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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Emma John

The greatest sport-pop relationship? Not Taylor and Travis but the Super Bowl half-time show

Coldplay, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars perform during the Super Bowl half-time show at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, in 2016
Coldplay, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars perform during the Super Bowl half-time show at Levi's Stadium – home of the San Francisco 49ers – in 2016. Photograph: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

If US high school romcoms have taught us anything, it’s that jocks don’t have anything in common with those who play band. Nor do they, typically, hang with the brooders, the sensitive souls who write waspish poetry and listen to indie music. And yet here we are: another Super Bowl, another year of romance. It shouldn’t work, not where so many other relationships have faltered. But this one is true love.

We’re not talking about Travis and Taylor, but NFL and the half-time show. This Sunday, when the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles, we once again bear witness to a perfect American marriage: the country’s biggest sporting event coupled with a live music gig so valuable to its megastar performers that they undertake it for free.

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