NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the active rape allegation against rapper Jay-Z won’t impact the league’s relationship with Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by rapper.
Jay-Z, aka Shawn Carter, was accused in a civil lawsuit of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000 with Sean “Diddy” Combs. During a press conference in Irving, Texas on Wednesday, Goodell said the league’s relationship with Carter and Roc Nation “is not changing… including our preparations for the next Super Bowl.”
“We are aware of the civil allegations and Jay Z’s really strong response to that,” Goodell said. “We know obviously that litigation is happening. But from our standpoint our relationship is not changing with them, including our preparations for the next Super Bowl.”
Kendrick Lamar is scheduled to perform at the 2025 Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime show scheduled for Feb. 9, 2025, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. The show is not only produced Roc Nation, but the company is also the strategic entertainment advisor of the live performance.
Godell continued, “I think they’re getting incredibly comfortable with not just the Super Bowl but other events that they have advised us on and helped us with. They’ve been helpful in the social justice area to us on many occasions. They’ve been great partners that have provided a lot of value to us.”
Carter immediately refuted the claims made by attorney Tony Buzbee, who added the mogul’s name to a previously filed lawsuit, and has since filed an affidavit claiming that Buzbee tried to coerce an individual to link an unrelated sex trafficking case to Combs. Carter’s legal team also filed a motion to dismiss the suit, requesting for the Jane Doe from the initial lawsuit to reveal her identity so that he can “properly defend himself against this false claim through the legal process in a transparent manner.”
