Bowl

Jay-Z has chosen himself to headline the Super Bowl halftime show.

The 25-time Grammy winner will perform at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium on Valentine’s Day, Apple Music, the NFL and Roc Nation announced during the Cowboys vs. Eagles “Monday Night Football” matchup.

This caps a banner year for Jay-Z. The rap superstar performed two back-to-back concerts at SoFi Stadium last weekend — part of his “Jay-Z 30” tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of his debut album, “Reasonable Doubt,” and the 25th anniversary of “The Blueprint.” He sold out three nights at New York’s Yankee Stadium in July, followed by stops in London and Paris. He partnered with legendary music producer Rick Rubin on “Jay-Z in 8,” an eight-part documentary about his life and legacy released by HBO last month.

“From Reasonable Doubt to standing on the Super Bowl Halftime stage, this has been a journey,” Jay-Z said in a news release. “Thirty years of music, work and culture on the world’s biggest stage. This run continues to be a dream come true.”

Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Harry Styles were reportedly also in the running, but lost out to the decision-maker himself.

Super Bowl LXI marks the eighth year that Roc Nation, the entertainment behemoth founded by Jay-Z, will produce the halftime show. The Brooklyn rapper has had the ultimate say in who the halftime performer is every year since 2020. In 2019, Roc Nation signed on to consult the NFL on live music entertainment and the social justice initiative Inspire Change, which aims to reduce barriers to opportunity, especially in underserved communities. They extended their deal in 2024 for another five years.

Roc Nation will executive-produce “The Apple Music Super Bowl LXI Halftime Show” and Hamish Hamilton will serve as director.

“For several years, we’ve had the privilege of working closely with Jay-Z and Roc Nation, and I’ve seen the extraordinary impact he has had on the Super Bowl Halftime Show,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a news release. “When we first reached an agreement with Roc Nation to produce the show, I had just one request: that Jay-Z take the stage himself one day, whenever the moment felt right to him. I couldn’t be more excited for fans around the world to experience the artistry, creativity and cultural impact he will bring to the Super Bowl stage.”

Jay-Z told Entertainment Tonight in 2024 that it was too soon for him to take on the task.

“I thought it would be selfish to pick myself too early. Maybe one year. Maybe,” he said.

The NFL had approached him years prior about headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, but it came with the stipulation to perform “Run This Town” with Rihanna and Kanye West.

“Of course I would have,” Jay-Z told the New York Times in 2020, “but I said, ‘No, you get me.’ That is not how you go about it, telling someone that they’re going to do the halftime show contingent on who they bring. I said forget it. It was a principle thing.”

Rihanna eventually performed at the 2023 Super Bowl. She may be one of his guest stars come Feb. 14, but he could tap any top artist to perform, considering his label’s deep roster of talent … and the fact that he’s married to Beyoncé. Beyoncé headlined the halftime show in 2013 and made a guest appearance during Coldplay’s Super Bowl 50 set in 2016.

Bad Bunny headlined the show in February, which created an uproar and something of a culture war. “Turning Point USA, the conservative organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk, put together a so-called All-American Halftime Show featuring Kid Rock in an appeal to viewers scandalized by … the Spanish language? Dancing? The idea of fun?” Times music critic Mikael Wood wrote in his review. “For the NFL, the blowback was a calculated risk as the league makes a push to globalize its fan base.”

Before Bad Bunny, performers have included (in reverse chronological order): Kendrick Lamar; Usher; Rihanna; Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige (all together in 2022); the Weeknd; and Shakira and Jennifer Lopez (also together). Last season’s game drew almost 125 million viewers; this is one of — if not the — biggest stages in music.

The Super Bowl will air on ESPN, ABC and Disney+.

Lawrence McCutcheon, a five-time Pro Bowl running back for the Rams who went on to have a long career in the team’s front office, died Friday. He was 76.

McCutcheon’s family announced his death through the Rams. In a statement, the family said McCutcheon had “a long, courageous battle with Parkinson’s disease.”

McCutcheon played his first eight NFL seasons for the Rams, who drafted him out of Colorado State in 1972. The native of Plainview, Texas, quickly emerged as one of the most dynamic running backs of the 1970s, earning a Pro Bowl selection and leading the Rams in rushing each year from 1973 to 1977 in coach Chuck Knox’s productive offense.

McCutcheon, nicknamed “Clutch,” was a second-team AP All-Pro selection in 1974.

Rams running back Lawrence McCutcheon carries the ball against the St. Louis Cardinals in a divisional round playoff game at the Coliseum in December 1975.

(Associated Press)

He appeared in 11 postseason games for the Rams. In the Super Bowl in January 1980, he even threw a touchdown pass to Ron Smith to put Los Angeles ahead before the Pittsburgh Steelers rallied to win.

McCutcheon was the Rams’ career rushing leader when he left in 1980. After he finished his playing career with stops in Denver, Seattle and Buffalo over two seasons, McCutcheon became an executive for the Rams, eventually spending more than three decades in their front office.

McCutcheon rose to become the St. Louis Rams’ director of player personnel from 2003 until his retirement in 2016, shortly before the team moved back to Los Angeles.

“Through a decade-long playing career and another 32 years in the Rams’ front office, Clutch earned the respect and admiration of teammates, opposing players, colleagues and fans alike,” McCutcheon’s family said in its statement. “Clutch will be missed and remembered forever.”

McCutcheon’s son, Daylon, was a cornerback for the Cleveland Browns from 1999 to 2006. Lawrence McCutcheon’s grandson, Dyson, is a defensive back at Middle Tennessee.

Beacham writes for the Associated Press.

Put away the holochess board, C-3PO is going to the 2027 Super Bowl!

An animated “Star Wars” version of Super Bowl LXI featuring characters from the galaxy far, far away will air live, simultaneously with the game, on Feb. 14 on Disney Channel and Disney XD, the NFL announced Monday along with partners ESPN, Lucasfilm and Disney. “Star Wars Funday Football” will also be available on Disney+ and the ESPN app.

Anthony Daniels, who has portrayed C-3PO since the original “Star Wars” trilogy, will voice the worry-prone protocol droid in the live alternate telecast. If the brief teaser video is any indication, C-3PO will be joined by his favorite astromech, R2-D2.

“Star Wars Funday Football” will feature live-animated avatars of all of the players on the field as they play the game. Viewers can expect “Star Wars” characters to sub in during special moments, as well as various Easter eggs to appear throughout the game.

The “Star Wars” themed telecast follows previous “Funday Football” installments that were themed to “Toy Story,” “The Simpsons,” and “Monsters, Inc.” This marks the first time that the Super Bowl is getting the “Funday Football” treatment.

The traditional telecast, featuring announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman with reporters Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge, will be available on ESPN, ABC and Disney+.

Super Bowl LXI will be held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Details for the halftime performance have not officially been announced, but Jay-Z is rumored to be the headliner.

Following “Star Wars Funday Football” and Super Bowl LXI, a newly restored version of “A New Hope” will return to theaters on Feb. 19. “Star Wars: Starfighter,” a new standalone film starring Ryan Gosling as Kade Auberon, is slated to hit theaters May 28.

Other than the missing 23 carats of diamonds, the replica Super Bowl LVI rings fans received on Sunday at SoFi Stadium looked like the real thing.

That’s more than the Rams can claim.

The team that opened the season as the overwhelming favorite to win Super Bowl LXI continued to look like a cheap imitation.

They did not flash. They did not sparkle.

They looked dull. Lifeless for all but parts of two minutes against the Arizona Cardinals.

And when Chad Ryland kicked his sixth field goal as time expired, the Rams lost 18-16 before 72,573.

Rams tight end Colby Parkinson scores a touchdown in front of Cardinals safety Andrew Wingard at SoFi Stadium Sunday.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

First-year Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur, the Rams former offensive coordinator, outcoached and outmaneuvered friend and mentor Sean McVay.

With just more than a third of the season complete, the Rams are 2-4.

The Rams failed to bounce back from their overtime defeat by the powerful Buffalo Bills and lost to a Cardinals team that entered the game having given up at least 31 points in each of its last four.

This from a Rams team that was built to win another Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium.

Only six players from the team that won Super Bowl LVI are still on the roster: Quarterback Matthew Stafford, defensive lineman Aaron Donald, tight end Tyler Higbee, center Coleman Shelton, left tackle Alaric Jackson and receiver Tutu Atwell.

During the offseason they added two players with two Super Bowl rings each: cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford looks to pass the ball against the Cardinals at Sofi Stadium on Sunday.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

But they have not looked anything like a Super Bowl contender.

An offense that went into the game as the league’s most productive from a yardage standpoint managed only a field goal and two touchdowns.

Stafford completed 25 of 33 passes for 222 yards.

With left tackle Alaric Jackson suspended for the game for punching Bill linebacker Bradley Chubb on the field after the Rams loss, veteran David Quessenberry started for the first time since 2023.

The Cardinals predictably brought pressure and blitzed, sacking Stafford three times and hitting him seven times.

Safety Quentin Lake intercepted a pass for a defense that was without All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie because of a groin injury. The defense gave up only field goals and gave the offense multiple opportunities.

And special teams continued to be a disaster.

New kicker Blake Grupe, signed this week after the Rams released struggling Harrison Mevis, kicked a 44-yard field goal in the first quarter. But on the ensuing kickoff, Devin Duvernay returned Grupe’s kick 40 yards before the 5-foot-7, 156-pound Grupe hurled his body to stop him. Grupe suffered a knee injury and did not return.

The Rams managed Grupe’s 44-yard field goal and Corum’s touchdown for a 9-9 tie at halftime.

The Cardinals consumed nearly nine minutes of the third quarter before kicking a field goal for a 12-9 lead.

The loss of Grupe then came into play again late in the third quarter. On a fourth-and-one at the Cardinals’ 27-yard, McVay opted to go for it. Davis Allen lined up in the backfield and took a handoff from Stafford, but the Cardinals stopped him for no gain.

The Cardinals added another field goal with 9:28 left for a 15-9 lead.

The Rams then put together a lively drive, but Higbee fumbled with just under eight minutes left.

They got the ball back with just less than seven minutes remaining. They drove into Cardinals’ territory with about three minutes left but a false-start penalty gave them a fourth-and-eight situation, and Stafford’s pass to running back Kyren Williams fell incomplete.

But the Rams got one more chance when they got the ball with 2:48 left.

Stafford escaped pressure and found Nacua, for a mid-range pass that he turned into a 32-yard gain. Stafford connected again with Nacua for 16 yards to the Cardinals’ 13-yard line.

Stafford’s six-yard touchdown pass to Colby Parkinson tied the score, and punter Ethan Evans came on to kick the extra point to give the Rams the lead.

But the Cardinals came back with the help of a personal-foul penalty after a completed pass. And Ryland’s sixth field goal finished the Rams.

“For me, performance can’t be everything,” Miley Cyrus declared on Friday night, and you had to admire her choice of setting: onstage at the Hollywood Bowl in front of approximately 18,000 people who’d turned up precisely to see her perform.

A star since her teenage days on the Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana,” the 33-year-old musician and actor was maybe half an hour into the first of two sold-out concerts at the iconic hillside amphitheater — a place close to Cyrus’ heart, as she explained in a videotaped intro recalling a gig she and her fiancé, Maxx Morando, caught last year by the French band Air.

“I step into wine, which soaks onto my boots,” she said in the dramatic black-and-white clip. “I don’t mind stained leather — it only adds to their character.”

Cyrus’ shows were billed as part of the rollout of her latest album, “Bass Persuades,” which came out in September (and which found her dropping her last name to go simply by Miley). Yet the two-night engagement is really meant to mark her grand return to the stage after she said a few years ago that she’d sworn off touring because it was too harmful to her mental health.

Is “grand” the right word for a comeback as equivocal as this one? Despite all the hype surrounding this weekend’s concerts, Cyrus spoke again and again Friday about how much less space for performance she has in her life these days than she used to; she talked repeatedly about her quest to balance her fans’ emotional needs with her own.

At one point, after singing a couple of numbers on a small B-stage about halfway up the bowl, she walked through the crowd back to the main stage, gripping and grinning the entire way. Then she described the toll her trip had just taken: “I appreciate each of you guys reaching out and touching me, and me getting to feel you. But I do want to say — it is a lot for me,” she said. “It is a little bit overwhelming.”

In an era of parasocial pop stardom, the radical honesty of Cyrus’ approach — her clear-eyed appraisal of the relationship that binds an idol and her audience — was kind of a thrill to behold. The problem was that her singing for the most part wasn’t.

As she described being overwhelmed, her band slowly revved up her song “Wrecking Ball.” It’s one of the great power ballads of the last 25 years, with a chorus as cathartic as any in modern pop; Cyrus, the showbiz lifer, surely understood the payoff she was building toward. Except when the moment arrived, she inexplicably dodged it, skipping the song’s first chorus and soft-pedaling the second — an anticlimax for the ages.

Indeed, Cyrus let the audience and her backup singers handle vocals for many of her biggest hits, among them “The Climb,” “Party in the U.S.A.” and “We Can’t Stop”; during that last one, she twerked for a second, evoking memories of the infamous 2013 MTV performance that briefly scandalized a nation.

She sang more heartily in songs from “Bass Persuades,” which would’ve been better news if that tuneless mishmash of bleary synths and dated club beats weren’t one of the year’s least likable pop records. (This month Variety reported that, after debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the album took the biggest fall in chart history in its second week of release.)

The paradox of Cyrus’ career at this stage is that she wants to do the thing that nobody wants her to do — “Bass Persuades” is just the latest in a string of crummy LPs — and doesn’t want to do the thing that everybody wants her to do. Truly, her bad taste should be studied: On Friday, she welcomed Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips to the B-stage for a duet on “Karen Don’t Be Sad,” from the miserable psych-rock record they made together in 2015. Naturally, Cyrus said it was her favorite of her albums.

One highlight of the show was Cyrus’ tribute to her late godmother, Dolly Parton, whom she memorialized with a rendition of “Jolene” and with a funny and touching account of the time Parton tried unsuccessfully to get Cyrus to sing with her at the Bowl.

I also found myself moved near the end of the night by Cyrus’ performance of the only keeper on “Bass Persuades” — a dreamy little love song called “Let’s Get Married” for which Morando joined her onstage. As he played drums, she ran her hand tenderly over his chest before laying her head on his shoulder; the moment reminded me of that goofy intro video about the Air concert, which she likened to a bubble containing only the two of them.

“That’s how it feels when we’re together,” she said. “I think I’d live in that bubble.”