As the shocking and recent rape lawsuit lobbed against Jay-Z continues to play out in the court of public opinion, many are wondering if and when the rapper and his ties to the NFL will be severed—if at all.
As you well know, the “Magna Carter Holy Grail” rapper and his media company Roc Nation signed on for a partnership with the organization back in 2019 to advise on the selection of artists for major NFL events and performances like the Super Bowl. The relationship between the two has seemingly paid off ever since and according to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday, it doesn’t look like these bombshell allegations have done anything to hamper that.
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“I’m aware of the allegations and Jay-Z’s really strong response to that. We know that litigation is happening now so from our standpoint our relationship is not changing with him including our preparations for the next Super Bowl,” Goodell said on Wednesday before later describing the relationship between the two entities as “helpful” and “good.”
If the commissioner’s response seems a bit odd given the severity of the allegations the rapper is facing—it actually shouldn’t be. Sad as it sounds, the NFL has had and currently has its fair share of problematic players who’ve been accused and/or convicted of equally disturbing allegations and the NFL has done little to nothing to distance themselves from them. Whether it’s Cleveland Browns player Michael Hall and his recent domestic violence issues or someone from the old school like Ray Rice who also dealt with similar issues—the organization has an unfortunate history of not doing too much to take a large enough stand against bad behavior.
Now sure, is the NFL’s loyalty to Jay-Z a bit shocking considering the swift way Hollywood dropped another influential person like Jonathan Majors when the allegations about his domestic dispute hit the fan? Yes it is, when you consider the fact that Black folks barely get an opportunity to the mess up and come back or get the benefit of the doubt as opposed to other white public figures. But again, we’re talking about an organization that had a lot of smoke for Colin Kaepernick who was standing up for the right thing years ago but remained mostly quiet when consistently bad actors reared their heads. So their moral compass deserves to be put under the microscope.
Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see how the relationship shapes up in the months after the Super Bowl and as more information about the suit comes out.
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