Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Will the Super Bowl weather the MAGA outrage cycle?

Is it possible that some sporting events are just so big that they can more or less do whatever they want politically without suffering any real consequences?

I’m asking this because of what happened during the Super Bowl halftime performance. Bad Bunny was everything the MAGA crowd expected - and perhaps feared - he would be.

Some were already threatening to boycott the halftime show because Bad Bunny has been a vocal critic of Trump’s ICE raids, having spoken out at the Grammys last week, which was just the latest in a series of comments.

 A Trump-aligned MAGA group even hosted an alternative halftime show featuring Kid Rock. So expectations were high, and the moment came.

At the end of Bad Bunny’s performance, standing among flags from various South American countries, he made his point. He said, “God bless America,” and then name-checked countries from across North and predominantly South America - an obviously deliberate provocation, given ICE’s targeting of migrants from those nations.

And right on cue, Trump took the bait, immediately firing up Truth Social and taking a swing at the Super Bowl itself.

My prediction is that the Super Bowl will weather this. It will outlast Trump and the MAGA outrage cycle because it always does.

Remember Beyoncé’s Black Panther-esque performance 10 years ago? There was controversy.

The Super Bowl got pulled into the Colin Kaepernick “taking the knee” debate. There’s been low-level drama in the intervening years since. And yet, the Super Bowl just keeps setting records. Even we watch it from New Zealand. 

Last year, it drew nearly 128 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched US broadcasts ever.

I am firmly of the view that you should never mix politics with sport because it simply gives some fans a reason to walk away - at a time when you cannot afford for people to walk away.

But maybe some events are just so big they can afford to, and not even Trump can dent their popularity. Maybe the Super Bowl is exactly that kind of event.

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