Sunny Hostin says Jay-Z should use NFL partnership to fight for more Black leadership

The View cohost said she supports Jay-Z headlining Super Bowl LXI but wants him to use his NFL partnership to push for more Black coaches and owners.

Sunny Hostin wants Jay-Z to use his NFL partnership to push for more Black leadership, even as she supports his confirmed Super Bowl performance. The View cohost questioned whether his 2019 Roc Nation deal with the league has brought enough change beyond the halftime stage.

During Wednesday’s episode of ABC’s “The View,” Hostin called Jay-Z a “perfectly valid choice” to headline next year’s halftime show but said he could do more to improve racial equity in the NFL, Entertainment Weekly reported on Oct. 28.

Jay-Z’s Roc Nation partnered with the NFL in 2019 to advise on entertainment and support the league’s Inspire Change initiative. The deal arrived amid continuing criticism of the NFL’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick, whose national anthem protests drew attention to racial injustice and police brutality.

Hostin credited Jay-Z with making some progress but raised concerns about the number of Black coaches and team owners. She cited a league with “70 percent Black players,” “only three Black head coaches” and no Black majority owners. She did not identify the source of those figures during the discussion.

“The one thing I will say is that when Jay-Z started this partnership in 2019 with the NFL, it was on the backs of the protests, of the social justice initiative, on the backs of the NFL’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick,” said Hostin

She continued, “While he has done some of that, what I look when I see the NFL today, I see 70 percent Black players, 9.4 percent Black coaches, only three Black head coaches. I also see that there are no Black owners of any NFL team. No majority owner. When I look at that, I think, Jay-Z, he’s become a billionaire, he’s an icon. You can do well, but also do good. I think there’s more work for him to do within the NFL.”

She argued that Jay-Z’s wealth, public profile and position with the NFL made him well placed to pursue “institutional change.” Her objection was not to the rapper performing, but to the lack of representation she sees in league leadership.

Alyssa Farah Griffin countered that Roc Nation has elevated artists of color through its Super Bowl halftime selections. Whoopi Goldberg noted that changing NFL ownership structures is difficult and said she believed Jay-Z was still working toward change. She urged Hostin to let him pursue it “the way he can do it.”

The NFL, Roc Nation and Apple Music announced Monday that Jay-Z will headline Super Bowl LXI on Feb. 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. His company has helped produce halftime shows featuring Rihanna, Usher, Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny.