would they? The game itself this year was less than exciting, with the Seattle Seahawks breaking away early on with multiple field goals, and Seattle Kicker Jason Myers ultimately setting a Super Bowl record five total field goals. Across the field, the very recently considered for NFL MVP, Patriots Quarterback Drake May, was unable to get his team even into scoring distance the first three quarters, eliminating any prior thoughts of his MVP Contention. The real Super Bowl, it seems, was the NFC Championship Game two weeks earlier between the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams, with the Seahawks winning a nailbiter. Although the Super Bowl didn’t end in a total blowout, with Seattle winning over New England 29-13, no one ever felt like the Patriots had a real chance at winning. 

With a game so dismal, most of the current controversy and conversation about the Super Bowl had nothing to do with football and everything to do with virtue signaling.

If you paid attention to the narratives being spun, you had two choices this year. Watch the Official Superbowl Halftime Show featuring Bad Bunny and be considered “woke” or watch the Turning Point USA Halftime Show and be considered “racist”. Almost no one was allowed to watch either without feeling like they were supporting a “side”. This is a reflection of American society today, where people, based on political opinions, change the channel to either CNN or Fox depending on whom they agree with more, and continue to live in their echo chambers, getting spoon-fed News, Narratives, and Commentary they find more appealing to their politics.

That being said, it was interesting for the family-friendly Christian American Halftime Show on Turning Point USA to feature Kid Rock, who famously sang the lyrics:

“Young ladies, young ladies

I like ’em underage, see

Some say that’s statutory

But I say it’s mandatory.”

-*In a song about cruising on an island.*

-*In an animated film for children called Osmosis Jones.*

Which, in today’s current context about the Epstein Files coming out, allegedly naming many of our famous rich celebrities, politicians, and business leaders partaking in illegal and heinous activities on Jeffrey Epstein’s Island of Little Saint James. Kid Rock seems like the worst possible person to have headline a “family-friendly patriotic alternative” to the regular Halftime Show.

Bad Bunny’s performance, on the other hand, was very different. I am not a fluent Spanish speaker, and most of America isn’t either. However, in a country of 350 million people, close to 60 million Americans DO speak Spanish. 

Despite the competing TPUSA Marketing claiming they were the “real” American Halftime show, Bad Bunny himself is an American, as is every single person born in Puerto Rico today. Puerto Rico is a United States Territory and was granted American Birthright Citizenship in 1917, more than 40 years before the Statehoods of Alaska or Hawaii. The decision to have the entire halftime performance in Spanish was intentional, but I would wager that even if the show had been entirely in English, those watching the TPUSA show would still have watched it instead. Regardless, the United States has no “official” language. As long as Puerto Rico remains an American Territory speaking predominantly Spanish, it wouldn’t be ethical to classify us as an “English Only” country. 

There were a lot of cultural references in Bad Bunny’s show, climbing on the powerlines to reference Puerto Rico’s long power outage after its devastating Hurricane that left much of the country in the dark while doing his brand of Spanish Rap about loving each other, and embracing different cultures and ethnicities. The underlying message of Bad Bunny’s show felt more reflective of our American Melting Pot we’ve always claimed to be, even if I personally didn’t care for the musical aspect of his performance. But the reality is that I didn’t *need* to care for the music, because not everything needs to appeal to *me* directly. 

As Americans, we are so catered to for our entire lives, the minute something challenges our traditional immediate worldview, or is different, we’re offended. This year, many were offended by an American singing his native language from his part of America. Many were also offended that not everyone wanted to watch him sing it.

We could all use some thicker skin.

Maybe next year’s Super Bowl shouldn’t be someone like Bad Bunny or Kid Rock, but someone like Mr. Rogers instead. He could give us all a lesson about how we need to get back to loving and respecting each other as neighbors DESPITE our differences. Our children aren’t going to remember this halftime show, but they will remember how we treated each other because of it, so we could all do a little better to set a good example for them.