Is the NFL the only entity in the U.S. that doesn’t fear Donald Trump?

Just over one year into Donald Trump’s second term as president, it’s fair to say that most sports leagues and media entities have approached the commander-in-chief with an attitude of appeasement.

Trump seemingly rules as a kingmaker. His administration has pushed the limits of presidential power in ways once unimaginable, hand-picking winners and losers who fear that a misstep could lead to retribution from the most vindictive president of our time.

Any business or organization looking to get anything done that would require federal involvement between now and 2028 would be wise to kiss the ring, foundations of American democracy be damned. This is reality under the most transactional president in history, and expectations have adjusted accordingly.

Now, rather than a hypothetical deal between two businesses being discussed on its legal merits, it’s typically discussed in the context of Trump’s favorability (or unfavorability) towards the given entities.

But there’s one American institution that hasn’t necessarily bent the knee in the same way others have: The NFL.

Sunday evening will mark the beginning of an inevitable 24-hour media cycle where conservative media acts appalled and offended at whatever predictably anti-Trump rhetoric comes out of Green Day’s Super Bowl pregame concert and Bad Bunny’s halftime performance.

Green Day, for anyone that has lived under a rock for the past three decades, is about as vocally left-wing as you’d expect a ’90s punk rock band to be. At a pre-Super Bowl gig in their hometown, San Francisco, on Saturday, Green Day encouraged ICE officers to quit their jobs and brought up the Epstein files during the hit song “Holiday.”

Bad Bunny has, for his part, stayed relatively quiet about the political shitstorm his impending performance has already caused. But in the past, he’s been very vocal against the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

Even in the months since Bad Bunny’s announcement as the Super Bowl halftime performer and the predictable outcry from the right, the NFL hasn’t wavered.

The league’s strategy is perhaps more surprising, given that they have every incentive to get on the Trump administration’s good side. For one, the NFL’s equity deal with ESPN was pending before the Trump Justice Department and the FTC until last weekend, when it was approved. One NFL owner was even concerned that Bad Bunny’s selection could jeopardize the deal, which shows how some of the wealthiest people in the world view the Trump administration.

Second, and more importantly, the NFL relies on a federal antitrust exemption to bundle its media rights inventory as it currently does. Without the exemption, individual teams would be tasked with selling their own rights, rather than the NFL selling broadcast rights on behalf of its 32 teams. Any change to that exemption, codified in the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, would completely undercut the NFL’s current business model.

Yet, the NFL is fine making itself the target of the right’s culture war. Why? The league rightly realizes it’s too big to fail, at least in this regard. Even back in the Colin Kaepernick-era protests of 2016, when TV ratings were declining, and some observers blamed the league’s embrace of racial justice messaging, the NFL bet on its product to carry the day. And as it would turn out, people didn’t stop watching football because some players were kneeling for the anthem. In fact, the NFL is more popular than it has ever been.

It’s a unique position in sports and media. In a world where companies like Paramount and Disney are settling frivolous lawsuits with the Trump administration, or where leagues like the NHL have embraced Trump’s crusade to “[keep] men out of women’s sports,” the NFL has not felt a need to appease the president. At least not all the time.

It’s true that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was at the White House last year to announce the 2027 NFL Draft would be held in Washington, D.C. The league has also watered down its end zone messaging from statements like “End Racism” to more generic phrasing like “Choose Love.” And who knows what the league did behind the scenes to get the ESPN deal approved so quickly.

But despite the onslaught of negative attention that Bad Bunny and Green Day have caused the NFL from Trump and his supporters, the league hasn’t felt the need to capitulate. In fact, Goodell has stood by Bad Bunny’s selection. In doing so, the NFL is the rare organization willing to take on a bit of culture-war blowback from the president, and thereby risk its good standing with the federal government it needs for its business interests.