Bengals Kicker Evan McPherson Stays on Field to Watch Super Bowl Halftime Show

The Bengals's kicker said during the week that he would be opting out of any locker room meetings to get the best seat in the house for the halftime show.

Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem joined forces to deliver a Super Bowl halftime performance for the ages on Sunday, and one player snuck out to snag the best seat in the house: Bengals kicker Evan McPherson.

The rookie opted out of Cincinnati's halftime meetings to stay on the field and watch the concert, likely earning the envy of every other player who was required to in the locker room.

McPherson actually stated his intentions to pull off this escape act in the days leading up to the game, both in media appearances on the Pardon My Take podcast and in an interview with TMZ. As he explained it, specialists don't really participate much in meetings anyway, so why not use the time to take in a once-in-a-lifetime show?

“Normally, we go into the locker room and then just turn around and come right back out and warm up," McPherson said to TMZ. "I don’t know if they’re gonna force us in the locker room (and say), ‘You can’t stay out and watch anything.’ I’ll be super bummed if we can’t at least watch it on a TV or something. I hope I get to watch it, I hope I get to be out there and experience it.”

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NICK SELBE

Nick Selbe is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about baseball and college sports. Before joining SI in March 2020 as a breaking/trending news writer, he worked for MLB Advanced Media, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report. Selbe received a bachelor's in communication from the University of Southern California.