Jay-Z teams with NFL on a music and social justice campaign that includes consulting on Super Bowl halftime show

The New York Times

The partnership will give the NFL an opportunity to move past the controversy over black players kneeling during the National Anthem, allowing the league to gain a foothold in the music business while getting the "seal of approval from one of the country’s biggest African-American celebrities for its social justice efforts," reports The New York Times. "The deal with Roc Nation, the rapper’s entertainment and sports company, calls for the firm to be the NFL's 'live music entertainment strategist,' a role that will see Roc Nation and Jay-Z consulting on entertainment, including the Super Bowl halftime show, and contributing to the league’s activism campaign, Inspire Change," reports The Times. "The NFL is keen to portray the Roc Nation deal as a way to bring more high-profile entertainers to its events. It also represents an effort to quiet the long-running controversy over its handling of players kneeling or sitting during the national anthem — most notably by Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback — and to form a bond with its most vigilant and influential critics." Jay-Z tells The Times: “The NFL has a great big platform, and it has to be all-inclusive. They were willing to do some things, to make some changes, that we can do some good.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league wants partners who tell it when it behaves badly. “We don’t want people to come in and necessarily agree with us; we want people to come in and tell us what we can do better,” Goodell tells The Times. “I think that’s a core element of our relationship between the two organizations, and with Jay and I personally.”