Legendary NFL quarterback turned fan-favorite NFL broadcaster Terry Bradshaw knows how grueling the journey to the Super Bowl can be, having won four of them. Now, Bradshaw’s “Road to the Super Bowl” is a Frito-Lay and PepsiCo Beverages campaign for the big game and much more loose and fun than the climb to the big dance he was accustomed to in his storied career as a player.
The ad also features Super Bowl champs Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Jerome Bettis, and Victor Cruz. With Bradshaw, the former players in the spot have a combined 10 rings between them.
“I've worked with Jerome Bettis before and it was enjoyable. Eli I've been around, Peyton I've been around. I wasn't filming when Peyton was shooting his spots, he came in the next day. I've worked with Victor before and I've enjoyed him,” Bradshaw said of his commercial castmates. “Just fun. A lot of fun, a lot of laughs.
“Actually, it's pretty hard on the director (Peter Berg). I've worked with him before on Pepsi shoots. He's amazing, this guy. He had great toleration for professional athletes.
“He knows how they function when they're together as a group and he captures that. It's really easy. It's not like shooting a movie where you have to do it over and over and over again. It's like two takes and we're moving on, it's just fun.
“And when we're doing setups we were all sitting around laughing, cutting up, and enjoying ourselves. That's what athletes are, we're just big kids. No matter what our age is. We enjoy shooting commercials, we enjoy each other's company, we enjoy jerking one another's chain and it makes for a good working environment.”
Although he wasn’t on-set with Peyton for the commercial, Bradshaw has noticed the Manning brothers’ uniquely hilarious chemistry get an upgrade since the two began their “Manningcast” during NFL games earlier this year.
“There is a generation gap there. The Mannings are kind of dead-pan funny,” Terry said. “Peyton's really funny and his commercials that he's done, I enjoy watching his commercials. Eli is kind of like... you don't expect any humor from Eli and then you get it and it's kind of like, ‘Oh he's coming out of his shell.’
“Because you don't play football anymore, you don't have to be a quarterback anymore, you don't have to be the leader of a football team, you can just be who you are and have some fun. I enjoyed that. I got to know Eli a little more. Actually, I didn't know him at all. I had been at functions with him but never had worked with him, this is the first time.
“Peyton, I've never worked with him and though we're in this commercial together, and it seems like they just got together and said, ‘Throw Bradshaw on the top of the bus, we don't want to work with him.' That's how I ended up in the chair on top of the bus.”
Jokes aside, the Hall of Fame quarterback had some interesting thoughts on what to expect of Chicago Bears soon-to-be sophomore QB Justin Fields after the Bears botched the first year of his development this season.
“Listen, there are very few Joe Burrows and Justin Herberts out [there], very few that can come on and do what they have done,” Terry said. “We saw the struggles in Trevor Lawrence... These [young] quarterbacks, me included when I came out, it's a whole new world, the NFL.
“If they are going to commit to him, they have to put an offense in that he can flourish in. The old day of the drop back and read coverages and throw the football from the pocket, those days are slowly going away.
“We still have it a little bit, but Burrow can run, Herbert can run; but the key is to be able to have patience in the pocket, go to your reads and then go. It'll be interesting to see how he develops.
“I've said this so many times till I'm actually blue in the face, if you don't put people around him that will allow him to showcase his talents, he will not be successful. You've got to have people.
“You got to have a tight end, you've got to be able to run it, you got to have wide receivers in today's game. You've got to be able to have people that can run routes and catch the football on offense and once you do that, then you can evaluate where you are at the quarterback position.
“Until that happens, they struggle. They get hit, they fumble, they throw an interception, they panic, they don't have time and it just can really get ugly. We'll see.”
Bradshaw saw enough potential from Fields in his rookie season to believe that he can be a successful franchise quarterback if the offense around him is improved.
“He did enough good things for sure,” Terry Said. “He's got a nice arm, he's got good velocity, he can throw it deep. He'll just get better. Look, when you come out of Ohio State, first of all, let's say this, you're talking about four or five star recruits at every position pretty much and you're going to dominate throughout the Big 10 and you're going to look fantastic. You're going to throw for 30 or 40 touchdowns and everybody is going to ooh and aah over you.
“Then, you're going to go to a bad football team and it's not going to be like that. So when he got to Chicago, learned how to play quarterback and [wasn’t] able to sit back there and do whatever he had [before] –– one play action read, go to the post, play action, go to the corner, a screen, a bubble screen –– it's a whole new football game. He's really got a big learning curve ahead of him right now and it's the job of the offensive staff of the Bears to put him in a position to be successful as they graduate him.”
So who does Bradshaw like on Sunday? Will it be the Hollywood ending for LA Rams veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford many are dreaming of? Will slick and sneaky Joe Burrow put on a show? Or will the Rams D line be too much for him?
“We'll see. I think Burrow faced a really good D line in Kansas City,” Terry said. “Kansas City had that game won and just played horrible in the second half, but look, he got sacked nine times against Tennessee and they won.
“He's shown to be very resilient. He's also shown the ability to come back from unbelievable odds. But the script is written for the Rams. They went all-in on winning the Super Bowl, now they've got it at home. If they're going to win the Super Bowl, they're going to win it this year.”
So Rams?
“Yes,” Terry confirmed. “It’s just that I know so many of those guys. ... I know more of them. I don’t know anybody with Cincinnati, not a soul, not one. So it’s easy for me to pick the Rams just based on that.”
To bring the on-screen entertainment to life, Frito-Lay is hosting “Calle de Crunch,” an in-person experience at LA Live on the days leading up to Super Bowl LVI. “Frito-Lay Super Bowl LVI’s Footprint” will feature four different East LA-inspired footprints for fans to experience that bring a variety of Frito-Lay brand identities to life like Cheetos, Doritos, Lay’s and Tostitos.
