Super Bowl Opening Night live updates: Roger Goodell speaks with media

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says he doesn’t expect Bad Bunny to say anything divisive during his Super Bowl halftime performance.

The Puerto Rican musician won album of the year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night. While accepting an earlier award, Bad Bunny criticized President Donald Trump’s administration for its dramatic expansion of immigration arrests.

“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” Bad Bunny said. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”

Goodell was asked if he expects political statements from Bad Bunny, Green Day or any other artists performing at the Super Bowl. He says Bad Bunny understands that the NFL is providing a platform “to unite people and be able to bring people together.”

“Bad Bunny is, and I think that was demonstrated last night, one of the great artists in the world,” Goodell added. “And that’s one of the reasons we chose him.”

Running back Kenneth Walker III has been a big part of Seattle’s run to the Super Bowl, thriving in an increased role during the playoffs after Zach Charbonnet went down with a knee in injury against the 49ers earlier in the postseason.

Walker has averaged 4.7 yards per carry in the postseason, caught all seven passes thrown his way for 78 yards receiving and scored four rushing touchdowns.

The 25-year-old is in the final year of his rookie contract and is slated to become a free agent. Walker figures to be in line for a significant pay bump.

FILE - North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick walks on the field before an NCAA college football game against Syracuse, Oct. 31, 2025, in Syracuse, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus, File)

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wants to make it clear that the Pro Football Hall of Fame board he’s on does not make the rules, so he played no role in Bill Belichick’s reported snub.

“We have no involvement in what they’re charged with,” Goodell said, noting the Pro Football Hall of Fame is “completely and entirely run separately” from the NFL.

ESPN reported last week that Belichick fell short of making the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

“I’m not even sure whether it’s true because I don’t think the class has been announced at the end of the day,” Goodell said. “As I said before, Bill Belichick, I think, is the second-winningest coach in NFL football, six Super Bowls as a head coach and two as a defensive coordinator. That’s a Hall of Fame career.

“But there’s a decision-making process here, and it’s a timing issue. … There are a lot of people who want to be in that Hall of Fame, and Bill Belichick deserves to be in that Hall of Fame, too.”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during his state of the NFL news conference on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of the Super Bowl 60 football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. (AP Photo/Matt York)

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says it’s too soon to say whether New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch might be subject to the league’s personal conduct policy.

Tisch’s name showed up more than 400 times in files released by the Justice Department regarding Jeffrey Epstein.

“We are going to look at all the facts,” Goodell said. “We’re going to look at the context of those. We’re going to try to understand that, and we’ll look at how that falls under the (personal conduct) policy. But I think we’re taking it one step at a time. Let’s get the facts first.”

Tisch acknowledged last week that he knew Epstein and they “exchanged emails about adult women” and “discussed movies, philanthropy and investments.” But the 76-year-old Tisch denied going to Epstein’s island and was never charged in the investigation.

Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019, a month after being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league and the players union have not had “any formal discussions” about an 18-game schedule.

He added they have had “very little informal conversations.”

Goodell says expanding from 16 to 17 games “went quite smoothly.”

“But the challenges will be different here a little bit, and it’ll depend on a lot of factors, including safety of the game,” he said.

Goodell suggested part of the discussion will include roster sizes and whether teams should have two bye weeks to potentially accommodate an extra regular-season game.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says “we need to continue to make progress” after no Black coaches were hired to fill the league’s 10 vacancies this year.

Only one minority was hired: Tennessee coach Robert Saleh, who is of Lebanese decent.

“I believe diversity if good for us,” Goodell said. “I think we have become a more diverse league across every platform, including coaching, but we still have more work to do. There’s got to be more steps, so we’re re-evaluating everything we’re doing, including our accelerator program, including every aspect of our policies and our programs to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow rather than yesterday.”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says technology is something “we need to embrace in this game.”

He even suggested that replay officials working from a booth might “be able to throw a flag” to stop a game if they see obvious errors.

“I’m so amazed at how good our officials are,” he said. “It’s a difficult sport to officiate. It’s fast. It’s quick, and we have to be able to use technology, in my view, to prevent the obvious errors.”

The NFL will play nine international games next season, with commissioner Roger Goodell announcing a return to Mexico City.

He says the league will play regular-season games at Estadio Banorte in each of the next three years.

Goodell added that he hopes the NFL will continue adding international games until it has 16 per season, meaning every team will play one game abroad.

Ten teams hold marketing rights in Mexico as part of the league’s Global Markets Program.

The NFL also extended its longstanding broadcast partnership with TelevisaUnivision, an official media partner for the last 60 years, as part of the league’s commitment to increasing fan access to live games and NFL programming in Mexico.

The NFL’s international schedule in 2026 includes games played across four continents, seven countries and eight stadiums.

Clark Roberts, a blind Seattle Seahawks fan, uses a OneCourt tablet, a tactile device that translates gameplay into trackable vibrations along with real-time audio, at the T-Mobile Innovation Hub Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Bellevue, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Some blind and low-vision fans will have unprecedented access to the Super Bowl, thanks to a tactile device that tracks the ball, vibrates on key plays and provides real-time audio.

The NFL teamed up with OneCourt and Ticketmaster to pilot the game-enhancing experience 15 times during the regular-season.

About 10 blind and low-vision fans will have an opportunity to use the same technology at the Super Bowl in Santa Clara, California, where Seattle will play the New England Patriots on Sunday.

Clark Roberts, a blind Seattle Seahawks fan, uses a OneCourt tablet, a tactile device that translates gameplay into trackable vibrations along with real-time audio, at the T-Mobile Innovation Hub Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Bellevue, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Field Director for the National Football League Nick Pappas is interviewed Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., ahead of NFL’s Super Bowl LX football game. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

The process of preparing the Super Bowl field got underway long before the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots started getting ready for the 2025 season.

Nick Pappas — the NFL’s turf guru — chose the sod farm that began growing the grass for the game about 16 months ago. He has spent time since then monitoring the progress.

The job went into overdrive in January, when Pappas and his crew started a monthlong installation and preparation process to make sure that the story of the game is about the teams and not the grass.

The field at Levi’s Stadium will be the stage for the country’s most-watched sporting event on Feb. 8, along with the pregame and halftime festivities and concerts that make Super Bowl Sunday a cultural capstone.

The NFL will play its first regular-season game in France next season, with the New Orleans Saints set to travel to Paris.

The league announced Monday that the game will be played at the Stade de France. The NFL also has a multiyear deal to keep playing regular-season games at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

The NFL already had its first game in Australia scheduled for next season, with the Los Angeles Rams set to host that one. It also will play in Rio de Janeiro, Munich and three games in London. The league also could return to Mexico City this fall.

The NFL has played 62 regular-season games outside the U.S. so far, with London, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Madrid, Dublin, Sao Paulo, Mexico City and Toronto serving as hosts.

The Saints’ opponent will be determined once the schedule is finalized in a few months.

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, center, speaks to the crowd Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, during a Patriots NFL football Send Off rally in Foxborough, Mass., for Super Bowl LX. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

New England quarterback Drake Maye didn’t practice on Friday because he was dealing with an illness, the latest wrinkle in the quarterback’s preparation for his first Super Bowl.

Maye also has a shoulder injury, though he was at the team’s facility and able to participate in team meetings. The 23-year-old is in his second season with the Patriots. He’s an MVP candidate after a stellar year that included 4,394 yards passing and 31 touchdowns in the regular season.

Coach Mike Vrabel has said he doesn’t expect the illness or the shoulder injury to affect Maye’s performance on Sunday.

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