![Dan Campbell]()
Oftentimes you get professional athletes or head coaches to sign up for some sort of ad campaign, and they'll kind of just hit their marks, stand where they're told, and deliver rather wooden dialogue, daydreaming about being anywhere else but agreeing because, you know, money.
Every now and then you get very funny commercials where the starring public sports figure plays a heightened version of themselves. What's great about Dan Campbell, and why I think a lot of people really dig him, is as follows: I'm not 100% sure what he's doing in these Applebee's spots is, in fact, a "heightened"version of himself. Dan Campbell is heightened in perpetuity. His copious caffeine and Copenhagen consumption — f**k yeah, how's that for alliteration! — is a mere glimpse into how raw and intense the man is.
We got
a little taste of Campbell the thespian in a recent, briefer Applebee's ad, where he's using a call sheet to obscure his face. Of all the state of Michigan's famous sports personalities, how on Earth was
Connor Stalions not the leading man there? I'm sure nobody's made that joke.
OK but on Thursday, on the day the new NFL season kicks off, Campbell is back at it, full face in view, mockumentary
The Office style, showing off that kneecap-biting competitive fire in his quest to raise Applebee's to a championship-level standard.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1831731690701541687
Screw the Dallas Cowboys being America's Team. Sorry, y'all had your chance. I think it's pretty safe to say most of the working class is rallying around Campbell and the Detroit Lions. Years of futility preceded last postseason's run to the NFC Championship Game. Had
Campbell not been quite as hyper-aggressive with some of his in-game decisions, the Lions would've faced the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Argue with a wall
or Tom Brady. He knows a little ball.
But that high-risk, high-reward, faith-in-players-sometimes-to-a-fault captures the MC/DC ethos. The Lions have fully embraced Campbell, a former NFL tight end who had to scratch and claw his way to a respectable playing career. They've rallied around him. GM Brad Holmes has constructed
the best all-around roster in the NFL. Detroit is
rolling heading into 2024. And as this Applebee's campaign proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, the more we see of Dan Campbell anywhere and everywhere, the better.
