Beyonce may have lit up the stage Sunday night during the halftime show at the Super Bowl in New Orleans, but she wasn’t responsible for the lights going out during a 34-minute power outage, according to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
The NFL curiously did not release a statement at any time during or after the delay, which occurred shortly after Beyonce’s performance. The Ravens opened up the second half of the game with a kickoff return for a touchdown before half of the lights at the New Orleans Superdome went out.
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“There’s one other point that I’ve seen a little speculation about – there’s no indication at all that this was caused by the halftime show. Absolutely none,” Goodell said. “I know that’s been out there, to say that Beyonce’s halftime show had something to do with it; that is not the case from anything that we have at this point.”
He had a member of the Superdome’s power company on hand with him, who said there was actually less power being used during her performance than up to that point because it was running on generators, and not using the Superdome’s power.
“The halftime show, as the Commissioner said, was running on a 100 percent generated power, which means it was not our grid at all. In fact, during the halftime show, we had a drop in power,” the executive said.
After the delay, the 49ers scored the next 17 points of the game, but the The Ravens held on for a 34-31 victory. It was the tenth Super Bowl to be played in New Orleans, and the seventh at the Superdome and Goodell said the incident won’t have an effect on the city getting future Super Bowls.