Ad of the Day: Football Cops

Manning Brothers have a future in law enforcement as DirecTV’S 'Football Cops'

Tim Nudd

If the NFL season gets canceled this fall, at least Peyton and Eli Manning can fall back on their acting careers. Check out the trailer below for Football Cops, a fictional show from DirecTV and ad agency Deutsch New York (along with director Bryan Buckley), in which the Mannings play police buddies and former pro football players who keep criminals in line by chucking black footballs at them—which turns out to be a good way to impale them, or at least knock over their martinis. Peyton Manning got pretty stale as an advertising pitchman quite a few years ago, but here, with his mustache and aviator sunglasses, he looks enough unlike himself to be palatable. The deadpan, hangdog Eli is the funnier of the two, anyway, and the Fu Manchu mustache suits him perfectly. The endless football puns are actually somewhat funny, as is the stupidity of the action sequences, and Buckley makes it all look great—better than most of prime time, actually. The video is designed to obliquely promote DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket, but with a wink toward the lockout that might force fans to watch reruns of cop shows instead of their favorite teams this year. They might want to start production on this show, too, just in case.