According to an ~insider source~ that spoke to US Weekly, known queen Rihanna straight up declined a headline spot at the upcoming Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta next February, because she doesn’t align with the NFL‘s approach to dealing with Colin Kaepernick and other players kneeling for the American national anthem.
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The source says that the NFL and CBS wanted RiRi to play the coveted Super Bowl halftime show, but she said no to the offer because of her support of Kaepernick and that she “doesn’t agree with the NFL’s stance.”
Rihanna’s reported thanks-but-no-thanks to the NFL is the second year in a row that a big-name act has passed on the headline spot – a moment in US television that tends to get some of the highest ratings every year.
Last year it was speculated by many that Jay-Z declined to take the stage at the Super Bowl in Minneapolis with Beyoncé because of Kaepernick’s kneeling protest.
In the 2016 NFL season, Kaepernick was playing for the San Francisco 49ers as a quarterback and was the first player to kneel during the national anthem as an act of protest against police brutality and racial inequality.
Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL late last year, accusing the league and its owners of conspiring to keep him off the field since his protest. Many players from teams right across the league followed Kaepernick’s protest and took a knee in solidarity several times throughout the 2017 season.
