ESPN sports and culture commentator Stephen A Smith says that Donald Trump and conservative-minded Americans are right when they say the NFL’s Halftime show should have been in English, not Spanish.
Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, who was the NFL’s choice to headline the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show, has vowed to only sing his music in Spanish and never English. And on Sunday, he stuck to that promise and performed his entire NFL Halftime Show in Spanish.
But with only about 15 percent of Americans able to understand Spanish — and even fewer the Puerto Rican slang that fills his songs — it appears the NFL was telling more than 85 percent of America that the Super Bowl Halftime Show was not for them.
Now, it appears that Stephen A. Smith agrees that the NFL’s choice was not a good one, Fox News reported.
On his self-titled show, Smith said he felt the “vibe was fly” for Bad Bunny’s production and, in essence, it was a “damn good show.” However, he added one huge caveat to that.
“Here’s my only reticence: You’re in the United States of America, and you perform damn-near an entire performance in Spanish …” Smith said, adding that Trump and conservatives have a “legitimate point” about the show being an all-Spanish presentation. “If you didn’t understand Spanish, you were lost.”
“Would have been nice to see a few people celebrating the Hispanic heritage, no doubt,” Smith continued. “But it also would have been nice if some of the songs were in English. That’s all. But it was still a good show.”
For his part, Trump ripped the NFL Halftime Show, calling it the “worst EVER!”
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence,” the president wrote on his Truth Social account.
“Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World,” he added.
Trump called the performance a “slap in the face” to the United States and predicted the establishment legacy media would give it rave reviews:
This “Show” is just a “slap in the face” to our Country, which is setting new standards and records every single day — including the Best Stock Market and 401(k)s in History! There is nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show and watch, it will get great reviews from the Fake News Media, because they haven’t got a clue of what is going on in the REAL WORLD — And, by the way, the NFL should immediately replace its ridiculous new Kickoff Rule.
It may have been a visually exciting production. Still, being that it was sung in Spanish, most Americans would not have known that they were witnessing a show filled with some of the most sexually explicit and disgusting lyrics ever to appear on the NFL Halftime stage.
Bad Bunny doled out a lot of drug references and sexually explicit lyrics in this “family values” show. In one of his songs, for instance, he sang, “smile if I fucked you already.” In another, he rapped that “my dick is hot.” In another, he led the audience to fill in the lyric “if your boyfriend doesn’t eat your ass, then why bother.” In yet another lyric, Bad Bunny sang, “My dick is fugitive, and I want you to hide it.” And there was also a reference to cocaine and the street drug tusi.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: Facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston, or at X/Twitter @WTHuston
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.