Being a massive sports fan and self-proclaimed metalhead, when I saw next year’s Super Bowl is in Santa Clara at the home of the San Francisco 49ers, only one band popped into my mind that is absolutely deserving of performing at the next Super Bowl halftime show. 

That band, of course, is San Francisco-area heavy metal titans Metallica. While technically being formed in Los Angeles in 1981, the band’s members are all from the Bay Area and are proud of their roots.  

Being the biggest of the “Big Four” thrash metal bands of their time, with hits like “Enter Sandman,” “Master of Puppets” and “One,” Metallica has absolutely dominated the global musical landscape, selling out football and soccer stadiums worldwide. 

While one would think their popularity has faded like their contemporaries on the metal scene, they still continue to sell out stadiums and break attendance records, like the sell-out record at So-Fi Stadium in Los Angeles that was previously set by Taylor Swift. 

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If you can sell out a stadium more than the cultural phenomenon that is Taylor Swift this late in your career, you’re more relevant than ever. If you want to see what a Metallica live show is like, I strongly encourage you to watch their performance in Moscow in 1991. 

While it’s not 1991, and communism was destroyed by Metallica’s performance that day (history teachers won’t tell you this in school), this four-piece band still brings their fastball to this day, even as the members get older. 

Now, here’s where I become the old man yelling at the cloud. Something that has really perturbed me is that all of these rock bands get their music played at sporting events, yet the last time a rock band performed on their own at a Super Bowl was The Who back in 2009. 

While “Won’t Get Fooled Again” will fire up anyone with a pulse, the NFL isn’t fooling anyone by snubbing bands like Metallica, AC/DC and the Foo Fighters from performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. 

Despite all the hype the Kendrick Lamar performance received beforehand, his performance was incredibly underwhelming. In my opinion, even if Drake got put to shame on global television and thinks the Super Bowl needs a halftime show to bring some high energy. 

Who better to shake things up than the kings of thrash metal in their hometown? Metallica has accomplished everything from selling platinum records that defined a generation of listeners to being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

There is no better icing on the cake of their legendary careers than to perform at the Super Bowl. They have plenty of advocates within the NFL to get them to perform, as Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell is an avid Metallica fan himself. 

Now, here’s my proposed setlist for the band that night: they open the show, with “For Whom The Bell Tolls” to get the crowd and audience back home pumping their fist like it’s going out of style. They then segway into “Creeping Death” to get the heads banging and the whiplash in your neck jump-started. 

Keep in mind that they probably only have 20 minutes to perform, so they should go straight into a brief medley of “Master of Puppets” and “One” before they deliver the final knockout blow of “Enter Sandman.” 

If this personally doesn’t get your testosterone flowing throughout a hopefully tight Super Bowl next year, I will begin to personally question your existence. 

The NFL needs to do the right thing and have Metallica perform the Super Bowl in San Francisco next year. Otherwise, they will experience no remorse from metalheads who are football fans. 

Mikalofsky can be reached at mikaloee7353@uwec.edu.