While you watched Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday, you undoubtedly saw the “NFL Timeline” commercial among all the other 30- and 60-second ads with talking babies, explosions, lewd women, and beer, Beer, BEER! We thought it was quite entertaining in it’s fictionally historic depiction of the evolution of the NFL and it’s equipment and players. What we enjoyed most were the two segments which showed our Green Bay Packers, starting with the scenes above and below of the team in the 1930s and 1940s. Tony Canadeo (No. 3) runs back a kickoff.
The Green Bay “City Stadium” crowd cheers on the team.
Canadeo’s helmet morphs from leather into the hard plastic shell.
A couple of good shots from this segment as Canadeo runs into some vintage Philadelphia players. Tony Canadeo, started his career in 1941. We do like the stadium setting in the background.
After a bit of the Rams in the “1950s,” we get transported back to Green Bay in the “1960’s” — very appropriately — for some classic action with the visiting Chicago Bears. “Gale Sayers” makes a long scoring run (unfortunately) against Lombardi’s Packers in Lambeau Field.
The only thing we’re wondering is how Jim Taylor (No. 31) is on the field to make an attempted tackle — with a flagrant face mask violation (below) thrown in for good measure.
Coach Lombardi isn’t too pleased with the Sayers run, which is so long that it goes on right into the “1970’s” (below).
This shot is only put up here to show how they went from the “1960’s” into the “1970’s” and “1980’s,” with the Lambeau Field background morphing into Denver’s Mile High Stadium.
We’re not sure why the commercial ends with Devin Hester finishing off the kickoff runback, since the Bears get two segments in a row. Anyway, we’re left at Chicago’s Soldier Field as the ad ends, encouraging us to visit NFL.com/Evolution.
Overall, we really liked the ad and it’s concept of celebrating the NFL’s history.
