Despite the man himself not being there, the spirit of Colin Kaepernick was alive and well at the Superbowl game between the San Francisco 49ers and The Kansas City Chiefs.
Celebrity hip-hop couple Jay-Z and Beyonce became mascots for every disgruntled mega-millionaire social justice warrior, by staying seated during Demi Lovato’s performance of the Star-Spangled Banner.
Fox News reported what the cameras didn’t show TV viewers, that the celebrity moguls decided to remain comfy, with their behinds glued to the chair and Beyonce's sunglasses on as the rest of the crowd jumped to their feet for the patriotic display. It’s worth noting that the display also included four 100-year-old World War Two veterans. Stay classy, guys.
Fox reported, “In images obtained by the outlet, the musical family can be seen sitting during the performance while others stood.” Video uploaded to Twitter showed the hip hop royalty seated as other fans stood in attention at the flag.
Fox’s live coverage of the game declined to give audiences a real time glimpse at the family’s decorum for the flag and the anthem. After the NFL’s controversy involving the police brutality protests of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and those inspired by him, the league has tried to distance itself from controversy.
Still, it seems both Jay-Z and Beyonce aren’t distancing themselves from their own history injecting politics into football. In 2016, Beyonce’s superbowl performance contained a pro-Black Lives Matter message, which even reminded CNN of the “way members of the Black Panther Party dressed in the 1960s.”
Jay-Z has also been supporter of Kaepernick, telling outlets in the past that he felt that Kaepernick “was done wrong” — echoing many lefties’ contentions that the player was iced out of the league for speaking “truth to power” over the issue of police brutality.
Though, Kaepernick supporters did accuse Jay-Z of abandoning the football player by cutting a subsequent deal with the NFL in 2019, a deal which he maintains was done not “for economic gain, but to promote education surrounding social justice.” Jay-Z waved off the backlash, claiming, “As long as real people are being hurt and marginalized and losing family members, then yes, I can take a couple rounds of negative press.”
The deal, signed between the NFL and Jay-Z’s entertainment company Roc Nation “holds a partnership with the NFL, giving him a say in what artists perform at major NFL events — including the Super Bowl.”
