Patrick Mahomes, four-time Pro Bowler, two-time All-Pro, and Super Bowl 54 MVP cannot be a spokesman for alcoholic beverages. NFL rules prohibit active players from pitching booze.
While there’s plenty of crossover between gridiron and brewery when it comes to using retired players and coaches for ads or using rare Browns wins to douse a city in light beer, you won’t see an active player talking up his favorite IPA in exchange for cash.
To further complicate matters, there’s only one official beer (and hard seltzer) sponsor for the entire league. That’s Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light, which we’ll all be starkly reminded off once commercial breaks come back to haunt our Sunday afternoons this fall.
This all left Coors Light in a tough spot. The NFL’s former official beer wanted to make advertisements with Mahomes, but couldn’t have him pitching their brew on camera. Fortunately, there’s a compromise there — and it’s for a good cause:
Introducing The Coors Light. Get your The Coors Light at https://t.co/i6C9th3Uyw 🔦🏔 pic.twitter.com/zkmJ88XFcF
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) July 13, 2022
Coors Light shifted to the flashlight business. The big, knock-a-rabid-bat-from-the-sky Maglite types typically reserved for night watchmen. The Colorado arm of Molson Coors appears to have found an untapped market of Kansas City Chiefs fans at risk of rolling blackouts, because less than four hours after Mahomes’ ad went live their TheCoorsLight.com website listed the electric torch as out of stock:
Unfortunately, the light sold by Coors is the mini version of the t-ball bat Mahomes wields in his commercial. Since all proceeds go to the quarterback’s 15 and the Mahomies Foundation — a foundation that supports initiatives that focus on health, wellness, communities in need of resources and other charitable causes — it’s hard to argue anyone will be too upset with their purchase.