The NFL knows how to make money when it comes to football. What the league doesn't seem to know is how to entertain the masses at halftime with musical talent when the games are played outside the United States. Why, for instance, would the league choose to have a non-Australian artist do halftime at the first regular season game in Australia?
Instead, the NFL has set up three brothers from New Jersey, the Jonas Brothers, to play. This is basically the equivalent of the early years of the Super Bowl when the halftime entertainment was often Up with People. The Jonas Brothers have some rock elements, but are mostly pop fluff.
The brothers are going to make money; maybe their popularity will draw more people to screens in the US (though maybe not, and that's the real risk), but the NFL missed on a great opportunity to allow Australian entertainment to perform at a game on that continent.
NFL's decision to have the Jonas Brothers perform at halftime of Rams and 49ers is a poor one
In essence, the league is trying to make a truly American event even more American while it is being played 10 hours ahead on the other side of the world. So much for honoring those citizens where the game is happening.
The list of high-end performers that the league could have asked to perform is nearly limitless, and arguably many are better than the Jonas Brothers. Perhaps the brothers chose to do the gig at a discount because lately their album sales have been weak and they need the attention.
Their latest record was Welcome from Your Hometown, ironic in relation to playing at a football game in Australia. The album sold about 40,000 units. That is, well...atrocious for a band supposedly popular enough to carry the halftime show of the first real football game in the Land of Oz.
So, who should the NFL have chosen, or at least asked (if they didn't)? Here are three suggestions.
Tame Impala
Kevin Parker's music project is currently popular and creates the kind of music that fans of lots of different genres would love. Plus, Joe Keery, who makes his own excellent music, has appeared in the Tame Impala video for "Loser" and rose to fame on Stranger Things, and could be a guest.
Parker knows how to put on a great live show, too, and stilling it down to 13 minutes or so of an NFL game shouldn't be difficult.
AC/DC
Obviously, this one would be a winner. The problem here might have been that the Australian hard rock gods are currently on tour in North America. The logistics of having them play on September 10 in Melbourne were likely impossible.
That is truly too bad because AC/DC would be the musical artist to perform at the first NFL game in Australia. Heck, maybe they should just play halftime of the Super Bowl instead.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
This one is more of a dream than anything that would be a reality. Cave and the Seeds are epic live, but their music doesn't exactly lend itself to a mass football audience. The NFL probably doesn't have the guts to allow this kind of music at such an important game.
The game itself will be held at Melbourne Park on Friday, September 11 at 10:35 am AEST (or if you live in the Eastern Time Zone of the United States, on Thursday, September 10 at 8:35 pm. The San Francisco 49ers will take on NFC West rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, in the game.
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