WASHINGTON -- Don't tune into the Super Bowl hoping for a break from the tumultuous politics gripping the U.S.The NFL is facing pressure ahead of Sunday's game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots to take a more explicit stance against the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement.More than 184,000 people have signed a petition calling on the league to denounce the potential presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Super Bowl, which is being held at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The liberal group MoveOn plans to deliver the petition to the NFL's New York City headquarters on Tuesday.Meanwhile, anticipation is building around how Bad Bunny, the halftime show's Spanish-speaking headliner, will address the moment.He has criticized President Donald Trump on everything from his hurricane response in his native Puerto Rico to his treatment of immigrants.
On Sunday night, he blasted ICE while accepting an award at the Grammys.His latest tour skipped the continental U.S.
because of fears that his fans could be targeted by immigration agents.Trump has said he doesn't plan to attend this year's game, unlike last year, and he has derided Bad Bunny as a “terrible choice.” A Republican senator is calling it “the woke bowl.” And a prominent conservative group plans to hold an alternative show that it hopes will steal attention from the main event.The Super Bowl is one of the few remaining cultural touchstones viewed by millions of people in real time and the halftime show is no stranger to controversy, perhaps most notably Janet Jackson's 2004 performance in which her breast was briefly exposed.
But there are few parallels to this year's game, which has the potential to become an unusual mix of sports, entertainment, politics and protest.And it will unfold at a tinderbox moment for the U.S., just two weeks after Alex Pretti's killing by federal agents in Minneapolis reignited a national debate over th...