‘Chad’ and ‘Brad’ star in NFL’s divisive Super Bowl flag football commercial
The NFL’s Super Bowl commercial promoting flag football for high school girls didn’t sit well with everyone who saw it during Sunday’s game.
The commercial was intended as a “fun, inspiring tribute to the evolution of girls high school sports and the momentum that girls flag football is gaining as an official high school varsity sport throughout the country,” according to NFLFlag.com.
Set in 1985, the commercial showed a high school jock named Chad belittling a new female student wearing a football jersey, telling her, “girls don’t play football.”
“They do where I’m from,” she tells him.
“Get a load of this one,” Chad tells a teammate before throwing a football at the girl, who catches it with one hand.
She throws it back at his buddy and hits him in his “Jimmy Johnson.”
The next scene shows the girl blowing every other girl away in flag football tryouts.
Chad then interrupts and challenges her to take on a huge, no-neck football player wearing a mullet and a T-shirt that says “Brad.”
She outruns him easily.
Those in the know would recognize the names “Chad” and “Brad” from the nicknames Taylor Swift used to criticize angry NFL fans who didn’t like seeing her at football games.
Eagles fans were excited to see the girl football player do a backwards hurdle over Brad — similar to a Saquon Barkley move from this season.
But the commercial riled up other football fans on social media who griped that it was unrealistic.
Others accused the NFL of being “woke” and promoting “DEI” — polices that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
This story was originally published February 9, 2025 at 9:25 PM.
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