My vote: Super Bowl halftime show should go to Foo Fighters

1997 was a special year for yours truly. I didn’t know it at the time, but the Denver Broncos and John Elway were on their way to winning their first of two Super Bowls. And of just-as-large significance to me, I heard “My Hero” by the Foo Fighters for the first time.

They immediately became my favorite band, and have unapologetically remained in that status ever since.

I saw the Foo Fighters in concert for the first time this past summer (I can’t believe it took me 14 years), and it was hands-down the best live music experience of my life. They were sharp. Their energy was infectious. And it wasn’t a manufactured sharpness — they were just amazingly good at what they do. They fed the crowd and fed off the crowd and, even though it was but one stop in the Arizona desert for them, they legitimately left my friend and me believing that the night was as special to them as it was for us. That’s a hard phenomenon to recreate for 50+ stops on a year-long tour.

The Foo Fighters won five Grammy’s last night, celebrated their first #1 record this year, and are on top of the rock and roll landscape.

The NFL should jump on them to play on the world’s biggest stage next year, Super Bowl XLVII.

Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters perform at the 2012 Grammy's (USA Today photo)

Think about it: the NFL is struggling to find a halftime show that works. Ever since the wardrobe malfunction, they’ve been pegging either cookie-cutter pop artists or artists to which the current generation can’t relate (or, this year, both). Madonna was edgy in the 90’s, but her performance two Sundays ago was safe, stale, and stolen by yet another slip-up by side-artist M.I.A.

The Foo Fighters are consummate professionals. They take their craft — the art of a live rock and roll show — very seriously, and they’ve honed it to near perfection. They’re edgy enough for the younger generation, poppy enough for the mainstream crowd with hits like “Learn to Fly” and “Best of You,” and they’re on top of the music landscape right now.

And they rock. They know how to put on a show. No stage is too big for them.

“It’s not about being perfect,” Grohl said during the GRAMMY’s last night. “It’s not about sounding absolutely correct. It’s not about what goes on in a computer. It’s about what goes on in here and what goes on in here,” he said, pointing to his head and his heart.

In my opinion, that’s exactly what the NFL needs. A dose of live, real rock and roll. The NFL needs the Foo Fighters to remind us what the Super Bowl halftime show should be.

And since I’ll be watching Tim Tebow do his Super Bowl thing in between, it’d make for the best television of this young Broncos/Foo fan’s life.