NFL Super Bowl LIII commercial sets tone for year-long 100th anniversary celebration

Story courtesy of MSN

No matter how wild things get when the Los Angeles Rams play the New England Patriotsin Super Bowl LII, the game will have a hard time matching the mayhem of the NFL’s Super Bowl commercial this year.

In a 90-second ad kicking off the NFL’s celebration of its 100th season (seven months ahead of schedule), an all-star cast featuring 44 retired and active players turn a fancy ballroom into a football free-for-all that includes:

Terry Bradshaw slinging a football 40 yards across the ballroom and hitting a chandelier.

Tony Gonzalez running full speed into Von Miller, who flips Gonzalez into a four-foot tall cake. (OK, so Miller and Gonzalez were looking on from a safe distance while Hollywood stuntmen handled the cake crash.)

Franco Harris pouncing on a loose fumble and fighting off three men more than half his age. (The real Harris, not a stuntman.)

It is bedlam, and not everything about the black-tie affair was scripted. For example, Marshawn Lynch showed up to tape his part in a black Beast Mode track suit and black beanie.

Tuxedo? No thanks, said Lynch.

And Beast Mode gets things rolling — literally. As NFL commissioner Roger Goodell welcomes guests to the 100th season banquet, Lynch digs a finger into the massive cake, topped by a football, for a taste of frosting. In the process, he knocks the football loose and soon all hell breaks loose during the “100-yard Game.’’

“We designed it to suit the expectations of the Super Bowl,’’ Tim Ellis, the NFL’s Chief Marketing Officer, told USA TODAY Sports.

The commercial will continue to run throughout the NFL’s 100th season — 2019 —and the league also plans to air plenty of the outtakes. But what you won’t even see in the outtakes, but could have on the set:

Bradshaw walked up to a man staring at a TV monitor.

“Are you the director?’’ Bradshaw asked.

“Yes, I am,’’ the man said.

“Are you any good?’’ Bradshaw asked.

“I’m not,’’ the man said.

“Then we’ll get along great,’’ Bradshaw shot back.” I’m no good either.’’

The man behind the monitor was Peter Berg, who directed the commercial and, among other things, Friday Night Lights. He shot most of the NFL’s splashy ad during three days in Los Angeles.

“I knew we could film it, I just didn’t know if they could get all the players here,’’ Berg said. “I just thought the scope was too big, it was too ambitious.’’

But one by one arrived the stars, including Emmitt Smith, who spotted Barry Sanders across the room.

“Barry and I are at the same table?’’ Smith asked. “So I’m going to look at Barry and he’s going to look at me like, ‘You know I got more yards than you? So do you want to get a few more yards and catch up to me?'’’

And so Smith and Sanders took a seat at the football legends table, with the results a mystery until the ad airs during the Super Bowl. Peter O’Reilly, the league’s Senior Vice President of Events, said the commercial sets the tone for the NFL’s year-long celebration of the league’s 100th season.

“It’s really about the fun and the energy that’s around our game, and pulling that through in a way that brings the past players and current players together and celebrates them,’’ O’Reilly said. “..We’re going to look back a lot. But it’s also, how do we drive into the future?”