All-American Halftime Show Review

Source: Bored Panda

Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks, the victors of Super Bowl LX (Trademark professors, do we have to call it “The Big Game” because of our National Football League overlords?). We at the Virginia Law Weekly salute Morgan Moses, the single representative of the University of Virginia in the Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots.

While the actual football game may have captivated millions around the world, we were focused on the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show. However, on Sunday, there were two dueling halftime shows competing for our attention. The official performer at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, was Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny.[1] The NFL’s choice of Bad Bunny was met with fervent opposition from Trump supporters, along with the President himself. Conservative critics have denigrated Bad Bunny, and conservative commentator Tomi Lahren even falsely suggested that Bad Bunny was not a U.S. citizen (Bad Bunny is a United States citizen, and people born in Puerto Rico are granted automatic citizenship). Other conservative groups announced boycotts of his performance over his support of LGBTQ+ rights as well as outspoken opposition to ICE raids across the country.[2] Turning Point USA, on the other hand, hosted an alternative event, billed the ‘All American Halftime Show,’ featuring Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.[3] Catering to those like Brett Favre, Turning Point USA’s halftime show was streamed on Turning Point’s social media accounts, as well as Daily Wire+, Real America’s Voice, TBN, CHARGE!, The National News Desk, NTD.com, and OAN News.[4]

While many in the media will be talking about Bad Bunny’s performance, we at the Law Weekly will be doing the service of providing a comprehensive review of the so-called “All-American Halftime Show.” Hopefully, this spared you from missing Bad Bunny’s performance.

Kid Rock, the headliner and a routine Oval Office guest of President Donald Trump, was fresh off a difficult week. A decades-old track resurfaced online, drawing backlash over his lyrics about underage girls. In Kid Rock’s timeless classic “Cool, Daddy Cool,” released in 2001, he and his late hype man sing, “young ladies, young ladies, I like ’em underage/ See, some say that’s statutory/ But I say it’s mandatory.”[5] For Turning Point USA, this proved to be of no import, despite billing the halftime show as a celebration of faith, family, and freedom.[6]

As the lights dimmed at Levi’s Stadium and Bad Bunny took the stage, I, like Brett Favre, switched off Peacock (Yes, I watched the Super Bowl on Peacock) and opened my laptop. Despite my desire to watch Bad Bunny’s performance, I made this sacrifice. It was difficult deciding whether Daily Wire+ or OAN News would provide the optimal viewing experience, so I settled on watching the halftime show on Rumble. As I opened Rumble after the end of the first half, I was immediately greeted by an electric guitar rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. The national anthem quickly transitioned into Brantley Gilbert announcing “this is real America,” before his band launched into his song, “Real American.” Gilbert was flanked by gratuitous pyrotechnics and a small crowd of cowboy hat-wearing men and women in an undisclosed location as he sang about, you guessed it, being a “Real American.” He next moved into a second song, which was indistinguishable from the last, featuring every imaginable rural cliché, from dirt roads to twelve-gauge shotguns. In an odd touch, Gilbert was singing into a microphone with brass knuckles. Gilbert was followed by Gabby Barrett. Frankly, at this point, I began to lose interest and tuned into Bad Bunny’s halftime performance. But I returned to the All-American Halftime Show, knowing that it was my journalistic responsibility to bear witness. By this point, Lee Brice had entered the stage. Brice crooned conservative political talking points and loathed that it was “difficult being country in this country nowadays.” In the show’s finale, Kid Rock appeared out of blinding lights like a phoenix, wearing denim shorts and a fur jacket that he quickly shed. On the drum behind him was affixed an image of the Preamble to the Constitution. Kid Rock notably did not launch into “Cool, Daddy Cool” during his performance, instead opting for more family-friendly songs. As quickly as it started, the All-American Halftime Show was over. At some points during the show, more than 4.5 million people tuned in on YouTube. According to some reports, 135 million people tuned into Bad Bunny’s halftime show.

If the goal of Turning Point was to offer a performance serving as the opposite of Bad Bunny’s official halftime show, they succeeded. They produced a performance as devoid of creativity and imagination as the New England Patriots’ offense. Bad Bunny’s performance and the Seattle Seahawks’ defense won the night, both in dominant fashion.

[1] https://apnews.com/article/super-bowl-bad-bunny-trump-politics-1447163cfa820cbb0c96973c20ccd976.

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/02/07/bad-bunny-immigration-super-bowl-trump/.

[3] https://tpusa.com/live/tpusa-s-all-american-halftime-show-set-to-air-sunday-february-8-lineup-and-streaming-details-announced/.

[4] Because so many of us were curious, Favre publicly announced he would be switching television channels and watching the All-American Halftime Show. https://www.foxnews.com/sports/brett-favre-says-he-wont-watch-bad-bunny-super-bowl-halftime-show-watch-kid-rock-instead.

[5] https://www.sfchronicle.com/super-bowl-lx/article/kid-rock-backlash-underage-21341430.php.

[6] https://tpusa.com/live/tpusa-s-all-american-halftime-show-set-to-air-sunday-february-8-lineup-and-streaming-details-announced/.

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Staff Editor — Sam Koeppel ‘28

bjp4zx@virginia.edu