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Adam Levine Breaks His Silence On Super Bowl Drama

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Adam Levine finally said out loud what everybody wanted to know: yes, he knew exactly how much heat Maroon 5 was about to take.

Five days before Super Bowl LIII, with the NFL having scrapped the traditional pre-game halftime press conference altogether, Levine sat down with Entertainment Tonight and gave the only interview he’d give on the subject. He didn’t dodge the Colin Kaepernick question so much as refuse to answer it the way activists wanted. What followed was a week of donations, defenses, and a shirtless finale that gave Twitter something else to talk about entirely.

• Levine’s January 31, 2019 sit-down with Entertainment Tonight was the band’s only pre-Super Bowl interview after the NFL canceled its usual halftime press conference.
• Kaepernick’s attorney, Mark Geragos, went on Good Morning America to call Levine’s stance an avoidance of accountability.
• Maroon 5, Interscope Records, and the NFL donated $500,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, mirroring a matching donation from Travis Scott.

A Halftime Show With No Press Conference

The NFL’s decision to cancel the traditional halftime press conference ahead of Super Bowl LIII was itself a signal of how radioactive the booking had become. Maroon 5’s headline slot at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, alongside guests Travis Scott and Big Boi, had been under fire for weeks from fans, activists, and public figures over the league’s continued failure to sign Kaepernick, who had gone unsigned since kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality.

With the league’s usual media availability off the table, Levine’s Entertainment Tonight interview became the sole venue for the band to address the controversy directly. He said he’d weighed the decision carefully and expected the backlash going in, framing his choice as an artistic one rather than a political statement. “It’s a delicate balance,” he told the outlet. “No one’s going to be happy with the halftime show, ever. But I think that we were able to accomplish a lot in the amount of time that we had.”

Geragos Calls Out the Dodge

Levine’s preference to “let the music speak” rather than play politician didn’t sit well with everyone, and Mark Geragos made that clear on Good Morning America. Kaepernick’s attorney characterized the singer’s framing as a way of sidestepping accountability rather than genuinely engaging with why the booking had become a flashpoint in the first place. It was a pointed rebuttal from someone directly involved in the Kaepernick grievance against the league, and it kept the story alive right up to kickoff.

“No one’s going to be happy with the halftime show, ever. But I think that we were able to accomplish a lot in the amount of time that we had.”

The $500,000 Move Before the Show

Ahead of the February 3 performance, Maroon 5 partnered with Interscope Records and the NFL to donate $500,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, a gesture that mirrored a similar charitable donation Travis Scott had already made. The timing made the intent obvious: soften the criticism before the band ever stepped onstage. It didn’t silence the loudest critics, but it gave the band something concrete to point to beyond Levine’s talking points.

The Tank Top, the Shirtless Finale, and the Lanterns

Once the show actually happened, the conversation shifted fast. The performance drew mixed reviews, and social media spent as much time mocking Levine’s wardrobe and shirtless finale as it did debating the politics that preceded it — a fairly familiar pattern for any halftime slot, in the same way past performers have gotten roasted online for everything from choreography to lip-syncing accusations after a live broadcast. Afterward, Levine posted an Instagram message acknowledging the lanterns featured during the set and thanking critics for continuing to push the band to improve — a rare moment of him engaging with the online reaction directly rather than through a publicist.

For a frontman who’s spent two decades being scrutinized for everything except how he handles a controversy, Levine’s approach here was pure Adam Levine: give one interview, make one donation, take the stage, and let the internet argue about the tank top instead of the anthem protests. Whether that trade worked out for him depends on who you ask — but it’s the same instinct that’s made him one of those musicians who are nothing like they seem once the cameras stop rolling.