NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell may have survived scandals, controversies, and public outrage over the course of his tenure — but this week’s press conference following the fall owners meeting made one thing crystal clear: his time is up.
Goodell’s response — or more accurately, his lack of response — to two separate cultural flashpoints should concern not just NFL fans, but anyone who believes the league still represents something broadly American. Instead, under Goodell, it’s increasingly a vessel for elite messaging, corporate box-ticking, and virtue signaling that’s alienating its own base.
NFL is not considering dropping Bad Bunny as its Super Bowl halftime headline performer, commissioner Roger Goodell said today, reaffirming a decision to put the Grammy-winning artist on the NFL’s biggest stage, which led to criticism from Donald Trump.https://t.co/aekvGGMF68
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 22, 2025
First, there’s the Super Bowl halftime show. This year’s performer? Bad Bunny — the Puerto Rican rapper known as much for political activism as for music, including anti-American rhetoric and a “Saturday Night Live” stunt where he mocked Americans for not speaking Spanish, telling them they had “four months to learn” before the Super Bowl. That didn’t sit well with millions of NFL fans — and rightly so.
Asked about the backlash, Goodell could have distanced the league from the performer’s remarks. He could have emphasized that the Super Bowl stage is for unity, not division. Instead, he doubled down.
“It’s an important stage for us,” he said. “It’s carefully thought through.”
Carefully thought through? That’s worse. That means this wasn’t a mistake. This was the plan. A halftime show by a performer who openly mocked the audience the NFL relies on to fill its stadiums and buy its merchandise was greenlit — intentionally. Goodell’s only defense? That every act gets “some blowback.” That’s not leadership. That’s dismissal.
But it didn’t stop there.
When OutKick’s Armando Salguero raised the question of biological males playing in girls’ flag football — a growing concern as the NFL aggressively markets flag football to young girls — Goodell gave a response so stunningly evasive that it revealed how far he’s drifted from both the pulse of American parents and the integrity of the sport itself.
“We haven’t discussed that,” he said. “So, I don’t have an answer.”
Not discussed it? While states across the country are passing laws to protect girls’ sports, while polls show overwhelming public opposition to male athletes competing against women, while the league itself expands outreach to young female athletes — the Commissioner of the National Football League hasn’t even discussed the most obvious and controversial issue facing the future of women’s sports?
This isn’t just tone-deaf. It’s negligent.
