Beyoncé and Jay-Z aligned themselves with Colin Kaepernick while attending Super Bowl LIV at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Sunday, February 2.
TMZ published a video of the couple and their 8-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, remaining seated as Demi Lovato sang the national anthem before kickoff. The clip panned across the section where the “Apes–t” collaborators’ seats were located, showing the majority of other attendees standing up around them.
Beyoncé, 38, and Jay-Z, 50, appeared to be in good spirits at the NFL championship game though. The website also obtained photos of them smiling while talking to DJ Khaled later in the evening.
Although the Grammy winners have shown support for Kaepernick, 32, in the past, the video from Sunday’s event came as a surprise to some social media users who pointed out that the “99 Problems” rapper signed a deal with the NFL in August 2019. As part of the partnership, he consults with the league about entertainment, including the halftime show, as well as the activism initiative Inspire Change.
Jay-Z (real name Shawn Carter) spoke about his role in the NFL in an interview with The New York Times published on Saturday, February 1. In it, he revealed that the league approached him about performing at the halftime show a few years prior and allegedly requested that he bring out Rihanna and Kanye West to perform “Run This Town” with him.
“Of course I would have, but I said, ‘No, you get me,’” the Roc Nation founder recalled to the newspaper. “That is not how you go about it, telling someone that they’re going to do the halftime show contingent on who they bring. I said forget it. It was a principle thing.”
Kaepernick made headlines in 2016 when he became the first NFL player to kneel during the national anthem as a peaceful protest against racial injustice and police brutality. He became a free agent after the following year and has not played in the league since.
The former San Francisco 49ers player filed a grievance against the NFL and its owners in 2017 and accused them of colluding to keep him from playing. They reached a confidential settlement in 2019.
