Who All Joins Tom Brady In Pepsi's 'Unretire' Commercial?
Tom Brady only appears for a moment in Frito-Lay and Pepsi's new "Unretirement" ad spot, but his closing punchline is the cherry on top. "Unretirement?" asks Brady as he lounges poolside with his buddy and former Patriots teammate Julian Edelman. "Who'd be dumb enough to do that?" Cue Brady's smirk, a nod to his "unretirement" ahead of the 2022 NFL season.
The real stars of the ad, however, are four veteran players considering their own unretirement: Dan Marino, Emmitt Smith, Randy Moss, and Jerry Rice. As the four Hall of Famers gather to watch the Dolphins play the Patriots, Smith mentions how much he misses playing, and Marino suggests they get back in the game — all while they nosh chips and sip Pepsi, of course.
What follows is a dream sequence to the tune of Eminem's "Without Me," in which the four players return to the NFL. Their fans are thrilled at first, and why shouldn't they be? Their stats speak for themselves. Former Dolphin Dan Marino was the first NFL player to throw for 60,000 career passing yards; Emmitt Smith of Cowboys fame is the NFL's all-time leading rusher; Randy Moss is the single-season leader in receiving touchdowns; and former 49er Jerry Rice is the league's all-time touchdown leader.
Unretirement is tough on the old-timers. Smith takes a nap on the bench, Rice asks the snack vendor for a senior discount, and Marino needs his reading glasses to see his play-call wristband. Plus, he can't quite keep up with opposing quarterback Josh Allen. Ultimately, they opt to keep watching the game from the couch.
Brady has poked fun at his unretirement before
For Jerry Rice, appearing in the commercial almost had him itching to unretire. "To put that [uniform] back on, I feel like I had 20 or 30 plays in me and that I could get back out on that football field and try to be invincible," he told PopCulture. Emmitt Smith shared the sentiment. "When he put that #22 on, man, he said, 'Hey, let's go, you know what I'm saying?'" Rice continued.
It's certainly a sentiment that Tom Brady can relate to. When the renowned quarterback retired in 2022, it took him 40 days to renege on his decision. At the end of his 23rd season, during which he was the oldest starting quarterback in history, Brady finally hung up his helmet for good.
The ad for Frito-Lay and Pepsi isn't the first time Brady joked about his unretirement. In a 2023 ad for Hertz, he poked fun at his brief retirement. The commercial ends with Brady yelling, "I'm not leaving!" into a megaphone.
Now that he has some free time on his hands, Brady has enjoyed leaning into the comedic commercials. "I think so much of life is not taking ourselves too seriously," Brady told People. "So having fun in an ad or having fun in anything, taking ourselves less serious is probably a good thing for all of us."