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The NFL’s Star-Studded Super Bowl Commercial Will Lead a Push for Girls Flag Football (Exclusive)

alex weprin
·5-min read

The National Football League will use its biggest platform of the year to serve as a high-profile push for girls flag football, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

During each year’s Super Bowl, the league reserves a couple of minutes of TV time for its own brand campaign, celebrating the players and causes most important to the league. NFL CMO Tim Ellis tells THR in an interview that the league uses the spot to “transcend the game” and “create a big, bold, inspiring piece of creative that serves as a force for good from the NFL.”

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For Super Bowl LIX this year, the league’s star-packed two-minute commercial uses a comedic tone to spotlight on girls flag football, as part of the NFL’s effort to grow the sport around the world. The spot is a riff on classic high school comedies, with NFL veteran and ESPN host Pat McAfee joined by current and former NFL stars Justin Jefferson, Marshawn Lynch and Myles Garrett, as well as a team of some of the best female flag football players in the world.

“We [NFL players] have fun playing flag just because it kind of reminds us of being a kid, having fun, creating those skillful plays, doing those double laterals,” Jefferson says of the ad. “It’s competitive, one, and two, it reminds us of when it all started for us just being a kid in the backyard and being excited to play the game of football.”

The spot ends with a message to “Leave the past behind” and a call to “make girls flag football a varsity sport in all 50 states.”

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“This is our ad to really inspire people to think differently about the NFL, to think differently about football,” Ellis says. “This particular ad is a tribute to the evolution of girls high school sports and to the momentum of girls flag football and the gains it has been making as an official high school varsity sport. For us, it’s all about momentum.”

While the NFL is guaranteed to be the big winner on Super Bowl Sunday, the league nonetheless approaches its annual commercial seriously. The big game, after all, is the biggest advertising platform in the world, and the league wants to deliver something that can stand out amid a sea of stars and creative ad spots.

“There’s always a desire and need to create something highly entertaining for the Super Bowl. Even if you’re the NFL, people want to be entertained,” Ellis says. “And you’re essentially competing with some of the most creative advertising in the world during that day. So in order to cut through and get your message across, you have to do something highly entertaining.”

The NFL once again worked with 72AndSunny on the spot, which was directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Lone Survivor).

“Pete’s not just great as a director, he’s great working with players, he’s great with action, he’s great with sports,” Ellis says. He just does work that really stands out and helps us be bigger and more exciting.”

“We had so much fun making this commercial and I am so proud of how it turned out,” Berg adds. “Women’s Flag Football deserves more attention and I’m glad we are able to tell this story.”

And the casting choices were key too. The NFL always likes to feature players, both active and retired (it calls the strategy “helmets off,” a nod to letting the players stand out outside their work on the field), though McAfee — a former kicker for the Indianapolis Colts — has become a cultural force on his own, with his daily show garnering millions of viewers across ESPN, YouTube and TikTok.

“He has a big following, and we just thought it would be fun to incorporate him into this as well,” Ellis says of McAfee’s involvement. “As part of our helmets off strategy, we always want to have the athletes in the forefront of everything that we do. And when we have a Super Bowl [ad], it’s important for us to find interesting ways to incorporate them into the drama, into the message.”

And the message, about the league’s interest in growing flag football, is also a key strategic priority for the NFL. On Feb. 3, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell noted in his annual Super Bowl press conference that flag football will be an event at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and he made news by revealing that the NFL is contemplating launching its own pro flag football leagues, for both men and women.

“Suddenly, you begin to see some of the best athletes in the world emerging and wanting to play the game, and that begins to offer up that opportunity to then create professional leagues,” Ellis says. “So when Commissioner Goodell talks about us launching a professional league for men’s and women’s flag football, all the things that we’re doing on the grassroots level, as well as at the high school and collegiate levels and then on the Olympic level, all become much more important and more relevant in terms of our overall goal.”

“Over the past 7 years, 72andSunny and the NFL have focused on carving out new points of entry into football,” says Glenn Cole, the co-founder of 72andSunny. “Women’s flag football has been a key part of those efforts. From our 2023 Emmy-winning Super Bowl spot, ‘Run With It,’ to working behind the scenes with IFAF, USOC, and IOC to include flag football as an Olympic Sport in the 2028 Olympics, we continue to champion the future of the sport. Creatively, this year’s Super Bowl ad humorously illustrates how far the sport has come. Strategically, it’s about rallying the country to make girls flag football a varsity sport in all 50 states. This isn’t just about football — it’s about creating opportunities for the next generation of athletes and ensuring football’s future is as limitless as the players who love it.”

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