Super

Don’t start planning any parades just yet. Hold off on those February plans to travel to Santa Clara.

The Rams still have a long way to go make the playoffs and try to advance to the Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium.

Their 34-10 victory Sunday over the struggling New Orleans Saints at SoFi Stadium was no revelation or landmark win. But the Rams did something important. Something championship-caliber teams are supposed to do: They convincingly dispatched of a weaker opponent before 72,055.

Matthew Stafford passed for four touchdowns, receiver Puka Nacua returned from an ankle injury in spectacular fashion, and the defense dominated again as the Rams won their third game in a row, improved to 6-2 and showed that the Dodgers might not be the only L.A. team hoisting a championship trophy.

“We’ll see if we can continue to do some good stuff like they did,” coach Sean McVay said of the World Series champions.

The Rams’ victory put them atop the NFC West heading into next Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium.

“I like the fact that we’re getting better,” McVay said, adding, “There’s just a good vibe.”

On most fronts, anyway.

The Rams’ first victory over an NFC opponent did not come against the defending Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles or the rival 49ers, teams the Rams lost to in part because of kicking-game disasters.

Rams coach Sean McVay watches from the sideline during the first half Sunday against the Saints.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

And those issues remain: Joshua Karty missed a field goal and an extra point.

So McVay’s patience with the kicking game is wearing thin. And no team will win a title without a competent one.

McVay once again said he had confidence in Karty, but that was after he said “it can’t continue like this … it’s gone on for too long,” and “it’s not getting better,” among other things.

Can the Rams be a championship team without an adequate placekicking unit?

“No,” McVay said. “It’s going to cost us — it’s cost us already. It’s been a momentum killer. … The harsh truth of it is this is not sustainable.”

But if the Rams solve the kicking issue and stay healthy — Nacua said he would play against the 49ers after leaving the game in the second half because of a chest injury — and McVay can keep his team focused against division opponents and other playoff contenders, the Rams might earn their own parade.

Stafford is positioning himself to lead one.

Already a fixture on NFL career passing lists, the 17th-year pro is enjoying another sensational season.

As he did in 2021, when he passed for 41 touchdowns and led the Rams to a Super Bowl title, Stafford is playing at a level that should have him in the most-valuable-player discussion.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford passes in front of Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan during the first quarter Sunday.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

On Sunday his two touchdown passes to Davante Adams and one each to Nacua and tight end Tyler Higbee increased Stafford’s season total to 21, with only two interceptions.

Stafford, who passed for five touchdowns in an Oct. 19 rout of the Jacksonville Jaguars, completed 24 of 32 passes for 281 yards and extended to five his streak of games without an interception.

Stafford’s wife and their daughters attended the game wearing No. 22 Dodgers jerseys, a salute to retiring pitcher Clayton Kershaw, Stafford’s high school teammate.

Now Stafford is chasing a second Super Bowl title.

“It’s not like we’ve got it all figured out,” he said, adding, “Got to keep continuing to find ways to put more points on the board.”

Nacua sat out against the Jaguars because of an ankle injury. But he said in the days leading up to the game that he was “feeling fantastic.”

Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua, left, celebrates with wide receiver Davante Adams after catching a touchdown pass in the second quarter Sunday against the Saints.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

He looked like it at the outset, making two catches for first downs to start a drive that ended with Stafford’s touchdown pass to Higbee. The veteran tight end, in an apparent salute to the Dodgers, celebrated by taking an imaginary swing and then doing their post-hit celebration.

Adams then followed his breakout three-touchdown performance against the Jaguars with the first of two more red-zone touchdowns. The 12th-year pro is tied for eighth all time with 111 touchdown catches.

Early in the second quarter, Stafford and Nacua went for the home run, connecting on a 39-yard pass that Nacua hauled in for a touchdown and a 20-3 lead.

Stafford’s short strike to Adams in the third quarter put the game out of reach, and Kyren Williams’ short touchdown run early in the fourth quarter provided the finishing touch.

Williams rushed for 114 yards and Blake Corum ran for 58 on a day when the Rams once again utilized all four tight ends in the pass and run attacks.

Meanwhile, the Rams defense made it rough on Saints rookie quarterback Tyler Shough in his first start.

Several Rams defensive players tackle Saints quarterback Tyler Shough in the second quarter of the Rams’ 34-10 win Sunday at SoFi Stadium.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Lineman Braden Fiske got his first sack of the season, linebacker Nate Landman forced another fumble, and cornerback Emmanuel Forbes Jr. intercepted his first pass as a Ram.

“We’re growing at a great rate,” Landman said, “and we’re going to peak at the right time.”

The game against the Saints was the start of a stretch that includes two home games after the 49ers. Only two remaining nine games — a late November trip to play the Carolina Panthers and a late December trip to play the Atlanta Falcons — will require the Rams to travel farther east than Arizona.

A lot can happen between now and the start of the playoffs. But the Rams look like the Super Bowl contender they were built to be.

Shakira is all in for the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime performance, despite ongoing public efforts to replace the Puerto Rican singer with another artist.

In an interview with Variety, the Colombian superstar voiced support for Bad Bunny, who is set to perform on Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

“It’s about time!” she said.

In 2020, Bad Bunny joined Shakira and Jennifer Lopez on stage during their halftime performance, which marked the first all-Latine show in Super Bowl history — J Balvin was also featured.

“I remember when we did ours that even having part of our set in Spanish was a bold move… Acceptance of Spanish-language music as part of the mainstream has come so far from when I started,” said Shakira, who during the interview reflected on the recent anniversaries of her critically-acclaimed Spanish album “Pies Descalzos” (released in 1995) as well as “Oral Fixation (Vol 1 and 2)” (both released in 2005).

“I hope and like to think that all the times my music was met with resistance or puzzlement from the English-speaking world before it was embraced helped forge the path to where we are now,” Shakira added.

The news that Bad Bunny would headline the major American sporting event has been met with some pushback from conservative figures, including President Trump, who labeled the decision as “crazy” and “absolutely ridiculous” in an interview with Newsmax earlier this month.

One floating petition on Change.org, which has acquired over 54,000 signatures, called for Bad Bunny to be replaced by Texas singer George Strait as a way to “honor American culture.”

The late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA also announced an alternative halftime show titled, “The All American Halftime Show,” though the conservative organization has not yet announced artists.

Claims that Bad Bunny is not an American artist are factually incorrect: Puerto Rico is an unincorporated U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans are therefore American citizens. Past Super Bowl halftime shows have also featured non-American acts, including the Rolling Stones, U2, Rihanna, Shania Twain and Coldplay, to name a few.

Despite the anti-Bad Bunny buzz, Shakira doubled down on her support of the singer.

“And I’m so proud that Bad Bunny, who represents not only Latin culture but also how important Spanish-language music has become on a global scale and how universal it has become, is getting to perform on the biggest stage in the world,” she said.

“It’s the perfect moment for a performance like this. I can’t wait to watch it.”

Lockheed Martin has received a new full-rate production contract, valued at $233 million, for Block II IRST21 infrared search and track sensors to go into pods for U.S. Navy and U.S. Air National Guard fighters. For the Navy, in particular, this is a notable move forward given the reliability and quality control issues the service has faced with its podded configuration of the IRST21 for years now.

The Navy officially declared initial operational capability (IOC) with its version of the IRST21, also known by the designation AN/ASG-34A(V)1, back in November 2024. Limited operational evaluations, including as part combat operations in the Middle East, had been ongoing since at least 2020.

The Navy’s pod, developed for use on the service’s the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets consists of a modified FPU-13/A drop tank with the IRST sensor in a redesigned front section, as you can learn about more in this past TWZ feature. Air Force F-15C/D Eagles, which are now in the process of being retired, and F-16C/D Vipers, have been flying for years with IRST21s integrated into modular, multi-purpose Legion Pods from Lockheed Martin. Legion Pods with IRST21s are part of the sensor suite for the Air Force’s new F-15EX Eagle IIs, as well. Though they have the same IRST sensor at their core, which allows for shared contracts like the one announced today, the Navy and Air Force efforts are distinct, with major differences in the respective pod designs.

The Navy’s pod, developed for use on the service’s the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets consists of a modified FPU-13/A drop tank with the IRST sensor in a redesigned front section, as you can learn about more in this past TWZ feature. Air Force F-15C/D Eagles, which are now in the process of being retired, and F-16C/D Vipers, have been flying for years with IRST21s integrated into modular, multi-purpose Legion Pods from Lockheed Martin. Legion Pods with IRST21s are part of the sensor suite for the Air Force’s new F-15EX Eagle IIs, as well.

As designed, the ASG-34A(V)1 has long been set to offer a valuable new way for Navy Super Hornets to spot and track airborne threats. IRST systems offer particular advantages when it comes to detecting stealthy crewed and uncrewed aircraft, as well as missiles, designed to evade traditional radars. IRSTs also scan passively, so they do not send out signals that can alert an opponent to the fact that they are being tracked, and are also immune to expanding adversary electronic warfare capabilities. The information from IRSTs can also be fuzed with that from radars, datalinks, and other passive sensors to provide major synergistic capabilities.

When carried by a Super Hornet, “the IRST acts as a complementary sensor to the aircraft’s AN/APG-79 fire control radar in a heavy electronic attack or radar-denied environment,” according to the Pentagon’s Office of the Director of Test and Evaluation. “It operates autonomously, or in combination with other sensors, to support the guidance of beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles.”

IRST systems, in general, have experienced a renaissance within the U.S. military amid a steadily growing ecosystem of stealthy aerial threats, especially emanating from China. IRST technologies are also evolving, including with the emergence of systems that can be distributed around an aircraft using smaller individual sensors, which are also sometimes less complex and costly.

The Navy’s particular efforts to field this capability for its Super Hornets, which trace all the way back to 2007, have faced hurdles. The service only formally initiated work on the improved Block II IRST21 in 2018, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional Watchdog. A Block II prototype pod first flew on a Super Hornet the following year.

Quality control and reliability issues continued to dog the program afterward, as you can read more about here. Following the IOC declaration, a full-rate production decision was expected to come in January 2025, but was delayed.

“The program reported that it would not reach a full-rate production decision by its baseline schedule threshold in January 2025 due to delays incurred during flight testing,” according to a GAO report published in June 2025. “IRST officials told us that operational tests were delayed by 2 months due to software defects that caused IRST pods to falsely report overheating.”

“Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) officials told us that the defect was relatively easy to fix and would likely have been addressed during developmental testing had the program allocated more time for that testing,” the GAO report added. “The program now expects a full-rate decision in June 2025. This is the second time the program breached its baseline schedule in the past 3 years.”

GAO’s June 2025 report also said that DOT&E remained of the view that “the pods were extremely unreliable.”

“These officials said that the program improved pod reliability as it made software updates but only managed to achieve 14 hours mean time between operational mission failures – short of the 40 hours required,” the report said. “As such, DOT&E officials said that deploying the IRST pods without improving their reliability would transfer risk to the Navy’s fleet. Program officials noted that IRST initial capability was achieved without any noted limitations.”

“IRST Block II operational flight test events demonstrated tactically relevant detection ranges against operationally relevant targets and the ability to translate these long-range target detections into stable system tracks to facilitate weapons employment,” DO&TE had said in its own most recent annual report, covering work done during the 2024 Fiscal Year. “The Navy must continue to improve the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet’s operating software and address existing deficiencies to effectively integrate IRST into aircraft fire control solutions.”

“IRST Block II demonstrated significant reliability problems during operational testing. Throughout the test period, IRST Block II suffered from hardware and software deficiencies, which required the aircrew to restart the pod multiple times,” that report added. “Troubleshooting and repair often exceeded the abilities of Navy maintenance crews and required assistance from Lockheed Martin. Many of these problems were discovered during integrated and operational test after the Navy completed a minimal developmental test program with the representative hardware.”

It is curious to note that there has been no commensurate reporting of reliability or other issues with the IRST21/Legion Pod combination that has been seen flying on Air National Guard F-15s and F-16s for years now. At the same time, whether or not the Air Force has experienced any troubles with those IRST pods is not entirely clear.

To what degree remaining issues on the Navy side have been addressed and/or mitigated is also unclear, and TWZ has reached out the service, as well as Lockheed Martin, for more information.

The decision now to move ahead with full-rate production of the IRST21 is certainly a new vote confidence, especially when it comes to the Navy program.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Wow, what a week in sports. USC defeats Michigan, a Dodger pitches a complete game for the first time in the postseason since 2004 and they sweep the Brewers to go to the World Series for the second consecutive year after being 0-6 against Milwaukee during the regular season. Perhaps Michael Conforto will be added to the roster and win MVP in the World Series.

Jeff Hershow
Woodland Hills

While basically sleepwalking through the first three games of the NLCS, Shohei Ohtani saves his best for last. He goes “Hollywood” and produces the single greatest performance in MLB history as the final curtain comes down on the Milwaukee Brewers and extends the Dodgers’ magical journey to repeat as World Series champions.

Stay tuned for the sequel!

Rick Solomon
Lake Balboa

It’s a bird, it’s a plane … no, it’s superhuman Shohei! He pitches a shutout, strikes out 10, and hits three tape-measure home runs. Wow!

Marty Zweben
Palos Verdes Estates

In the history of Major League Baseball, has there ever been a player like Shohei Ohtani? I don’t think so. Shohei is the best ever. Enough said.

Chris Sorce
Fountain Valley

Now that the Dodgers have effortlessly powered their way back into the World Series, it’s quite obvious that $400 million actually does buy what it used to!

Jack Wolf
Westwood

At last, the second coming of the Dodgers has happened. We’ve been waiting for it and hoping for it, and now it’s here. Great offense, great defense and superb pitching. Our new chant should be “all the way L.A., all the way.”

Cheryl Creek
Anaheim

Statistically speaking, there is a case to be made in comparing the postseason accomplishments of Sandy Koufax and Blake Snell. From a historical perspective, there is no comparison.

Koufax is a legendary lifetime Dodger who pitched until he physically was no longer able to do so. Snell famously refused to take the ball in his last Giants start to save himself for a free agency money windfall.

Bill Waxman
Simi Valley

Stop the presses! The world is still spinning on its axis! Holy Toledo, Dave Roberts finally figured out a starting pitcher’s arm doesn’t fall off after 100 pitches. Too bad he didn’t come to that revelation during Blake Snell’s Game 1 performance, but better late than never as the saying goes.

Ken Blake
Brea

York Knights and Toulouse Olympique will play in an expanded 14-team Super League next season after being selected to join rugby league’s top flight by an independent panel.

Bradford Bulls were promoted to Super League on Thursday having taken the place of financially troubled Salford Red Devils thanks to jumping from 16th to 10th in this year’s grading system, meaning three Championship teams will move up to the top flight from 2026.

Earlier this year, Super League’s 12 current clubs voted to expand the competition to 14 teams from next season – the first time the league will have operated with that number since 2014.

York will play in Super League for the first time while Toulouse will return to the top tier for the first time since their one-season stint in 2022.

Nine applications were submitted and considered by a panel which was chaired by Lord Jonathan Caine as well as two non-executive Rugby Football League (RFL) directors Abi Ekoku and Dermot Power, RFL chief executive Tony Sutton, interim head of legal Graeme Sarjeant, RL Commercial managing director Rhodri Jones and Super League (Europe) board member Peter Hutton.

The panel judged applications against each club’s financial performance in 2025, as well as their financial performance and sustainability forecasts for 2026 to 2028 and their ability to “field a competitive team in 2026 and beyond”.

ESPN writer Seth Wickersham and Phoebe Schecter explain the thought processes behind the likes of legendary quarterback Tom Brady transforming themselves from backups to Super Bowl winners.

WATCH: The Whole 10 Yards – Being an NFL backup (Available to UK users only)

The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is transforming every corner of the global economy. Nvidia, the company at the center of this revolution, continues to be a Wall Street favorite for all the right reasons. As an undisputed leader in accelerated computing, the company’s hardware and software power much of the world’s AI infrastructure buildout.

Shares of Nvidia have already surged over 43% so far in 2025. However, despite the massive demand for its Blackwell architecture systems, software stack, and networking solutions, the stock may grow quite modestly in future months. With its market capitalization now exceeding $4.6 trillion and shares trading at a premium valuation of nearly 30 times forward earnings, much of the optimism is already priced in.

Memory giant Micron (MU 6.12%), on the other hand, is still in the early stages of its AI-powered growth story. Shares of the company have surged nearly 128% in 2025, which highlights the increasing investor confidence in its high-bandwidth memory and data center portfolio. Yet, Micron could still offer investors higher returns in 2026, while riding the same AI wave. Here’s why.

Image source: Getty Images.

Lower customer concentration risk

Wall Street has been highlighting one significant underappreciated risk for Nvidia. Nvidia’s revenues depend heavily on a few hyperscaler customers, with two accounting for 39% and four accounting for 46% of its revenues in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 (ending July 27, 2026). Many of these hyperscaler clients are developing proprietary chips, which may offer a price-performance optimization in their specific workloads. This may reduce their dependence on Nvidia’s chips in future years.

Micron’s revenue base is significantly more diversified than Nvidia’s. The company’s largest customer accounted for 17% of total revenue, while the next largest contributed 10% in fiscal 2025 (ending Aug. 28, 2025). The company has earned over half of its total revenues from the top 10 customers for the past three years. The company has a reasonably broad customer base, including data center, mobile, PC, automotive, and industrial markets.

Hence, compared with Nvidia, Micron’s lower concentration risk makes it more resilient in the current economy.

HBM demand and AI memory leadership

Micron’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) products, known for their superior data transfer speeds and energy efficiency, are being increasingly used in data centers. HBM revenues reached nearly $2 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, translating into $8 billion annualized run rate.

Management expects Micron’s HBM market share to match its overall DRAM share by the third quarter of fiscal 2025. The company now caters to six HBM customers and has entered into pricing agreements covering most of the 2026 supply of HBM third-generation extended (HBM3E) products.

Micron has also started sampling HBM fourth-generation (HBM4) products to customers. The company expects the first production shipment of HBM4 in the second quarter of calendar year 2026 and a broader ramp later that year.

Beyond HBM, Micron’s Low-Power Double Data Rate (LPDDR) memory products are also seeing strong demand in data centers. The data center business has emerged as a key growth engine, accounting for 56% of Micron’s total sales in fiscal 2025.

Hence, Micron seems well-positioned to capture a significant share of the AI-powered memory demand in the coming years.

Valuation

Micron appears to offer a stronger risk-reward proposition than Nvidia, even in the backdrop of accelerated AI infrastructure spending. The company currently trades at 12.3 times forward earnings, significantly lower than Nvidia’s valuation. Hence, while Nvidia’s premium valuation already assumes near-perfect execution and continued dominance, Micron still trades like a cyclical memory stock. This disconnect leaves room for modest valuation expansion to account for Micron’s improving revenue mix toward high-margin AI memory products.

Wall Street sentiment is also increasingly positive for Micron. Morgan Stanley’s Joseph Moore recently upgraded the stock from equal-weight or neutral to overweight and raised the target price from $160 to $220. UBS has reiterated its “Buy” rating and increased the target price from $195 to $225. Itau Unibanco analyst has initiated coverage for Micron with a “Buy” rating and target price of $249.

Analysts expect Micron’s earnings per share to grow year over year by nearly 100% to $16.6 in fiscal 2026. If the current valuation multiple holds, Micron’s share price could be around $204 (up 6% from the last closing price as of Oct. 9), with limited downside potential. But if the multiple expands modestly in the range of 14 to 16 times forward earnings, shares could fall in the range of $232 to $265, offering upside of 20% to 37.8%.

On the other hand, there remains a higher probability of valuation compression for Nvidia, leaving less room for growth. With diversified customers, increasing AI exposure, and reasonable valuation, Micron may prove to be the better semiconductor pick in 2026.

Whereas the 2024 final was a tense and a low scoring affair, Hull KR flipped that script on its head with this year’s war of attrition.

Gone was the caginess of last year. And nerves? What nerves? This was a side made for the occasion, that knew they were on the cusp of greatness and took their opportunity.

Yet it might not have been that way as they were off the pace in the opening stages, and were lucky not to fall behind when they failed to pick up French on the turnover prior to his score being chalked off.

Other than that if they seemed unnerved by the occasion, knowing they were 80 minutes from a history-making treble, they did not seem to show it.

Much had been said in the build-up to the game about Hull KR’s recent and distant past – whether that is relegation in the Million Pound Game in 2016 or finishing bottom of Super League in 2020.

Indeed, outside of some second-tier honours, you had to go back 40 years to the last time the Robins reigned supreme.

Bolstered by the retiring Waerea-Hargreaves – who almost missed the game through suspension prior to KR’s successful appeal this week – and Micky McIlorum, they soon carved open Wigan and never looked back.

Robins talisman Lewis has gone from strength to strength in recent seasons but, much like his team, this feels like the moment in his career where he truly came alive.

But this was a team performance. It was not won by individual moments of brilliance.

It was a display befitting a treble-winning side and masterminded by an elite coach in Willie Peters.

Hull KR have got better every season under Peters’ tutelage and, on this evidence, it makes you wonder if they could be even more formidable in 2026.

How much clout does Bad Bunny have?

Enough that certain people are still mad nearly two weeks after it was announced that the “Nuevayol” singer — one of the most popular and consequential artists on the planet, someone who can single-handedly boost local economies — will be the halftime performer during Super Bowl LX, to be held Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif.

The right-wing backlash was immediate, with much of the criticism focusing on three things: first, that Bad Bunny (real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) has been vocal about his opposition to the ongoing immigration raids, both in the mainland and in Puerto Rico; secondly, that he sings primarily in Spanish; and thirdly, that he’s “not American.”

This latter point, as conservative media personality Tomi Lahren hilariously learned the hard way and in real time, is not factually correct. (The interjection by Lahren’s guest, Krystal Ball — “He’s Puerto Rican…. That’s part of America, dear” — is still sending me.) And even if it was, it’d be irrelevant. As my colleague LZ Granderson recently pointed out, there have been plenty of non-American musical acts who have performed at the Super Bowl — from the Rolling Stones to U2 to Shakira.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was so appalled by Bad Bunny being tapped to perform that she announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be present at the big game.

“I have the responsibility for making sure everybody who goes to the Super Bowl has the opportunity to enjoy it and to leave, and that’s what America’s about,” she said. “So yeah, we’ll be all over that place. We’re going to enforce the law.”

What Noem left out was that federal law enforcement agents have historically been present at such high-profile events as the Copa America and previous Super Bowls — rapper 21 Savage was even arrested by ICE during the 2019 game, held in Atlanta.

To be clear, I’m not surprised that conservatives were upset about the pick. In fact, I’m willing to bet that they would’ve been mad regardless of whom the National Football League selected. At one point, Taylor Swift was rumored to be the headliner, and we all know how President Trump feels about her — she’s a “woke singer” who “is no longer hot.” Then there’s Kendrick Lamar, who upset many on the right last year when he reclaimed the American flag for Black people during his performance.

I expected the outrage. In fact, when I found out, I lamented that the announcement came while I was still on paternity leave and would therefore be unable to write about it in this space. Because surely, the news cycle would have moved on to something else.

But I was wrong. This story is about to be two weeks old and it still has legs.

“I’ve never heard of him. I don’t know who he is,” Trump said, channeling his inner Mariah Carey during an interview with Newsmax on Monday. “I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

(Must be a Nicky Jam fan, then. I hear “she’s hot.”)

Even the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.), known pop culture maven, chimed in.

“I didn’t even know who Bad Bunny was. But it sounds like a terrible decision, in my view, from what I’m hearing,” Johnson said during an interview. “It sounds like he’s not someone who appeals to a broader audience. And there are so many eyes on the Super Bowl — a lot of young, impressionable children. And, in my view, you would have Lee Greenwood, or role models, doing that. Not somebody like this.”

Lee Greenwood? Be serious, Mike Johnson.

For the unfamiliar, Greenwood is best known for “God Bless the U.S.A.” and has had nearly as many marriages (five) as he’s had No. 1 hits on Billboard’s U.S. Hot Country Songs chart (seven). He clearly lacks the number of bangers to put together a solid halftime performance.

But wait, there’s more. Turning Point USA — the conservative nonprofit organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk — announced Thursday via social media that it was planning on counter-programming Bad Bunny’s performance and organizing its own Super Bowl halftime show with an artist (or artists) to be determined. The group also published a poll asking people to vote on what kind of act they wanted; with the first option being “Anything in English.” (I saw them at South by Southwest in 2012, and let me tell you — they were meh.)

If it seems like I’m making light of things, it’s because I am. The whole situation is absurd and the outrage feels manufactured. At best, it’s just fodder to feed into the bottomless right wing content machine, and at worst, it feels like a distraction from much bigger issues, like the government shutdown or the ongoing constitutional crisis playing out in cities such as Chicago and Portland, Ore.

And if right-wingers are genuinely about Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl, here’s an idea: Don’t watch. But that wouldn’t be very American, would it?

A pair of thank yous

This week’s edition of the Latinx Files is my first one since coming back from paternity leave — a period in which I was fully able to bond with my baby and not think about work. This is in large part because of Suzy Exposito and Carlos de Loera, who handled the day-to-day operations of De Los and who wrote this weekly newsletter, respectively. Thank you both. I am eternally grateful.

Stories we read this week that we think you should read

Unless otherwise noted, stories below were published by the Los Angeles Times.

Immigration

Arts and culture

Food

• The myths and realities of gentrification in Mexico City. Should you still visit?
• The best restaurants and bars in Mexico City: 34 spots that aren’t tourist traps.

Oct. 9 (UPI) — The Charlie Kirk-co-founded Turning Point USA is planning to host an alternative musical performance called “The All-American Halftime Show” for Super Bowl LX.

Officials for the conservative non-profit announced the planned alternative halftime show on social media but did not say which musical acts and others would perform.

“It’s true, Turning Point USA is thrilled to announce The All-American Halftime Show,” it said in a post on X on Thursday, as reported by Fox News.

The post says the event will celebrate faith, family and freedom.

Turning Point USA has created a website to present the halftime show and asked online visitors to choose which musical genres they would like to see perform.

Survey results so far show support for country, rock, hip hop and “anything in English,” The Hill reported.

The event would air while rapper Benito Antonio Martiniz Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, performs during the Super Bowl’s halftime show headliner.

The musical artist from Puerto Rico has won three Grammy Awards since his career took off in 2016.

He also is slated to be named Billboard’s Latin Artist of the 21st Century during the 2025 Billboard Latin Music Awards on Oct.23.

Bad Bunny is undertaking a world tour but has refused to perform in the United States, other than during the Super Bowl.

He has cited concerns that Immigration and Customs Enforcement might target his U.S. shows and detain audience members, according to Axios.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently dismissed such concerns and said there are no plans in place to raid Bad Bunny concerts.

Despite Leavitt’s denial, DHS adviser Corey Lewandowski recently suggested ICE agents would attend Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance.

Lewandowski made the claim while appearing on “The Benny Show” podcast on Oct. 1.

“There is nowhere that you can provide a safe haven to the people in this country illegally,” he told podcast host Benny Johnson.

The Super Bowl is scheduled for Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

Oct. 9 (UPI) — The Charlie Kirk-co-founded Turning Point USA is planning to host an alternative musical performance called “The All-American Halftime Show” for Super Bowl LX.

Officials for the conservative non-profit announced the planned alternative halftime show on social media but did not say which musical acts and others would perform.

“It’s true, Turning Point USA is thrilled to announce The All-American Halftime Show,” it said in a post on X on Thursday, as reported by Fox News.

The post says the event will celebrate faith, family and freedom.

Turning Point USA has created a website to present the halftime show and asked online visitors to choose which musical genres they would like to see perform.

Survey results so far show support for country, rock, hip hop and “anything in English,” The Hill reported.

The event would air while rapper Benito Antonio Martiniz Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, performs during the Super Bowl’s halftime show headliner.

The musical artist from Puerto Rico has won three Grammy Awards since his career took off in 2016.

He also is slated to be named Billboard’s Latin Artist of the 21st Century during the 2025 Billboard Latin Music Awards on Oct.23.

Bad Bunny is undertaking a world tour but has refused to perform in the United States, other than during the Super Bowl.

He has cited concerns that Immigration and Customs Enforcement might target his U.S. shows and detain audience members, according to Axios.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently dismissed such concerns and said there are no plans in place to raid Bad Bunny concerts.

Despite Leavitt’s denial, DHS adviser Corey Lewandowski recently suggested ICE agents would attend Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance.

Lewandowski made the claim while appearing on “The Benny Show” podcast on Oct. 1.

“There is nowhere that you can provide a safe haven to the people in this country illegally,” he told podcast host Benny Johnson.

The Super Bowl is scheduled for Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

The problem with betting on a sure thing over and over is that eventually your luck will probably run out.

“Saturday Night Live” has bet multiple times on Bad Bunny, an incredibly charismatic performer who was all over the show’s 50th anniversary specials earlier this year and who was an excellent host and musical guest in late 2023.

For the “SNL” 51st season premiere, Bad Bunny’s streak as a perfect go-to personality for the show has ended with an episode that was bafflingly weak, with dated sketches and writing that didn’t cater to the host’s strength as the show’s done in the past. Even appearances from Jon Hamm, “One Battle After Another” actor Benicio del Toro and Huntr/x, the trio of singers from the wildly popular “KPop Demon Hunters,” barely moved the needle on an episode that couldn’t find its footing until “Weekend Update” and then quickly lost momentum again afterward.

The musician is coming off a lengthy residency of concerts in Puerto Rico and was just announced as the 2026 Super Bowl halftime performer. Hosting the premiere should have been a victory lap with a summer’s worth of strong sketches to kick off the season. But it comes at a time of major cast and writer turnover, which couldn’t have helped. Last time he hosted, Bad Bunny was served well by sketches that either let him play himself, or let him speak throughout in Spanish (“The Age of Discovery” being a perfect example).

This time, he had to portray in English an obsessed “Kpop Demon Hunters” fan who happens to be an adult, a contestant on “Jeopardy” who simply can’t form answers into questions, a man who wants to donate sperm to strangers in a restaurant, and a member of a group of Spaniards in 900 A.D., including del Toro, trying to form the rules of their language (but discussed in English, for some reason).

The host fared a little better in two late sketches, one about an amorous principal (Ashley Padilla) disciplining a student (Marcello Hernández), and an homage to “El Chavo del Ocho” that wasn’t very funny, but was at least a pretty accurate recreation of the Mexican sitcom.

We’ve seen Bad Bunny soar on “SNL” when the material is built around his charm and abilities. This time, the writers shoehorned him into multiple sloppy sketches (“Jeopardy,” in particular, felt half-baked) that could have been written for any guest host. He deserved better.

Musical guest Doja Cat performed “AAHH MEN!” and “Gorgeous.” She didn’t appear in any sketches.

In the season’s first cold open, “SNL” relied again on the premise of a sketch getting going — in this case Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost) berating U.S. military generals — and then being interrupted by a President Trump (James Austin Johnson) monologue. Given all the new cast members, Jost was a surprise to carry the first part, in which he complained as Hegseth, “our military is gay as Hell!” Hegseth said the military must be a place where there are “no fug-ups, no fatties, no facial hair, no body hair. Just hot shredded hairless men who are definitely not gay!” When Trump appeared, he said, “‘SNL’ 51 — off to a rough start. Seventeen new cast members and they got the ‘Update’ guy doing the cold open.” His meta commentary included references to the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival (Jost claimed he wasn’t invited), and a bad joke about Saudi Arabia that drew groans: “We like the Saudis because they like to saw-deez journalists in half.” Mikey Day appeared briefly as FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and before Trump concluded, he made the “SNL” crew, whom he claimed as Trump voters, promise to “keep an eye on Marcello for me.”

In his monologue, Bad Bunny said the reason he wasn’t serving as musical guest like the last time he hosted was that he needed to rest. He showed footage from one of his concerts, including a shot of Hamm dancing along. Hamm was shown in the audience wearing the same tropical outfit. As for the Super Bowl controversy, the host deftly addressed it by showing a spliced together Fox News clip with hosts saying, “Bad Bunny is my favorite musician and he should be the next president.” Then, in Spanish, he thanked Latino fans in particular who’ve supported him and said that no one can erase their contributions to the United States. “If you didn’t understand what I said, you have four months to learn,” he concluded.

Best sketch of the night: ChatGPTío might take unexpected pictures of you

ChatGPT might be too nice and sycophantic; what if it were more like a Latino uncle who’s honest to a fault with you? In this mock commercial for OpenAI hosted by Chloe Fineman, Hernández and Bad Bunny play AI characters within ChatGPT who give loud advice and sometimes call in the middle of the night to ask about Smash Mouth. How do you make vegan banana bread? “You don’t!” Was Jesus really God? “Yes.” It doesn’t quite work as a concept if you think too much about it, but Hernández makes a meal yet again out of playing a Latino elder with strong opinions.

Also good: Huntr/x keep it ‘Golden’ for a superfan

While it wasn’t the best showcase for Bad Bunny, who struggled with line deliveries, this sketch about a “Kpop Demon Hunters” fan had a surprise appearance by the singers from the animated movie’s soundtrack, who performed part of their hit “Golden” and had some strangely funny dialogue, such as the reveals that one of the brunch companions is on the Epstein list (for flying JetBlue through his island) and another was the writer of the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle Jeans commercial. It also featured Bowen Yang as “Demon Hunters” villain Jinu singing “Soda Pop,” another fun surprise.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: Expect someone to make They K. Rowling shirts after this

New cast member Kam Patterson made his debut in a segment begging “SNL” to let him use the N-word (“I’m a stand-up comedian from Florida, saying that word is what I do!”). But it was Yang in prosthetics as Dobby the House Elf from “Harry Potter” who won the night despite a hilarious wardrobe malfunction — his rag outfit kept coming off at the shoulder. Dobby begins by defending J.K. Rowling’s views on transgender people, but ends up questioning the author’s views and freeing himself in the process with his possession of a They K. Rowling T-shirt. It’s a good thing Yang didn’t leave “SNL” as was rumored because this episode badly needed him.

The big question at the start of this season – the same one that’s been asked over the last six WSL campaigns – is whether anyone can end Chelsea’s dominance.

The Blues won last term’s trophy by going 22 games unbeaten in Sonia Bompastor’s first season at the helm – part of a domestic treble as they lifted the Women’s FA Cup and League Cup too.

In fact, it’s been more than 500 days since Chelsea last lost a league game – a 4-3 defeat at Liverpool on 1 May, 2024.

Manchester United came close to ending that streak on Friday night in a top-two encounter and Skinner was proud of “the most brave performance” from his players.

“We’re building. You can see it, you can sense it,” he said.

“We are disappointed to not win the game. The chances we created, not many teams could create that against Chelsea. So for us to do that and in the way we did it was credit to them [the players].”

Since their promotion from the Women’s Championship in 2019, United have rapidly emerged as WSL title contenders, finishing just two points behind Chelsea in 2022-23.

The following season they won the FA Cup – their first major women’s trophy.

While a draw against the current league leaders may be deemed a missed opportunity for United, former England striker White believed it showed how far the club has come.

“You have to look at that consistency,” she said. “They’ve played 11 times against Chelsea now and only drawn once, now the second time, so I think it’s really good for their consistency and what they’re doing as a club and a team.

“It shows it’s working and they’re improving.”

Asked if Skinner deserved more credit for United’s rise to compete with more established clubs, White added: “What he’s done with these players, the philosophy, the DNA, how resolute they are.

“He hasn’t got the amount of money or been able to spend the amount of money the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal or [Manchester] City have done.”

For Kiké Hernández, the regular season is little more than a six-month warm-up. Real baseball is played when the evening air turns crisp and the leaves begin to change.

And when summer turns to fall few players have stepped up bigger than Hernández, who had two hits, scored two runs and drove in another Wednesday, spurring a Dodger comeback that ended in an 8-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds and a sweep of their National League wild-card series.

That sends the team on to the best-of-five Division Series with the Phillies, which begins Saturday in Philadelphia.

“October Kiké is something pretty special,” Dodger manager Dave Roberts said. “And the track record speaks for itself. He’s one of the best throughout the history of the postseason.”

It’s a reputation he’s earned.

A .236 career hitter in the regular season, Hernández has hit .286 in 88 postseason games. He slashed .203/.255/.366 in an injury-marred regular season this year, but two games into the playoffs he’s hitting .500, leads the Dodgers with three runs scored and ranks second to Mookie Betts with four hits. He also made a splendid over-the-shoulder catch while racing to the warning track in the first inning Wednesday.

“Some guys are built for this moment. He’s definitely one of them,” said third baseman Max Muncy, standing in the middle of the Dodgers’ batting cage during the team’s postgame celebration, his blue T-shirt soaked in champagne as a teammate poured beer over his head.

Hernández, wearing goggles but not a shirt, made a brief appearance at the victory party but departed to celebrate with family before the champagne and beer began to puddle on the plastic sheeting that covered the floor.

His teammates were all too happy to speak about him in his absence.

“He’s a guy who is not shy from the from the moment,” infielder Miguel Rojas said. “I feel like the regular season for him is not enough.”

Rojas said he learned that first hand after rejoining the Dodgers in 2023. Although the team’s playoff run was brief, Hernández led the team with two RBIs and was second in hits and average.

“I saw it on TV before. But when I got here I saw that it was real,” he said. “He always wanted the moment and he showed it tonight with a big double to tie the game.”

That came with one out in the fourth, when his line drive to center field scored Muncy from first to tie the score, 2-2. Four pitches later he scored on Rojas’ single, putting the Dodgers ahead to stay.

But Hernández wasn’t finished. Two innings later he led off with a squibber up the third-base line that was going foul before it hit the bag for a single, starting a four-run rally that put the game away. The bottom third of the Dodger lineup — Hernández, Rojas and catcher Ben Rortvedt — combined to go six for 12 with five runs and two RBIs.

“Kiké is Kiké,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández said above the din of the celebration. “That’s the guy you get when October starts.”

Before that? Not so much. But for Hernández, the postseason has become redemption time.

“I know they brought me here for these types of moments,” he said before Wednesday’s game.

“The beautiful thing about the postseason is that once we get to the postseason, everything starts at zero. You can have a bad year and you flip the script and you start over in the postseason. You have a good postseason, help the team win, and nobody ever remembers what you did in the regular season.”

Hernández, 34, owes much of his fall heroics simply to the opportunity to play on the sport’s biggest stage. In a dozen big-league seasons, he’s made the playoffs 10 times, playing in 21 postseason series with the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox and winning two World Series rings.

“I’ve been blessed to be on the right team at the right time,” he said. “Being a good postseason player is kind of an individual thing, but not really. You’re on a team that doesn’t make the playoffs, you can’t be a postseason player.

“I just happen to be on a lot of really good teams, and I’ve been fortunate enough to get a lot of chances.”

With his performance Wednesday, he assured himself at least three more chances in the division series with the Phillies. And Rojas expects him to take full advantage.

“He always wants the moment and he wants to be out there,” he said. “I’m learning from him every single day. He’s the most prepared guy that I’ve ever played with.”

Especially in October.

Liv Tchine’s first impression was “wow”.

Her second was “can I stay here forever?”.

Her third was “one day this will be all ours”.

Netball’s kingdom is modest, but prolific England goal shooter Tchine and her team-mates recently had a glimpse of a top-tier sporting promised land.

These are the Roses players targeting Commonwealth Games gold at Glasgow 2026 and World Cup glory in 2027.

They are at the vanguard of the sport’s professional era, the elite of the three million people who play netball in England at least once a year. Most players are women, but men play too.

Tchine and co draw inspiration from the Euros-winning Lionesses and World Cup-winning Red Roses, rather than lament encroachment on netball’s legacy territory.

Netball Super League is newly professional but funds are tight, similar to football’s Women’s Super League in the mid-2010s.

Players hear of rewards that could be theirs one day. Often those rewards feel a million miles away, yet not always.

For Tchine, a standout in the London Pulse side who swept to their first Super League title this year, the “wow” moment came at the Lionesses’ luxury hangout.

St George’s Park lies in Derbyshire countryside, tucked out of sight. An understated private drive off a hedge-lined B road is a portal to a world beyond the dreams of most sportspeople.

“Just imagine netball having this kind of facility. Do you know how sick that would be?”

That was Tchine on an Instagram video diary, reacting to visiting the Football Association’s state-of-the-art national team training centre for the first time. The gym, the recovery rooms, the green, green grass of England’s home.

England’s netballers spent a training block there, before autumn series against Jamaica and New Zealand.

“I was like, if we could just stay here forever, I would happily move,” Tchine tells BBC Sport.

“So, so good. We were there for 10 days. The facilities were, honestly, so amazing.

“The whole time we were there I was just like, one day netball could definitely have something like this.”

The second season since Super League’s relaunch is coming, with 2026 fixtures announced this week., external

Pulse are in “the best position we’ve ever been in”, Tchine says.

The league is growing. Average attendances climbed by 42% in 2025, having been about 1,500 previously. In comparison, the first Women’s Super League football season – following a 2014 reboot – had average crowds of 728 (from 562 in 2013).

Women’s football crowds in the tens of thousands are now almost commonplace, but that didn’t happen overnight.

Tchine, a 24-year-old south Londoner, admired portraits of England footballers – men and women – lining St George’s Park’s corridors.

“I definitely hope that if I’m still playing in 10 years we’ll be at the same level as the Lionesses and the Red Roses,” she says.

“They were both absolutely incredible this summer – going out there, doing their job and coming out with wins was amazing. It’s really good to see women’s sport hitting levels that it’s never been at in the past.

“I want to be able to go out with the Roses and use that momentum to try and get our gold medal.”

Oct. 1 (UPI) — Homeland Security adviser Corey Lewandowski said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will attend the Super Bowl’s halftime show featuring Bad Bunny.

Lewandowski, 52, appeared on “The Benny Show” podcast on Wednesday when he made his claim about ICE at the Super Bowl, according to The Hill.

“There is nowhere that you can provide a safe haven to the people in this country illegally,” Lewandowski said in response to a question from podcast host Benny Johnson.

“We will find you. We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you,” he claimed.

Lewandowski was President Donald Trump‘s campaign manager in 2016 and a senior adviser in 2020 and 2024.

The Super Bowl is the only U.S. performance scheduled so far in 2026 for Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, who is from Puerto Rico and has won three Grammy Awards.

The popular rapper last month said he was skipping performing in the United States due to his fear that ICE would raid his concert venues, Variety reported.

Bad Bunny on Sunday affirmed he is skipping dates in the United States, other than the Super Bowl, next year, according to Billboard.

“I’ve been thinking about it these days, and after discussing it with my team, I think I’ll do just one date in the United States,” he posted on X.

The popular rapper has a world tour scheduled from December through July, but said concerns that ICE might show up at U.S. shows caused him to skip performing here.

The Super Bowl is scheduled at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8.