While the 2022 Super Bowl Half-Time show was incredibly successful, that does not mean that there were no controversies surrounding it. Eminem took a knee during his segment as a homage to Colin Kaepernick. Kendrick Lamar had to censor his song, but it was not for the expected line.
Colin Kaepernick used to be a football player that sat during the national anthem in 2016. He did so to protest against racial injustice, police brutality, and systematic oppression in the United States. After speaking with Nate Boyer, he took a knee instead of sitting. Kaepernick did so to not be disrespectful to the military.
Since then, the NFL has banned players from not standing for the “Star-Spangled Banner.” The NFL also knew about Eminem’s plan. He would kneel during the rehearsals, according to the TMZ podcast. As far as we currently know, no issues have risen out of the homage.
The NFL Removed Lines from Lamar’s Song
TMZ did an interview with Dr. Dre. In it, they ask about Lamar’s line about the po-po seems cut out from the TV broadcast. They also asked if anything else had to remain from the show.
“There were a few things we had to change, but it was like, really minor things,” Dr. Dre told the outlet. “Em taking a knee, that was Em doing that on his own, and there was no problem with that. I think the beginning of Kendrick’s set, he says, ‘If Pirus and Crips all got along,’ they had a problem with that, so we had to take that out.
“No big deal, we did it, but all in all, everybody came in, we were professional, everybody was on time, and everybody really felt the magnitude of what this thing was and what we were gonna be able to accomplish.”
Apparently, it was just bad timing on the TV’s part. They did not cut away when the police were talked about in “Still D.R.E” afterward.
Overall, the 2022 Super Bowl Half-Time show went well, though certain misunderstandings took place.
Written by Justin Acosta
Twitter: @hahalacka
