Jay-Z’s Super Bowl role bolsters the NFL’s progressive image despite close ties
The NFL has named Jay-Z as this season’s Super Bowl half-time headliner, extending a partnership that gives his company, Roc Nation, a role in producing the show and the league’s social justice initiative. The article argues that his billionaire status and public support for Colin Kaepernick lend the league a progressive image, while his close ties to the NFL make him unlikely to challenge its leadership.
Jay-Z rose from selling drugs and independent CDs in Brooklyn to a fortune Forbes estimates at about $2.8bn. Roc Nation’s NFL deal was reportedly worth $5m a year when signed in 2019 and was extended for five years in 2024. The article contrasts his partnership with the league, which began after he said it had “moved past kneeling”, with Kaepernick’s claim that the NFL sidelined him after his protests against police brutality.
In short
- Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl half-time show.
- Roc Nation’s NFL partnership includes the league’s social justice initiative.
- The article questions whether Jay-Z will challenge the NFL’s leadership.
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The case for
The partnership gives Jay-Z and Roc Nation influence over a major cultural event and the NFL’s social justice initiative, potentially creating a platform to reach audiences and support change from within. His rise from Brooklyn to major commercial success also gives him a prominent voice, and his history of supporting Colin Kaepernick may help keep issues of racial justice visible in a league with broad reach.
The case against
The partnership may lend the NFL a progressive image without requiring it to address the concerns raised by Kaepernick, who says the league sidelined him after his protests. Jay-Z’s close commercial ties to the NFL, and his earlier comment that it had “moved past kneeling”, could limit his willingness or ability to challenge its leadership, making the arrangement appear more useful to the league’s reputation than to reform.
Explained simply
The Super Bowl is the NFL’s championship game and one of the United States’ biggest television events. Its half-time show is a major platform for performers, while Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by Jay-Z, has worked with the league on producing it and on a social justice initiative.
Jay-Z became a prominent figure in music and business after growing up in Brooklyn, and Forbes estimates his fortune at about $2.8bn. His relationship with the NFL began in 2019, after he said the league had “moved past kneeling”, a reference to players’ protests during the national anthem.
Those protests were associated with Colin Kaepernick, a former NFL quarterback who said the league sidelined him after he protested police brutality. Jay-Z has publicly supported Kaepernick, while his business partnership gives him a continuing role alongside the NFL.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “Jay-Z is the perfect Super Bowl shill for a league of billionaires”.