NFL Super Bowl halftime show was a master class in gaslighting

The Super Bowl’s halftime show Sunday was everything the NFL could have wished for. 

The mini-concert was an undeniable smash hit, featuring Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg performing their classics together, 50 Cent rapping upside-down like it was 2003, along with Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and even Anderson .Paak on the drums. 

Theirs was one in a number of acts that constituted what was arguably the Blackest night in NFL history, with gospel duo Mary Mary, country music star Mickey Guyton and R&B singer Jhené Aiko performing ahead of the kickoff.

And, most importantly to the NFL, there were virtually no references to the league’s sordid racial politics, exposed in recent years by its treatment of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and allegations of systemic racism from former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. (The league denies such allegations.) 

The only thing even approaching a critique was Eminem taking a knee in a purported act of solidarity with racial justice activists. 

Watching it in real time, I wasn’t sure whether that was a form of protest or a performance miscue, and if you have to question whether a protest is a protest … it probably isn’t. 

The league did seem to convey its racial ideology in another way some may not have realized, though. During Lamar’s performance of the protest song “Alright,” a lyric was conspicuously censored to remove a line critical of police who kill. 

The line — “and we hate po-po, when they kill us dead in the street, fo’ sho’” — was scrubbed of any reference to the police at all. It seems the NFL won’t even tolerate criticism of police in an imagined-yet-realistic scenario of anti-Black violence. 

In a way, that edit epitomized a night of contradictions for the NFL, as it publicly and superficially aligned itself with groups it has traditionally marginalized. 

For example, before the game, the league honored the “The Forgotten First,” the first Black players to integrate the NFL. It was a touching Black History Month tribute but one that comes, unfortunately and unavoidably, at a time when the league is showing stubborn opposition to hiring Black coaches and senior team leadership. 

Similarly, the NFL invited tennis great Billie Jean King to perform the coin toss to kick off the game in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the law prohibiting gender-based discrimination in schools and federally-backed learning institutions. 

But the celebration rang hollow, coming from a league known to subjugate women, and one that’s currently facing criticism over its handling of alleged sexual misconduct within its ranks. 

Nonetheless, the NFL’s audacity led to a Super Bowl that was chock-full of performances — not only from the players on the field or the musicians interspersed throughout the evening, but also from a league presenting itself as far more progressive and accepting than is actually the case.