When Super Bowl LIII went down in Atlanta in 2019, there were a number of Black artists who allegedly turned down the chance to perform at halftime. They did it to be in support of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, was still unsigned by a team after starting the “taking a knee” racial injustice protests in 2016. Adam Levine and his band Maroon 5 ended up taking the high-profile gig, and now he’s getting heat for being hypocritical by posting anti-racism and pro-Black Lives Matter messages to his Instagram. One man has started a petition for people to comment in the41-year-old’s IG posts until he apologizes for accepting the Super Bowl offer amid the NFL’s mistreatment of Kaep and other Black players…which the league has now apologized for.
Durham, NC resident Vic Oyedeji started the original Change.org petition in 2019, asking Maroon 5 to drop out of their Super Bowl performing appearance. He wrote at the time, “The band has a chance to stand on the right side of history. If they don’t, they will be remembered for choosing to side with the NFL over its players,” and noted that, “Colin Kaepernick has sacrificed his NFL career to call out violent racism in America.” The petition garnered over 113,000 signatures.
Vic’s new update to the petition reads: “I was recently alerted that he’s been posting on Instagram about social justice and all, but when he had the chance to not perform during the 2019 Super Bowl in protest to the NFL’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick, he folded! We even asked him to #TakeAKnee during the show, but he and his guest artists that performed that night never did that. So I feel he needs to admit what he failed to do and own up to his mistake!”
Vic continued, “If NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell can admit the NFL was wrong by not listening to their players, Adam Levine should be able to admit that Maroon 5 fell short of holding the NFL accountable for its racist policies during the 2019 Super Bowl. He needs to own that mistake, and call for other celebrities to do more than just post on social media. We need real change!”
We, the NFL, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black People. We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter. #InspireChange pic.twitter.com/ENWQP8A0sv
— NFL (@NFL) June 5, 2020
Vic even included a template of what people could post, which read, “Hey @AdamLevine. Glad to see you standing up for racial justice, but where were you when fans asked you not to play the Super Bowl in solidarity with @kaepernick7? You ignored them and endorsed the blatant racism of the NFL. If Roger Goodell can own their mistake, will you?” So far the comments in Adam’s IG posts about BLM appear to be supportive of his thoughts, where he has shared quotes about fighting racism from Nelson Mandela, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and others. HollywoodLife.com has reached out to Adam’s reps about the new petition and apology request.
Rihanna, 32, admitted to Vogue in Oct. 2019 that she “absolutely” turned down the Super Bowl halftime gig in support of Kaepernick. “I couldn’t dare do that,” she told the publication. “For what? Who gains from that? Not my people. 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.”
Other artists including JAY-Z and Cardi B had also been vocal that they wouldn’t perform at the Super Bowl in solidarity with Kaepernick’s fight for racial justice. Jay, 50, rapped about it in his 2018 song “Apesh*t,” with the lines, “I said no to the Super Bowl/ You need me, I don’t need you/ Every night we in the endzone/ Tell the NFL we in stadiums too.” Cardi, 27, gave a shout-out to Colin in a 2017 VMAs speech, saying “Colin Kaepernick…As long as you kneel with us, we gonna standing for you, baby.” She confirmed to TMZ in Feb. 2018 that she had turned down a Super Bowl performance offer and wouldn’t participate until a NFL team had signed the quarterback.