The NFL, in an indirect swipe at President Trump, has announced that “America the Beautiful” will be sung by three former members of the cast of Broadway’s hit show Hamilton at the Super Bowl.
The three singers, Phillipa Soo, Renee Elise Goldsberry, and Jasmine Cephas Jones, were all part of the original Broadway cast.
In Mid-November, the cast of Hamilton stopped then-vice-president-elect Mike Pence, as he was leaving the show, and read a sanctimonious statement from the stage. As The New York Times reported:
The actor who played Aaron Burr, Brandon Victor Dixon, acknowledged that Mr. Pence was in the audience, thanked him for attending and added, “We have a little message for you, sir, and we hope you will hear us out. We, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights,” he said. “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf all of us.”
Trump, insulted in behalf of Pence, fired back on Twitter:
Dixon fired back:
Trump responded again:
There’s no love lost between the NFL and Trump; Trump once nodded when asked if he would fire NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who has been plagued by numerous controversies in the last few years.
After a woman fainted at one of his rallies, then returned, Trump called NFL players soft, asserting, “That woman was out cold, and now she’s coming back. See, we don’t go by these new, and very much softer, NFL rules. Concussions — ‘Uh oh, got a little ding on the head? No, no, you can’t play for the rest of the season’ — our people are tough.”
There are any number of gifted performers who could have sung “America the Beautiful.” The NFL must be quite aware of the hostility between Trump and the Hamilton cast, and the selection of the singers from the cast is a genuine slap in the face.