NFL denies plans to stop Eminem from kneeling during Super Bowl performance

• Eminem had taken a knee during his performance at the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday.
• The gesture emulated quarterback Colin Kaepernick when he kneeled during the US anthem in 2016 to protest racial injustice.
• The NFL denied having plans to stop the rapper from making the gesture.

After reports claimed that the NFL tried to stop Eminem from kneeling during his performance at the Super Bowl LVI halftime show, the league issued a statement denying such claims.

On Sunday, Eminem performed at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium alongside fellow musical icons 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, and Snoop Dogg.

The rapper performed his hit “Lose Yourself” and knelt on stage — a gesture that emulated former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Kaepernick was embroiled in controversy in 2016 when he started kneeling during the U.S. national anthem as a show of protest against racial injustice and police brutality.

After he left the 49ers, no other team signed him, prompting him to file a grievance claim against the NFL that he had been blacklisted. He withdrew the claim later.

Several athletes and personalities followed Kaepernick’s example, but critics also emerged. Many, including Former President Donald Trump, called the gesture disrespectful and unpatriotic.

A report from Puck News correspondent Eriq Gardner claimed that the league was planning to stop Eminem’s plan to take a knee.

Gardner’s report also claimed that the NFL tried to remove a line from Dr. Dre’s signature 1999 hit “Still D.R.E.” about “not lovin’” police. This line was still included in the performance, however.

An NFL representative called the report “erroneous.”

They explained that they watched over the rehearsals, during which the mentioned lines and gestures were shown.

“As you know, no player, coach, or personnel member has been sanctioned for taking a knee so there would be no reason for us to tell a performer he or she could not for whatever reason,” they added.

If there was a line that was removed without explanation in the performance, it was from Lamar’s performance on his 2015 single “Alright.” In the pre-chorus line “And we hate po-po / Wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho”, the word “po-po,” which is slang for police, was left out.

The moment was seen from a bird’s-eye perspective instead of a close-up shot, however, so it’s unclear if Lamar intentionally left out the phrase or if he was censored by the telecast.

Source: Insider