It's time for the big matchup: Bad Bunny versus Kid Rock. There's football, too
Super Bowl LX brings more than just a game on the gridiron this year
It’s Super Bowl Sunday, which means it’s time for the biggest contest of the year:
Bad Bunny versus Kid Rock.
There also will be a football game, which, as it turns out, is the undercard in this fight, and we’ll get to that in a few paragraphs. But first, the main event.
Bad Bunny:
His real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio and he is, according to the never-wrong internet, “arguably the most popular artist in the world, having been named Spotify’s Global Top Artist four times (2020-2022, 2025) and securing over 19.8 billion streams in 2025 alone.”
And at the most recent Grammy Awards, he won the coveted Album of the Year, a first for an all-Spanish-language album.
So, the organizers of Super Bowl LX scored a touchdown securing him as this year’s halftime performer. There, literally, is nobody more popular they could have picked.
The controversy:
However, that selection has gone over like a concrete football in the MAGAverse for several reasons:
Bad Bunny has made no secret that he thinks Donald Trump sucks. At the Grammys, he said, “Before I say thanks to God, I'm going to say, ICE out."
Bad Bunny endorsed Kamala Harris.
Bad Bunny is from Puerto Rico, and Trump believes it is wrong to have “foreigners” performing at the Super Bowl when there are all-American singers like Kid Rock who could do the job.
Robert James Ritchie, a.k.a. Kid Rock:
So, as a counterpoint to Bad Bunny’s halftime show, a handful of right-wing media outlets will be streaming an alternative show so the MAGAzombie snowflakes won’t be exposed to a “foreign” language during halftime.
It will be hosted by the white supremacist movement’s Turning Point USA.
Kid Rock, apparently, is a fave of Jeffrey Epstein’s pal, Trump, especially for his song Cool Daddy Cool and its lyrics:
“Young ladies, young ladies, I like ’em underage, see
Some say that’s statutory
But I say it’s mandatory.”
Without a hint of irony, Turning Point is calling Kid Rock’s performance a celebration of “American faith, family and freedom.”
The card:
Bad Bunny: 31.
Kid Rock: 55.
Bad Bunny: 2025-2026 sales: 6.4 million
Kid Rock: 408,000
Bad Bunny: 6 Grammys, 17 Latin Grammys
Kid Rock: Zero Grammys of any kind.
Watch for…
In addition to the halftime show, there’s a pregame performance featuring Green Day.
Frontman Billy Joe Armstrong said this at a preview party:
"To all the ICE agents out there, wherever you are, quit your s----y-ass job. Quit that s----y job you have,"
While the band’s actual playlist was not available as this was written, watch for a rendition of American Idiot in Trump’s honor.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said ICE agents will be at the game.
"I have the responsibility to make sure everybody who goes to the Super Bowl has the opportunity to enjoy it and to leave safely. That's what America’s about," Noem said. "We'll be all over that place."
The actual game:
There will also be a football game, and I have a few thoughts on that, too:
For the record, this year’s Super Bowl will be played in Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Santa Clara, in case your Left Coast geography is a little rusty, is part of the greater San Jose area and is where the San Francisco 49ers play.
Why does a San Francisco team play in San Jose? For the same reason, the New York Jets play in New Jersey: They needed better corporate luxury seats. This is America, after all, and this is a game for millionaire players and billionaire owners.
There’s also the fact that the stadium won’t be busy since San Francisco won’t be using it on Super Bowl Sunday, anyway.
This year’s combatants will, in fact, be the Seattle Seahawks and the hated New England Patriots.
I say hated because I am a lifelong Miami Dolphins fan, and Dolfans hate, hate, hate New England because of the way Tom Brady used deflated footballs, and we do not condone cheating. When we get edged out of the playoffs year after year after year, we do it with integrity.
This year’s Super Bowl is the 60th, so it will be known by the Roman numeral LX.
What’s with the Roman numerals, you ask? Is this a not-so-subtle nod to football being some kind of gladiatorial spectacle?
Yes, but also it’s a scheduling issue. Contrast the Super Bowl to baseball’s World Series. The World Series is simply known by the year in which it is played, which is the very same year as the regular season.
Football, for reasons having to do with millionaires and billionaires and grubbing as many ticket sales and TV ads as possible, doesn’t end sensibly at the end of the calendar year. No, it has to spill over into January and, for the big game, February.
If they just stretched it out a little longer, they could bump up against Spring Training, which this year begins on February 20.
So, the NFL, because this is all so confusing, decided way back in the distant past, even before the Dolphins stopped attending playoff games, to use the aforementioned Roman numerals.
As noted, this year’s big matchup will be Super Bowl LX, which is far more dignified than last year’s LIX, which sounded a little suggestive, if you asked me.
Which, of course, you didn’t.
My prediction: Seahawks 24, New England 10.
J.C. Bruce is the founder of Tropic Press, a Florida online news service dedicated to sharing news and commentary relevant to Florida readers, whether it originates in the Sunshine State or elsewhere. Bruce is an award-winning former newspaper editor, journalist and author living in Florida, his native state.
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Pedophile vs. Latino
I actually forgot who Kid Rock was