Just who is the face of the NFL? Simon Veness ponders the most popular stars in the game.
US-based British sportswriter offers a gridiron popularity poser
If I was to ask you what the biggest sport in America is, you probably wouldn't have to think too long.
I'd happily accept either 'football' or 'the NFL' as the right answer, and you're not going to get many brownie points for stating the obvious.
The National Football League is the 600lb gorilla in the sporting room; the colossus, the Goliath and the all-consuming passion of much of America. Allied to the college game, football is the undisputed No 1 compared to any of the other major sports.
Indeed, in many respects you could lump baseball, basketball and ice-hockey together and still not approach the marketing muscle and media gargantuousness (yes, it does need a big word all of its own) that the gridiron game brings to bear these days.
The Super Bowl is the key, of course, a pinnacle of achievement that makes even the Olympics seem ho-hum and the World Series seem, well, kind of small worldly. It is huge in a way no other sport has managed in the modern era, and you would probably have to go back to the hey-day of Muhammad Ali and the world heavyweight championship to find anything comparable.
By the modern era, by the way, I mean the last 20 years or so when we have had dedicated, 24-hour sports channels whose appetite for news, gossip and the cult of sporting 'celebrity' is almost insatiable; a media monster that requires constant feeding and churns out inspiration and, ahem, defecation in roughly equal proportions.
What today's TV might have made of Ali in all his 1960s pomp boggles the mind. The talking heads would have been in apoplexy trying to get their heads round his mixture of bombast and brilliance, the pretty boy who backed up every outrageous syllable with a devastating charm, wit - and right hook.
But that's just by the by. Back in the real world of sports jocks and preening journalistic egos, the NFL is the uncontested king, The Greatest. Despite a resurgence of interest in the NBA, brought on by a particularly vibrant first round of play-offs and an array of superstars who have played like genuine superstars; despite the first month of the MLB season serving up an intriguing mix of newcomers and traditional heavyweights; and despite the NHL's post-season providing some riveting action, no-one is knocking football off the top rung anytime soon.
Question
And yet a worrying question has to be asked, especially when the powers-that-be consider the ongoing impasse over the player lockout (see, I got to the eighth paragraph before I mentioned it this week. Do I get a prize?).
Who is the face of the NFL? Who is the superstar visage that would be first on any poster dedicated to promoting the resumption of action in September - always assuming the 'action' is on the field and not in the courts, of course.
I ask because it has become a bit of a poser in these here parts; a sporting conundrum that is taxing both the jersey-sellers and the advertising honchos at EA Sports, whose traditional ethos for the launch of the next Madden/NFL game is to splash the Star Du Jour all over their cover (thereby initiating the usual debate over the presence, or otherwise, of the Madden game 'curse.' But that's a whole 'nother story).
If I was to tell you the biggest-selling name in NFL shirt terms was Troy Polamalu, how shocked would you be on a 1-10 scale? An 8 or 9, maybe? At least a 6 or 7 I would think. Some pundits have gone all the way up to 11 (thank you, Spinal Tap) in their efforts to be incredulous, thereby reassuring us once again that nothing succeeds like excess.
But you get the idea. While there is no doubt Pittsburgh's hard-hitting safety is a mighty gridiron beast and a key piece of the Steelers' line-up, it is hard to imagine the Head & Shoulders pitch-man as the epitome of footballing excellence, the league's poster-child and go-to guy for unrivalled immaculate image.
PS: if anyone doesn't get that last reference, they should look up 'Polamalu - shampoo commercials' on You Tube immediately!
Aside from the obvious sporting cliché that 'defence wins championships,' it doesn't usually sell that many shirts. Yes, I know, Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White and Ray Lewis have certainly shifted more than their fair share of name-plate merchandise, but you get my drift.
By the same token, the EA Sports folk are in a quandary of their own about the new game cover, going to the unusual extent of putting it up for a public vote of fans and even including the polarising figure of Philadelphia's Michael Vick among the contenders.
Yes, Aaron Rodgers IS among them and is, realistically, a shoo-in to be the latest potential victim for 'the curse,' but he has yet to seriously grab the consciousness of a nation outside of Wisconsin.
Superstars
Which all set me to thinking - who ARE the current superstars of the superstar game?
Ironically, and to digress just once more, this train of thought was set in motion from the most distant station of the furthest recess of my brain by a long and fascinatingly horrifying feature on NPR radio (America's rough equivalent of the BBC), highlighting the possibility of Donald Trump running for president in 2012, a potential outcome which would be akin to giving the keys to the country to Coco The Clown.
To put that in context, it basically means the Republican Party are having the devil's own job of trying to find a legitimate contender to take on Barack Obama in the four-yearly popularity contest otherwise known as the presidential election. They have plenty of willing candidates but absolutely no-one who commands any kind of major shirt-selling profile. Very much like the NFL.
And, when it comes to listing all the likely 'faces' of football, you can certainly put forward a goodly collection of contenders. Peyton Manning would be one of the first names on your short-list (someone else, incidentally, who has a great talent for TV adverts - if you're still on You Tube, search for the Indianapolis quarterback under 'Visa commercials' for great comedic results); Drew Brees is equally worthy of high-profile consideration; Tom Brady adds to the quarterbacking crew of headline status; and Adrian Peterson might well command a fair chunk of image-grabbing attention.
But that's not so much a short-list as a tiny file, an index on a par with Jack the Ripper's Facebook friends. And, thereafter, you're really struggling for 'star power.' The leading receptions receiver last term was Brandon Lloyd of Denver; Kansas City's Dwayne Bowe caught most touchdowns; and Arian Foster was the top rusher. Exceptional players all, but not the stuff of a national promotion campaign.
Meanwhile, over in hoops-land there are Kobe and LeBron; Dwight and Dwyane; Amare and Kevin (both Garnett and Durant); Derrick and Dirk; Carmelo and Tim; and Manu and Chris (each of Paul and Bosh). No shortage of cover material for NBA 2012, or whatever the EA Sports equivalent is.
It's a fascinating contrast; one sport that is all 'Look at me!' action and another that just puts up superb team contests, where the next winner is increasingly hard to predict but amazing to watch unfold.
How the Republican Party would love to have that embarrassment of riches. Donald Trump? Behave!
