Rihanna Turned Down Super Bowl Halftime Show For Colin Kaepernick

Rihanna is kneeling with Colin Kaepernick.

The singer says she turned down an invitation to headline the Super Bowl LIII halftime show in solidarity with the former 49ers quarterback.

“I couldn’t dare do that,” the pop superstar, 31, told Vogue. “I just couldn’t be a sellout. I couldn’t be an enabler.

There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way.”

Rumors swirled in 2018 that Rihanna rejected an invite from the NFL in the wake of the national anthem protest backlash that led to Kaepernick opting out of his contract.

“The NFL and CBS really wanted Rihanna to be next year’s performer in Atlanta,” a source told Us Weekly last October. “They offered it to her, but she said no because of the kneeling controversy. She doesn’t agree with the NFL’s stance.”

Maroon 5 ended up performing the halftime show, which many fans trashed for being “mundane.”

Rihanna did not hide her feelings of disdain for the NFL during the game, TMZ reported, posting videos of her mocking football’s big night while on an airplane.

Kaepernick has garnered both criticism and praise for kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and social injustice in 2016. The 31-year-old has been a free agent since 2017 when he opted out of his contract with the 49ers. In February, he reached a confidential settlement over a grievance filed in 2017 alleging the NFL blackballed him from the league.

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