The National Football League has never been shy about draping itself in the imagery of patriotism. Flags fill stadiums. Military flyovers punctuate kickoffs. “America the Beautiful” is sung with solemn reverence. Then organizers book a halftime show by a performer fresh off a public appearance castigating American law and the law enforcement officers that guarantee the very right of dissent he enjoys.
The NFL has now made its priorities unmistakably clear: Money and an expanded international audience trumps America and its values. Right-thinking patriots should similarly make their point by boycotting not just the impudent Bad Bunny performance this Sunday, but this year’s game and the NFL overall.
By featuring Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio as a Super Bowl halftime headliner after his public “ICE out” remarks disparaging U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the NFL’s actively endorsing a performer who mocks the very federal law-enforcement system that protects his rights, secures the stadium he performs in, and safeguards the millions watching at home. That contradiction should trouble anyone who believes that freedom and order are complementary values, not opposing ones.
Bunny is an American citizen. He enjoys the full protections of U.S. law: constitutional rights, personal security, and the freedom to express dissenting views. He can criticize federal agencies because those agencies exist to defend a system that allows criticism in the first place. That’s the American bargain, after all: dissent’s protected not because authority is illegitimate, but because lawful authority is strong enough to tolerate criticism.
His message at the Grammy Awards – that ludicrously left-wing, self-aggrandizing celebration of Trump Hate with two straight years of declining audience that masquerades as support for the arts – warrants dissection. “ICE out” means “law enforcement, go away;” down with the protection of the citizenry against criminals; up with crime by illegal aliens; up with the rape and murder of women like Laken Riley, Rachel Morin and 12 year-old Jocelyn Nungaray; up with the illegal drug trade killing tens of thousands of Americans; up with what’s being uncovered as the massive financial defrauding of the taxpayer-supported American public welfare system and the threatening national debt to which it contributs.
Bunny’s entitled to his opinion, wrong as it is. What is more despicable is that the National Football League chose to elevate that opinion as entertainment while continuing to cloak itself in patriotic symbolism. The NFL’s hypocrisy is nauseating: how dare you monetize the American flag while amplifying contempt for the laws that give that flag meaning?
To an NFL more poised for greed than principle, the motivation is obvious if not forthright. Chasing global audiences, non-English-speaking markets, and ever-larger advertising revenue streams tied to the Super Bowl is the NFL’s Holy Grail. Cultural signaling now outweighs cultural cohesion.
This isn’t about music preference, it’s about values.
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When a league uses its most powerful platform to celebrate an artist who openly derides federal law enforcement, it sends a message: the rule of law is optional, so long as the ratings are good. Fans who believe otherwise are justified in responding with the only leverage they have—a voluntary boycott.
Turning Point’s All-American Halftime Show won’t not mock law enforcement or reduce patriotism to a number on a spreadsheet. Instead, it will emphasizes themes that once united Americans across party lines: gratitude for liberty, respect for lawful authority, and pride in national identity, all without demanding ideological conformity.
Viewers can watch the Turning Point halftime program through:
- Turning Point USA’s official website
- Turning Point USA’s YouTube channel
- The Daily Wire online news platform
- Streaming links shared across Turning Point’s X, Facebook, and Rumble platforms
True American values don’t silence dissent. They protect it by upholding the laws that make peaceful disagreement possible. But there’s a difference between defending the right to criticize and endorsing contempt for the system that guarantees those very rights.
The NFL’s decision reflects a growing institutional confusion that mistakes rebellion for courage, provocation for principle, and profit for patriotism. Fans who choose to sit this Super Bowl out are exercising free speech, not rejecting it.
And those who tune instead to the Turning Point USA halftime show will see something increasingly rare in America’s anti-Trump pop culture swamp: a celebration of the core values that protect dissenters like Bad Bunny without glorifying the disdain he and his ilk express for American law.
That distinction matters. This Sunday, you get to cast your vote.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
