To the usual lineup of beer and car commercials on Super BowlSunday, add this: one about player safety.
For the first time, the N.F.L., currently the target of more than a dozen lawsuits accusing it of deliberately concealing information about the effects on players of repeated hits to the head, will use one minute of its own commercial time during its signature event to address player safety, its most critical and sobering problem.
“It is your biggest stage, you’ve got a massive audience, a massive casual audience, and this topic is probably one of most important topics for casual fans, particularly mothers,” Mark Waller, the N.F.L.’s chief marketing officer, said about the decision to inject a serious subject into the league’s over-the-top party. “And so the possibility that we could actually address the issue in a constructive, engaging way with that audience makes it definitely worth the challenge. It’s a risk, without a doubt.”
The N.F.L. spent several million dollars on the commercial and the creation of an accompanying Web site —nfl.com/evolution — that will go online Sunday and give detailed information about the history of the game and various rules changes. By using 60 of the 150 seconds of advertising time it is allotted during NBC’s telecast of the Super Bowl, the N.F.L. is taking away time it could use to promote other aspects of its business, including more traditional subjects like the NFL Network. (The average cost for 30 seconds of ad time during the Super Bowl is $3.5 million.)
The decision was initially met with skepticism and concern by some league executives. Among those who supported the idea, according to Waller, were two owners of the teams that will play Sunday, John Mara of the Giants and Robert K. Kraft of the Patriots.
Michael Hausfeld, a Washington-based lawyer who is representing some former players involved in concussion-related lawsuits against the N.F.L., said he had not seen the commercial. But when told about its message, he said an attempt to artfully portray the N.F.L. as having been concerned about player safety for decades, and doing all it can now to protect players, was “obscuring the reality.”
“I’m troubled by it to the extent that it seeks to portray a position of concern when they really had none,” Hausfeld said in a telephone interview. “They shouldn’t be focused on placing ads. They should be focused on talking to those players who have suffered the concussions and the consequences. And saying, ‘What is it we can do?’
“To a lot of people, the ad will resonate that they’re trying. On the other hand, there’s a little bit too much protesting. You’re trying to put yourself in too good of a light. Why? You’re trying to deflect your exposure.”
The commercial, directed by Peter Berg — who created the TV program “Friday Night Lights” — will be shown during the final commercial break of the third quarter. It uses one long kick return as a way to take viewers through the evolution of the game’s rules and equipment, from the sport’s beginnings on a muddy field in Canton, Ohio, when players wore no helmets or pads, to the present in a brightly lighted Soldier Field.
At one point, a leather helmet peels back to reveal a more modern one made of plastic. Later, a player grabs an opponent’s face mask, a violation of current rules.
Only the most devoted fan would recognize all the references. The flying wedge, a blocking technique that is believed to have made its debut in 1892 but was banned soon after, is shown briefly in the opening seconds. Near the end, a horse-collar tackle, only recently forbidden, is featured.
But nobody, particularly the casual fan at whom the commercial is primarily aimed, will miss its closing message, delivered by Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis: “Here’s to making the next century safer and more exciting. Forever forward. Forever football.”
The message will stand in contrast to most of the commercials seen during the game.
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