Kickoff is almost here
• Super Bowl LX: The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks will play for the NFL’s ultimate prize tonight at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The game kicks off around 6:30 p.m. ET.
• Tale of two quarterbacks: Patriots signal-caller Drake Maye is an ascending star who developed into an MVP candidate in just his second season. Veteran Seahawks QB Sam Darnold is looking to complete a yearslong reclamation project after stumbling as a top prospect.
• Bad Bunny bowl: Puerto Rican music mega-star Bad Bunny will headline a highly anticipated halftime show. He’s adored by fans and set to make history with a Spanish-language performance, but Bad Bunny’s selection has also drawn conservative backlash — even before he spoke out against ICE at the Grammys last weekend, where he won album of the year.
Charlie Puth is now performing the national anthem
Charlie Puth has taken the stage to perform the “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The “See You Again” singer earlier paid homage to late-vocal powerhouse Whitney Houston in a post on his verified social media page about her soaring rendition at Super Bowl XXV in 1991.
Brandi Carlile sings “America the Beautiful” at Super Bowl LX
Brandi Carlile is now performing “America the Beautiful.”
The Grammy-winning artist told The Associated Press she will sing completely live at the event. “The people deserve to have you live,” Carlile said Thursday. “They need you to be taking the risk they’re taking every day when they walk out into those streets.”
Green Day pulls its political punches in Super Bowl performance
If you went back to 1994 and told Billie Jo Armstong that in 32 years he’d shy away from singing his most political lyrics on a massive stage, he may have punched you in the face.
But that’s what just happened at Levi’s Stadium as Green Day opened up Super Bowl LX.
The band started off with a tease toward “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” before launching into “Holiday,” one of the most political songs in the band’s repertoire. The first two verses of the song were sung with the usual lyrics, but when the band approached the controversial bridge of the song — which begins with the line “Sieg Heil to the President Gasman,” a shot at former President George W. Bush, who was president when the song was released in 2004 — the band just skipped it and wrapped up the song.
They later launched into “American Idiot,” the title track of the same album on which “Holiday” featured. In recent years during live performances, Armstrong has changed part of the opening lyrics to the second verse to “I’m not part of a MAGA agenda.”
But this time, the band went into an instrumental portion and guitar solo after finishing the first chorus and omitted that verse of the song completely. Former Super Bowl MVPs joined the band on stage and stood as Armstrong and his band finished up their set.
It’s a long way from their performance on Friday at a Spotify and Fanduel event in San Francisco, when Armstong encouraged ICE agents to “quit their sh***y jobs” and belted out all those political lyrics.
Series of Super Bowl ads shine spotlight on feud between 2 AI giants
A long-simmering rivalry between two of the world’s biggest AI companies was on public display this week as Anthropic and OpenAI took swings at one another online.
But the tensions run deeper than a social media spat. The public drama underscored what’s at stake in the fast-moving artificial intelligence race: how AI is regulated, the job market, the economy and massive amounts of money.
A series of new Super Bowl ads from Anthropic on Wednesday set off a chain of events.
The ads sent a clear message: The company won’t put advertisements in its Claude chatbot, a declaration that came shortly after OpenAI said ads were coming to ChatGPT.
OpenAI executives, including Sam Altman, quickly hit back and accused Anthropic’s ads of being misleading and criticized their competitor’s business model.
The rivalry runs deep. Anthropic’s founders are former OpenAI employees who left over disagreements about the ChatGPT maker’s direction, approach to safety and pace of AI development.
More about the companies: While ChatGPT has become a household name, Anthropic’s Claude is a favorite among software engineers, who say Claude Code and Claude Cowork have completely changed their industry. OpenAI launched its own coding tool, called Codex, and this week announced more business tools, including a new platform to manage AI agents called Frontier.
Punk rock legends Green Day take stage for pregame performance
Green Day’s Super Bowl pregame performance is now underway in Levi’s Stadium.
A violin rendition of “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” introduced the band’s set, before they transitioned into “Holiday.”
So, far the performance has been a survey of the band’s greatest hits, including “American Idiot.”
Some background: The legendary punk rock band formed in California’s East Bay and was a seminal part of the early 1990s Bay Area music scene before going on to massive mainstream success.
The band is known to be outspoken, especially frontman Billie Joe Armstrong — whether that’s disapproval of President Donald Trump or displeasure at how much time his band has been given at a radio concert.
That has fans wondering if the band might choose to use their platform today to make a statement.
This post has been updated with additional information on the performance.
Cooper Kupp's long, weird year
A year ago, Cooper Kupp could barely hide his heartbreak: The Los Angeles Rams, the only NFL team he’d ever played for, made it clear they were done with him.
A February 3, 2025, post on X by the wide receiver revealed the Rams were trying to trade him. Kupp was the MVP of Super Bowl LVI who hauled in the winning touchdown to deliver a championship to the Rams on their home field. He was Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford’s go-to option for years. He was the cornerstone of their franchise, still producing despite injuries that limited the years after the Super Bowl win.
And, as of that first week of February 2025, he was done in LA. The Rams eventually released him, simply cutting him loose — a franchise icon cast out into the cold.
Kupp is back in California this week, about 300-some-odd miles away from his old stomping grounds, preparing to play in Super Bowl LX for the Seattle Seahawks – another NFC West team that had been game-planning against him for eight years.
The team Seattle beat to get to the game’s biggest stage? Well, the football gods have a sense of humor.
“It was a tough ending in LA, and so to be able to get here to have the opportunity to play in the Super Bowl — and I mean, just for the scriptwriters to put the Rams in the NFC Championship against the Seahawks, that was a pretty dastardly thing by them,” Kupp said on Monday with a laugh.
Coco Jones performs “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
Grammy-winning singer Coco Jones just finished performing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at Super Bowl LX.
The song is known as the Black national anthem and the lyrics describe the hopes and struggles experienced by Black Americans at the turn of the 20th century.
The 12s are out in force here in Santa Clara
Just took a few moments to wander around the area near Levi’s Stadium here in Santa Clara and let me just say: Seattle is here.
Granted, it was well before game time when I got out of the media center outside the stadium, but I would say seven in every 10 fans I saw were wearing green and blue. Chants of “SEA-HAWKS” are ringing out around the area and the New England fans were a little sheepish from what I could tell. Seattle fans, known as The 12s, are among the loudest in football and will be making some noise tonight.
The weather here is actually gorgeous.
It’s warm in the sun without being hot, a bluebird sky with just a little bit of wind here in the Bay Area. This Super Bowl has been a logistical nightmare — Santa Clara is more than 40 miles from San Francisco, where most of the fans and media are staying and the East Bay traffic has been truly nightmarish all week — but you can’t argue with this kind of scenery.
Of course, your humble reporter won’t exactly be soaking in that weather too much the rest of the day. Only a select few of the hordes of media members that descend on the Super Bowl are actually allowed in the stadium on game day — hi, Hannah Keyser! — and I am stationed in the media center tent that is just outside of the stadium, watching the pregame festivities on TV.
That makes the little walk to soak in this Super Bowl — the bright colors, the palm trees, the looks on faces as they walk toward Super Bowl LX — just priceless.
The luckiest fan I saw? The extremely tiny baby strapped into a carrier and sleeping as its parents walked toward the game. What a memory that will be for that family.
When they’re not playing football, the Seattle Seahawks are shadow boxing
Jarran Reed, the Seattle Seahawks veteran defensive tackle, was asked something about his favorite part of Super Bowl week. But just then, a battle was breaking out on a podium just a few yards away.
Derick Hall had climbed up onto the dais where Ernest Jones IV was seated for the team’s media availability to challenge his fellow linebacker to a quick game of shadow boxing.
“Hey! Hey, you saw that, Spoon?” Reed shouted across the convention center ballroom to cornerback Devon Witherspoon. It was worth paying attention to because a surprising upset was taking place.
Hall had just beaten Jones in shadow boxing and – admittedly CNN Sports’ source for this is Jones himself – Hall was 2-12 against Jones during the season.
“Like, he’s terrible,” Jones said.
And that is Reed’s favorite part of Super Bowl week: The shadow boxing.
“Oh it gets real,” Reed said.
Wait, what?
Read more about the craze sweeping the Seahawks locker room here
Explaining some of the references in Bad Bunny’s songs
Bad Bunny performing at the Super Bowl isn’t just a flex — it’s a statement.
The politics in Bad Bunny’s songs don’t show up just when he directly mentions the government, gentrification or the history of Puerto Rico. It comes before: in singing from Puerto Rico to Puerto Rico, using his language and his Caribbean rhythm without adapting them to external consumption.
That is seen in the local slang that he sprinkles throughout his lyrics: words like “Boquete” (one of the songs from his most successful — and most political — album “DeBÍ TiRaR MáS FOToS”), which in Puerto Rico means “pothole in the street” and is used by the singer as a metaphor for a past love.
In “CAFé CON RON” (Coffee with Rum, in English), a collaboration with the Puerto Rican group Los Pleneros de La Cresta, you can hear typical slang such as “loquera,” (party craziness), or “beber un galón,” (drink excessively).
Puerto Rico is not just the backdrop for Bad Bunny’s songs. It is a territory marked by economic hardship, political corruption, immigration, social disparity, and an ambiguous — and uneven — relationship with the United States. All of that is displayed in his lyrics.
In “LA MuDANZA,” Bad Bunny sings, “This is Puerto Rico, people were killed here for raising the flag,” a reference to the 1948 Gag Law, which criminalized the possession or display of the national flag – even inside one’s own home – turning it into grounds for persecution after Puerto Rico had already become a US territory.
Here’s more on what you need to know to understand Bad Bunny’s songs.
A Heisman snub in 2021 still fuels Kenneth Walker III
Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III might have had the greatest college football season that didn’t result in a Heisman nomination – and that snub still drives him today.
In the fall of 2021, the Michigan State University Spartan had a season for the ages. He ran for 1,636 yards, averaged 136.3 yards per game and scored 18 touchdowns. He was named a consensus All-American and won the Walter Camp Player of the Year award – the annual prize bestowed on the best player in college football as determined by the game’s coaches and sports information directors.
Even still, Walker wasn’t even a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, the most high-profile honor in college football that is voted on by a group of journalists, previous Heisman winners and fans. He finished sixth in the voting.
When asked about learning that he wouldn’t be a finalist by CNN Sports, a look crossed Walker’s face that showed he was still in disbelief at the snub.
“I felt some type of way, but then after that, I just knew not to play for awards,” Walker said. “I guess it taught me not to really play for awards or being invited to nothing. You know, just play ball and what happens, happens.”
The highlight game of that season for Walker was a five-touchdown performance against Michigan as the Spartans defeated their archrival in a matchup between two top-10 teams. Walker had to think for a second about whether the Super Bowl surpassed that game.
“Yeah brother, it’s bigger,” Walker said after a pause to consider. “Especially because it’s the present time, right now, and like, you know, a lot of people aspire to be in a Super Bowl in this position. So, it’s just a blessing to be in this position.”
Do New Yorkers know who's playing?
Our intrepid colleagues went to the frigid streets of New York to ask a simple question: Who’s playing in the Super Bowl?
Watch the results here:
CNN took to the streets to find out who New Yorkers are more excited to see this weekend at the Super Bowl.
Here's what this year's Super Bowl feast will cost you
Shopping for this year’s Super Bowl brings news that’s worthy of a touchdown dance: hosting a party might not break the bank.
A spread for 10 people with many of the common Super Bowl fixings this year will cost $140 on average, just 1.6% higher than last year, according to an analysis by the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute, thanks to increased production and stronger harvests. That’s a slower rise than the overall cost of groceries, which is up 2.4% from a year ago, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Read more: CNN broke down a winning Super Bowl food table, including what costs less, more and stayed the same.
Why the Super Bowl means so much to Rob Gronkowski
When you’ve played in five Super Bowls and retire as one of the game’s biggest stars and most well-known players, Super Bowl week becomes an annual thing.
Rob Gronkowski is always busy in February, whether it was when he was on the field as a player or now as a broadcaster/popular sports personality. Many football players would do anything to get to experience this week just once – Gronk gets to do it basically every year.
“The game of football means everything to me. I’ve been playing football my whole life. I’ve been playing sports my whole entire life. The game of football represents who I am. The game of football is why I am where I am today, why I am to the point that I got to because of the game of football,” he told CNN Sports on Saturday.
“Being able to go out there and prepare and be the best possible player that I can be – the game has given me so much, and I love to get back to the game as well. And Super Bowls just mean so much for me, so many great memories with my teammates.
“Winning Super Bowls with the greatest organization, winning three with the New England Patriots, and then going down to Tampa and winning one there. So, I wouldn’t be where I am today without the game of football. It just means everything to me.”
Mike Vrabel brought the Patriots back to the Super Bowl stage they know so well
Mike Vrabel made his name in the NFL as a crunching outside linebacker, delivering punishment to opposing offenses and blowing up their plays on his way to winning multiple Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots.
Now, 15 years after retiring, he’s still getting physical for the Pats – though maybe not in the way most would anticipate.
One of the defining images of this Super Bowl run for Patriots fans will be a bloodied Vrabel, grinning after a celebratory headbutt from Milton Williams after a fourth-down sack that sealed a wild card win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Williams had just blown up the Chargers’ last-gasp comeback attempt and charged over to his head coach, getting a massive bear hug from Vrabel. Williams then instinctively delivered the prototypical football celebration – a headbutt – but completely forgot that his head coach no longer wears a helmet.
Vrabel had been telling his players they’d need to be ready to spill some blood this season. He included himself in that.
Super by the dozen
A funny feature about this particular matchup is that, by far, the most common jersey number worn by fans here is No. 12, even though no player on either team will be wearing that number in the game.
For Patriots fans who have come to see what could be the beginning of the next great New England dynasty, that reflects a harkening back to the last one — the era of Tom Brady, number 12.
For Seahawks fans, it’s a reference to the renowned “12th man” mentality that celebrates the enthusiasm of the fanbase. The name plate above their No. 12s says “FAN.”
I expected Seattle faithful to outnumber New Englanders by virtue of west coast proximity and about three hours before kickoff, that seemed marginally true. But the disparity was less than anticipated. Plenty of No. 10 Drake Maye jerseys are walking the concourse as well.
Where the Seahawks fans have their Pats compatriots beat by a greater margin is in the sheer enthusiasm within the outfits.
There is, however, at least one well-dressed Patriots fan: Sheighlin MacAskill, who brought the veil from her bridal shower yesterday. The San Jose resident still roots for the Patriots from when she lived back East. When they made the Super Bowl, her dad bought her and her sister, her matron of honor, tickets. Her fiancé is a 49ers fan and will be watching from home.
Other teams represented by jerseys or logos worn on the concourse: 49ers (naturally), Bears, Texans, Ravens, Eagles…
Charlie Puth is feeling the pressure as he follows in Whitney Houston's footsteps
Charlie Puth was born the same year Whitney Houston famously sang the national anthem at the Super Bowl — and that performance has been on his mind.
The “See You Again” singer is set to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” at this year’s Super Bowl and posted on his verified social media about Houston performing her soaring rendition at Super Bowl XXV in 1991.
“I am singing the national anthem on Sunday, fully knowing that this version exists…,” Puth wrote, over a video of him on the football field and Houston singing the song.
In a later interview, Houston noted that her performance happened in the midst of the Gulf War, and said she could feel the “intensity” inside of Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida, and the prayers that were going forward for the men and women fighting in that war.
“I just felt like, ‘This is the moment,” she said. “And it was hope, we just needed hope to bring our babies home. That’s what it was about for me. That’s what I felt when I sang that song. And the overwhelming love coming out of the stands was incredible.”
Houston died Grammys weekend in February 2012 after an accidental drowning in the bath tub at her Beverly Hills, California, hotel room. She was 48.
Latino representation at the Super Bowl goes beyond halftime stage
Super Bowl LX will be a Latin-influenced celebration, not only because of Bad Bunny’s halftime show. The competing teams, the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, featured at least six Latin players on their rosters this year, five of whom are available to play at the Super Bowl.
The Patriots have:
• Christian Gonzalez: The cornerback has Colombian roots and is having a standout year, with nearly 70 combined tackles in the regular season and an interception that sealed the Super Bowl berth.
• Andy Borregales: The Venezuelan kicker made 27 field goals and 53 extra point conversions in the regular season, becoming an offensive mainstay for the team in his first season.
• Jaylinn Hawkins: A safety of Panamanian descent, he intercepted four passes, forced a fumble, and made over 70 tackles in the regular season.
The Seahawks have:
• Elijah Arroyo: An American of Mexican descent, the tight end caught 15 passes for 179 yards this year and had one touchdown in his first season in the league.
• Julian Love: The safety with Cuban and Mexican roots has had over 500 combined tackles and 12 interceptions in his career, although his role this year has been limited.
• Damien Martinez: The running back of Mexican descent saw little action in his first season in the league. He will not be available for the Super Bowl.
Trump praises both teams in traditional pre-Super Bowl interview
Donald Trump participated in a traditional presidential interview with the Super Bowl broadcaster, which was released in parts over the last few days leading up to the game. Another segment aired on NBC a short time ago as part of the pre-game coverage.
Trump praised both teams playing in tonight’s showdown, telling NBC News that he anticipated “a great game” because both the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks have “amazing” quarterbacks.
The president said he will likely watch the game at his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida “with a lot of friends.”
Asked by NBC News’ Tom Llamas on his reaction to former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick’s recent snub from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Trump said it was “terrible.”
Some background: Despite attending many high-profile sporting events in his second term, Trump said last month he would skip the Super Bowl. While he blamed his absence on the long flight, it’s no secret he is not thrilled about the performers featured in this year’s broadcast, Bad Bunny and Green Day, both of whom backed Kamala Harris in 2024.
You can read more, including additional comments from the president’s interview, in today’s live updates on the Trump administration.
Turning Point USA will stream a rival Super Bowl halftime show
Turning Point USA, the conservative political organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk, is producing an alternative halftime show to compete with Bad Bunny’s highly anticipated performance at the Super Bowl.
The group is leaning into the culture war surrounding the Puerto Rican music mega-star’s performance, with counterprogramming featuring Kid Rock and several country stars:
Turning Point USA announced that Kid Rock and several other country stars will headline its alternative halftime show to compete with Bad Bunny’s performance during the Super Bowl.
