From the Minnesota Timberwolves’ moments of silence for Renee Good and Alex Pretti to FIFA giving Trump a newly created peace prize to a Ukrainian luge player disqualified this year for his helmet, politics in sports is not new.
At the 2025 NFL Super Bowl, Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican artist whose music has become immensely popular, was chosen as the performer for the halftime show. His performance was mainly in Spanish and referenced power grid struggles in Puerto Rico, and its colonial past and current culture. But it also more overtly spoke of a greater message of unity with a football engraved with the words “Together We Are America.” The halftime show usually garners attention, but for many like Lilly Graham (12), there seemed to be more controversy surrounding Bad Bunny as the pick. Kendrick Lamar also had a political message, notably opening with “the revolution’s about to be televised.” This message, though political, was not as controversial as the Latin artist’s message.
“I think it was different because Kendrick Lamar was speaking English and some people see him more as an American,” Graham said. “I feel like this time, there was more of a hatred toward this year’s halftime show because Bad Bunny wasn’t speaking English.”
The political divide on Bad Bunny being chosen was made more clear by the All-American Halftime show, an alternative performance that ran at the same time and was organized by Turning Point USA. Many have reported that millions tuned in to watch, but some like Adam Fitch (12), who regularly watches basketball and football, are skeptical.
“I didn’t pay attention to it and I don’t think anyone else did, because also, if you look at the viewership, they claimed to have a couple million people in the livestream and the chat was dead so they were [probably] just bots,” Fitch said. “It was a sad attempt to wage cultural war against Bad Bunny.”
While some disagree with the inclusion of any politics in sports, Graham disagrees. To her, lots of media is inherently political to some degree.
“I think everything is political, whether it’s sports, the arts, TV, movies, music, everything is political in some aspect,” Graham said. “Even last year’s halftime show was political with Kendrick Lamar. It’s just that Bad Bunny decided to show a different side of the politics.”
For others like Fitch, the political nature of this year’s show was simply for greater viewership from people who usually don’t tune in for the game rather than a conduit for sharing political beliefs.
“On one hand, the NFL did use it to make more money, because NFL doesn’t care either way what you think,” Fitch said. “They just want you to watch, so they used this to get more viewership … but also I think people who actually do have a platform have a right to share their opinions.”
The place of politics in sports is difficult to narrow down, but is continuously recurring. For some, the inclusion of politics into sports is simply a way for politicians to cause controversy and draw attention to garner support. Mike Stephenson teaches AP United States History and AP European History and follows football, basketball and soccer. He says polarization drives more politics being present in sports.
“I think it’s more polarized now than it used to be,” Stephenson said. “I don’t remember when I was young there ever being politics involved in halftime shows. I don’t remember halftime shows even being as celebrated. I think this is kind of the media circus that revolves around everything now and the commercializing of everything now. It’s alien to me why people get so angry on one side or the other side, and that that has bled over into a sporting event.”
The relationship between politics and sports is also visible through the long association between individual politicians and athletes. According to Stephenson, the United States is unique in the number of sports in conjunction with sports hero “worship culture,” both of which gives sports a high status in American culture and impact how politicians want to be viewed. President Donald Trump is no stranger to this, having once owned the United States Football League and attempting to enter the NFL.
“I think that politicians — some, not all — politicians will cleave to a certain athlete or a certain sports team and it may kind of become part of their persona,” Stephenson said. “I think about somebody like Donald Trump and the New York Yankees and … he associates that the decision to invite the victorious men’s hockey team to the State of the Union address. I think he personally wants to be associated with a winner … It’s been a long, long tradition of [Super Bowl champions and World Series champions] coming to the White House … You know, Barack Obama’s association with basketball is another good example of how you see sports and politics kind of intermingling like that.”
The intermingling of sports and politics also extends to international politics, but differs in how it plays out. International political tensions are usually always occurring and are often more hostile than U.S. politics so, to Stephenson, this means a responsibility to regulate the intersection of sports and politics more strictly.
“I think in some situations, the international community has to address it in a much more strict way … FIFA would never have allowed the Irish national team to play the Northern Ireland team in the past because of all the violence between Northern Ireland and Ireland and Britain being part of that,” Stephenson said. “You know that you would not have allowed them to play anywhere near the same and how, you know, you’ve had countries who had recently fought wars with each other, where there was bad blood … fighting in the stands.”
In understanding politics’ ongoing role in sports, it’s clearer why Bad Bunny’s performance felt particularly polarizing to some viewers. If not for current circumstances, like the increased immigration enforcement and xenophobia particularly toward the Hispanic community, the performance likely would not have been as controversial. Nonetheless, the politics and the overall message impacted people.
“A lot of Hispanic people I spoke to — the halftime show was very impactful for them … it was nice to see them highlighted because everyone should be able to feel seen for who they are in America,” Graham said. “Because at the end of the day, America is a melting pot of multiple different cultures, races and ethnicities, and everyone should feel celebrated for who they are.”