Julian Edelman Joins Cecily Strong In Hilarious Verizon Google Pixel Commercial

Putting sports stars in commercials is a tried and true method to sell just about anything. The famous 1979 commercial featuring a young fan giving "Mean" Joe Greene his coke and Greene tossing the young man his jersey remains probably the most iconic sports-themed commercial in history, so much so that Coke later parodied itself with a new version of the ad for Coke Zero starring a more recent Pittsburgh Steelers great, Troy Polamalu. Some commercials are better than others, though. 

While the commercial where Larry Bird and Michael Jordan have a shootout for a Mcdonald's sandwich may be fondly remembered, another commercial where Bird, as a coach, tries to distract Grant Hill during a game by putting Mcdonald's fries everywhere in the stadium is not remembered as fondly, and the commercial made Ball is Life's list of the most painful Grant Hill commercials from the '90s.

Former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman hasn't done as many commercials as some other athletes, but he has done a few. In a hilarious 2016 commercial for UGG for Men, Edelman and his long-time teammate Tom Brady are hanging out when Edelman decides he's bored and finds a number of annoying activities to do around Brady while the seven-time Super Bowl champion sits quietly watching him. In 2022, Edelman took to Instagram to post a hilarious re-edit of Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson's Subway commercial in which Wilson asks "Have you ever done anything dangerous?" In Edelman's re-edit, the wide receiver responds with "Yeah, I bet on you tonight."

In Edelman's latest commercial, he's teamed up with "Saturday Night Live" cast member Cecily Strong to make a lot of jokes about cellular reception.

In a new ad for Verizon, Julian Edelman is wandering around a football field with his cell phone trying to get a signal when Cecily Strong, who is seated on a giant Verizon sign for some reason, jokes, "Ironic, Edelman struggling with reception." Edelman responds by saying "Two things I hate dropping: balls and calls." Strong tells him that he needs to switch to the more reliable Verizon network where he can get a free 5G phone, at which point Strong starts throwing balls at the former Patriot, which he, of course, catches easily.

While the YouTube comments section for the ad is largely positive, not everyone loved the commercial. On Twitter, user @The_J_Breeding wrote, "I feel like Julian Edelman wearing a Patriots shirt in that Verizon commercial is like a bassist wearing his own band's shirt." That wasn't quite as harsh as the response on Reddit from u/Imaginary_Ad_3912, who took to a thread in the r/CommercialsIHate subreddit full of people talking about how much they dislike Cecily Strong, especially in her Verizon ads. "Whoever she is, this new ad with Julian Edelman is just abysmal," they wrote. So maybe the ad isn't for everyone, but for some, it's worthy of a good hearty chuckle.