It’s official, the Super Bowl halftime show went from the most wanted to the least wanted gig in the music industry.

According to Rolling Stone, Rihanna rejected the Sunday show to demonstrate her support of Colin Kaepernick.

Kaepernick was a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers who was exiled from the NFL for taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality.

After Kaepernick, the NFL implemented an anthem policy that requires players on the field to “stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem.” Anyone who breaks the new policy will be fined.

Protesting is one of the rights granted by the First Amendment to all American citizens and shouldn’t be made an exception on the football field.

After the unexpected response from Rihanna, the NFL quickly began looking for artists that were willing to perform at the halftime show.

To their surprise, most artists did not want to perform after Rihanna explained why she declined the offer.

Who would want to perform after everything the NFL had done to Kaepernick?

Apparently Maroon 5.  Adam Levine from Maroon 5 was offered the gig and agreed to perform.

After it was announced that Maroon 5 would perform, people bashed Levine for it and even started a petition for Maroon 5 to back out.

Maroon 5 has been on the NFL’s shortlist to perform at the halftime show and the NFL is now reaching for any artist they can get. Maroon 5 shouldn’t accept this offer even if they are on the NFL’s shortlist.

The NFL is desperate and if Maroon 5 would cancel, this would show support for Kaepernick. But they haven’t and according to Variety, Maroon 5  reached out to half a dozen artists to perform with them, and finally, Travis Scott and Big Boi agreed.

Good for those who said no. No one wants to be on the wrong side of history which is where Maroon 5, Scott and Big Boi are.

The halftime show is the biggest stage that any artist could perform on and declining the offer is a big deal. When artists reject the offer, they are saying integrity is more important than exposure. They are giving up a great opportunity to stand up for Kaepernick’s right to protest.

We should praise these artists for taking a stand. The NFL last year wasn’t on its best behavior when it came to the anthem protests and how they dealt with it. They took Kaepernick’s First Amendment rights away.

The artists that rejected the offer are doing the right thing, given their celebrity status. This year’s halftime show will not be as grand as previous years and should not be worth anyone’s time to see it.

Skip the halftime show.