Super Bowl or Super Fake?

Super Bowl LIII was held on February 3 between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams in Atlanta, with the patriots winning their second championship in three years 13-3. However, many people chose not to watch the super bowl for many reasons. Whether it was the New Orleans Saints controversial loss to the Rams in the NFL Championship game or the Colin Kaepernick kneeling controversy that has left him without a job since after the 2016 NFL season.
Because of these controversies between the NFL and Kaepernick, celebrities have called for a boycott of the NFL. Rappers such as J. Cole and T.I have stopped watching the NFL due to Kaepernick not being signed to an NFL team. Artists such as Rihanna and Cardi B have turned down the Super Bowl halftime show in support of Kaepernick. According to AJC.com, the Super Bowl received a 44.9 rating from Nielsen and received a 26.2 rating in the New Orleans market. The Super Bowl was only watched by 98.2 million people on CBS. This was the lowest rating in ten years.
Some of the celebrities that said they weren’t supporting the NFL actually ended up supporting the NFL. For example, rapper Cardi B turned down the halftime performance with Maroon 5 due to the Colin Kaepernick situation. However, Cardi B performed at the Patriots pep rally in downtown Atlanta the day of Super Bowl with Patriots owner Robert Kraft on stage. In Cardi B’s defense, she also turned down the halftime performance because the NFL doesn’t pay performers. Tanner Citizen, a freshman, mass communications major from Lake Charles, Louisiana stated, “if Cardi B was really with Kaepernick’s cause then she wouldn’t have performed at the Patriots pep rally.”
Kaepernick never said that everyone should boycott the NFL. He is still working to get back in the NFL, even with his ongoing collusion case between him and the NFL. According to Nielsen, even with the ongoing boycotts, the NFL’s Super Bowl took in more viewers than the 2018 NBA Finals, 2018 World Series, and the 2018 Stanley Cup finals. Some say that everyone that is black should boycott the NFL due to the Kaepernick situation and that black players, which according to the undefeated makes up over 80 percent of the league, should stop playing. That would be hard for players to do because many of them have worked their whole life to get to the NFL.
In the end, it’s for people to decide if they want to watch the NFL or not. Many celebrities do have an influence on what people think and do. In the social media age, it is easy to get influenced to do something just because a celebrity is doing it. Kaepernick has already been successful in his cause and has sparked a conversation around the nation.