Tom Brady may have retired from the NFL, but he’s not done making headlines, and he’s certainly not done making us laugh. In Pepsi‘s latest “Unretirement” ad spot, Brady shares the screen with some of the league’s greatest Hall of Famers in a hilarious look at life after hanging up the helmet.
Brady’s cameo in the commercial is nothing short of legendary. Lounging poolside with former Patriots teammate Julian Edelman, Brady delivers the punchline of the century. “Unretirement?” he quips, raising an eyebrow. “Who’d be dumb enough to do that?” Brady’s smirk is the stuff of viral meme gold, a nod to his own “unretirement” ahead of the 2022 NFL season.
But the real stars of the show aren’t just the chips and Pepsi they’re munching on-four veteran players are the ones considering their own epic “unretirement.” The lineup? Dan Marino, Emmitt Smith, Randy Moss, and Jerry Rice. As they gather to watch the Dolphins play the Patriots, Smith admits how much he misses playing, and Marino suggests they get back in the game – all while they sip their Pepsi, of course.
What follows is a dream sequence set to the tune of Eminem‘s “Without Me,” in which the four players make their grand NFL return. The fans are thrilled, and why wouldn’t they be? These legends’ stats speak for themselves. Marino, the former Dolphin, was the first NFL player to throw for 60,000 career passing yards. Emmitt Smith of Cowboys fame is the NFL‘s all-time leading rusher. Randy Moss holds the record for receiving touchdowns in a single season, and Jerry Rice is the league’s all-time touchdown leader.
Tom Brady’s Pepsi commercial featuring Dan Marino, Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith and Randy Moss breaks the internet
Unretirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be for the old-timers. Smith takes a nap on the bench, Rice asks for a senior discount at the snack vendor, and Marino reaches for his reading glasses to see his play-call wristband. Plus, keeping up with young guns like Josh Allen proves to be a Herculean task. In the end, they decide to keep watching the game from the comfort of their couches.
Jerry Rice, appearing in the commercial, found himself almost itching to unretire for real. “To put that [uniform] back on, I feel like I had 20 or 30 plays in me and that I could get back out on that football field and try to be invincible,” he revealed. Emmitt Smith shared the sentiment. “When he put that #22 on, man, he said, ‘Hey, let’s go, you know what I’m saying?'” Rice continued.
It’s a feeling that
Tom Brady knows all too well. When the legendary quarterback retired in 2022, it took him just 40 days to reverse his decision. After an astonishing 23 seasons, during which he became the oldest starting quarterback in NFL history, Brady finally hung up his helmet for good.
The Frito-Lay and Pepsi ad isn’t the first time Brady has playfully teased his unretirement. In a 2023 ad for Hertz, he took a hilarious jab at his own brief retirement. The commercial wraps up with Brady shouting, “I’m not leaving!” through a megaphone.
Now that he’s got some free time on his hands, Brady is relishing the opportunity to let loose and have some fun with his comedic commercials. “I think so much of life is not taking ourselves too seriously,” Brady shared. “So having fun in an ad or having fun in anything, taking ourselves less seriously is probably a good thing for all of us.”
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