The following is a personal note I wrote, which explains why this petition was created. A few people came to me and asked what Maroon 5 not performing during the Super Bowl halftime show has to do with Colin Kaepernick, so I decided to write this note, in which you can share on Twitter and Facebook to those who need to see this.

Hey all,

Here we are, with a petition signed by nearly 70,000 people, asking Maroon 5 to not perform during the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. The NFL owners banned Kaepernick for exercising his right to protest the killing of unarmed people of color at the hands of police. Maroon 5 should not help the NFL boost their ratings and not perform, just like their pop contemporaries have done.

One of the main criticisms people say about signers for this petition is that “we don’t watch football” — that we’re outsiders. I don’t know about everyone else, but I can personally tell you I’ve watched nearly every Super Bowl over the last 20 seasons, even the halftime shows. Many of them I’ve enjoyed. Some of them I looked forward to more than the game itself — that was until the NFL owners banned Kaepernick from the league.

Here's why:

By the time the year 2016 rolled around, we saw many stories of unarmed people of color dying by the hands of police. There’s too many to name, like Philando Castille, Alton Sterling, Eric Garner, Mike Brown, and Trayvon Martin — and those are just a few names that made national headlines.

Personally, the one that affected me the most was Terence Crutcher, simply because I knew his late brother Joey, a phenomenal keyboardist that I played with at a church in Tulsa, OK in the mid 2000s while I was in college. Joey was like a musical mentor to me, and to see his brother get gunned down like that while putting his hands up was a feeling I’ll never forget.

We see these stories, and then watch in anger, as their killers —the cops — would go away scot-free. No charges. Imagine if you personally knew someone that you cared about. Really, think of someone. Then you find out the person was murdered. Then you saw that their killer was free because that person was protected by a system. Would you be upset? Would you wonder why things are this way? You’ll then realize this was nothing new — things have been this way for decades — even for centuries.

If you are a person of color, or someone who really cares about equal justice, seeing these unarmed people of color get murdered, only for their murderers to get off, would make you feel helpless & anger at the same time. You’re like: “something really needs to be done about this”.

It is with this backdrop that Kaepernick decided to first sit, and then took a knee (out of respect of the military) during the National Anthem.

His exact words were — “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder”.

Those words and the method he chose to protest tore into the very fabric of this American society. From that day on, he had immediate, loyal supporters, and he also had immediate, loyal haters. (I'm a loyal supporter -- hopefully you are, too).

Colin Kaepernick protested due to a grave injustice. The NFL owners piled on that injustice by banning him for his protest. So now we have 2 injustices happening at the same time.

We believe it was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who we all love to quote, that said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.

The NFL "survived" the 10% drop in ratings last season from the so-called kneeling controversy. They even made record profit due to their TV deals. The owners felt they "dodged a bullet" and can move on to next season, knowing everything will eventually get back to normal.

But Kaepernick still remained unsigned.

——

If the NFL thought this would all blow over, then they were sadly mistaken. It was reported that Jay-Z turned down the chance to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. As a matter of fact, he said it himself in the song “Apes***” saying: “I said no to the Super Bowl: you need me, I don't need you. Every night we in the endzone, tell the NFL we in stadiums too”.

It then got reported that Rihanna turned down a chance to perform at the Super Bowl, in solidarity with Kaepernick.

Then Amy Schumer made the best quote of all asking, “I wonder why more white players aren’t kneeling.” She also revealed on Instagram that she told her reps to not look for any commercial opportunities with the NFL during the Super Bowl, and responded to the Rihanna report by asking Maroon 5 to step down from the upcoming Super Bowl Halftime show.

We simply piggybacked on these reports and created a new petition on change.org asking for Maroon 5 to step down.

So, as we stand here today, with nearly 70,000 signatures and counting, we ask Maroon 5 to do the right thing and not help the NFL with their ratings. How does Maroon 5, or any other major pop artist, help the NFL's ratings?

Back in the late 1960's to the early 1990's, Super Bowl halftime shows were very wholesome & didn't have a major pop artist perform their biggest songs. However, the halftime shows were not in tune with "current mainstream culture". The final straw came in 1992 when a show called In Living Color single-handedly dropped the Super Bowl halftime show's ratings by 22% by showing a live special episode on another channel at the exact same time. The NFL countered the very next year in 1993 by asking Michael Jackson to perform during the Super Bowl. The ratings for that halftime show were BIGGER than the game itself (for the first time ever), and directly started the trend of pop stars performing during the halftime show. SO THE NFL NEEDS THESE ARTISTS FOR RATINGS.

Any artist or group that believes in racial justice, freedom of expression, or what Kaepernick took a knee for — to protest the killing of unarmed black and brown people at the hands of police while they walk free -- should not perform during the Super Bowl halftime show, just like what Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Amy Schumer did.

Maroon 5, if you believe what Colin Kaepernick took a knee for, then don’t help the NFL at all. This goes to Cardi B as well, since she's a featured artist on one of the biggest records of the year (Girls Like You). You’re a great group. To its lead singer, Adam Levine, you’ve taken many stands before in the name of equality. You have been a strong supporter of same sex marriages and LGBTQ rights. Your band even changed the location of a show because the venue supported anti-gay marriage laws.

So let’s do this again — this time on the so-called “game’s biggest stage”. Because until the NFL does right by Colin Kaepernick, that NFL Super Bowl halftime stage will forever be tainted.

So Maroon 5, what is it going to be? Time to make a choice.

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