Normally, Super Bowl ads are a way to get non-football fans to watch the biggest game of the year. Normally, the advertisements are funny and supposed to warm people’s hearts.

Normally, millions of dollars are spent to have an advertisement in the Super Bowl as well as for resources and the production of these ads, and this year is no exception.

This past year is nowhere near normal in the sports world and beyond. There were two 3-1 improbable comebacks by basketball’s Cleveland Cavaliers and baseball’s Chicago Cubs along with great last second drives by the Clemson Tigers and the Villanova Wildcats in college sports.

There was also an election that put an unlikely businessman in the oval, meshing the two worlds together.

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Super Bowl LI ads were anything but normal when some of the ads turned political. There were many ads aimed at criticizing President Donald Trump’s recent actions against immigrants for his ban.

The advertisements from Anheuser Busch, AirBNB, and 84 Lumber drew the most attention and criticism from viewers.

Anheuser Busch, the famous beer company, and 84 Lumber, a construction group, highlighted immigration coming to the United States and the pain and suffering the people went through in order to come to America.

The beer company also displayed what could have been if there was an immigration ban: one of the co-owners of one of the largest beer companies would never have been in the U.S.

84 Lumber showed the desperate situations millions of Latin Americans suffer and why they come to America.

AirBNB took a shot at the diversity of America beyond race, looking at religion and sexual orientation and how special we are to live in such a diverse country.

Coca Cola did something similar by singing “America the Beautiful” in many languages to show how we are all unique.

The car companies Ford and Audi spoke of the equality of women and how we need to teach them they are equal and not less to their male counterparts. Ford also had a LGBT flag in their commercial.

Another slight to Trump was “It’s a 10” hair products, who made fun of the president’s infamous hair and how Americans are stuck with it for the next four years.

Performances

Even the performer at halftime Lady Gaga spoke of promoting unity in a country that is divided. The “America the Beautiful” singers from the Broadway musical Hamilton Phillipa Soo, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Jasmine Cephas Jones added sisterhood to the song.

There is really no denying it; Super Bowl LI was politically charged, adding in one more thing that made this game unique.

After the last snap

Just because Super Bowl Sunday is over does not mean the politics with football is over.

After the controversial commercial, Trump supporters have been calling for a boycott of these companies that criticized the actions of the president on this large of a stage.

Now that the New England Patriots won the Lombardi Trophy, the question shifts to which players may or may not go to the White House.

Tight end Martellus Bennett, who has consistently been a political advocate, has already declared that he will not go the White House.

This has been the pattern in America’s society of using sports and the platform it has to send a message beyond X’s and O’s, and the momentum is just starting.