Bears quarterback Justin Fields is putting his off-the-field talents on display in a humorous commercial campaign to kick off the NFL season.
Playfully leaning into meme and pop culture about the NFL being scripted, Fields and other pro football stars sit around a table brainstorming outrageous storylines for the upcoming season. The campaign entitled, "You Can't Make This Stuff Up," also includes actor Keegan-Michael Key and NFL players Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Jason Kelce, Kirk Cousins, DK Metcalf, Dexter Lawrence, Ja'Marr Chase and Jalen Ramsey. The Kelces' mom, Donna Kelce, is also featured.
"It was cool to get to be a part of that. I'm honored that the NFL thought to include me and some of the other stars in the league for this campaign and being able to work with Keegan as well was also pretty cool."
Set to a backdrop of the "NFL 104th season table read," "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" stars Key, a long-time Detroit Lions fan, as the director. The comedian opens with the better-than-fiction stories from last year—the Kelce brothers in the Super Bowl LVII, Mr. Irrelevant saving the Bay and a halftime baby announcement—that were all ratings gold.
But Key's table read quickly gets out of hand, as the cast of star players reel off their own ideas and plot twists for the '23 season. In the two spots, Fields suggests outlawing sacks and transforming his legs into actual wheels; Metcalf volunteers to do no-handed, abs-only catch; some players agree the Mahomes "character" should get struck from the script; Mama Kelce dreams up a romantic storyline with Jimmy Garoppolo; and a shirtless Cousins wants to see a shirts vs skins game. The ideas for this season's script become more and more outrageous by the second. With jokes by the dozen, "You Can't Make This Stuff Up," produced by 72andSunny, aims to entertain fans everywhere and hype them up for what is to come in the 104th NFL season.
"Our goal was to make this campaign tongue-in-cheek, humorous and clever in the way we tapped into popular memes and cultural conversations about the league and its incredible real-life storylines that are better than anything you could make up," said Tim Ellis, the NFL's Chief Marketing Officer. "We really wanted to have fun with this and not take ourselves too seriously. We hope fans get a kick out of the campaign and are sitting on the edge of their seats to see what spectacles unfold this season."
In anticipation of the narratives that will happen this year, "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" is the league's first campaign for the start of the season that will continue throughout the season. With a total of 16 pieces of content, the campaign will be timed to key moments throughout the year, such as Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas and international games.
"You Can't Make This Stuff Up" will debut in this week's Thursday Night Football preseason game on Amazon Prime Video, as the Philadelphia Eagles host the Indianapolis Colts. The campaign will run on TV, digital and social.
The 2023 season starts on Thursday, Sept. 7, with NFL Kickoff Weekend presented by YouTube TV. The story begins with the Detroit Lions at the Kansas City Chiefs at 6 p.m. (CT) on NBC.
