Who Are The Famous Football Stars In Jason Sudeikis' Michelob Ultra Super Bowl Commercial?

Ahead of Super Bowl LVIII on February 11, Michelob ULTRA teased its big Super Bowl commercial in a series of online vignettes. As these short videos gradually reveal, the commercial revolves around football in the broadest sense of the word. It stars "Ted Lasso" lead Jason Sudeikis along with two professional athletes, one of whom is a soccer star and the other of whom is known for his time in the NFL.

The first person confirmed to be a part of this ad campaign was Lionel Messi, one of the all-time greatest players in the sport of soccer — known in many parts of the world, of course, as football. Sudeikis, meanwhile, plays a soccer coach on "Ted Lasso" whose prior experience was in coaching American football, bridging the worlds of what they call football across the pond and football as it's known in America. Finally, a few days after Michelob confirmed Messi and Sudeikis for its Super Bowl commercial, the beer company revealed that their co-star is Dan Marino, an NFL great who quarterbacked for the Miami Dolphins and won the league's MVP award in 1984.

How a real-life soccer star, the actor behind a fictional soccer coach, and a storied NFL quarterback match up in a soccer game on a beach is the crux of Michelob's Super Bowl commercial.

Even some total outsiders are probably familiar with the fact that Ted Lasso's defining characteristic on the smash hit Apple TV+ comedy is his optimism. Jason Sudeikis debuted as the character, however, in a series of NBC Sports commercials in which his defining characteristic was his football knowledge. How that knowledge clashes with British soccer culture is the source of that ad campaign's broad comedic game. That Sudeikis is now positioned between footballer Dan Marino and soccer legend Lionel Messi is effectively a callback to the Ted Lasso character's commercial origins.

Marino and Messi are both experienced commercial actors themselves. Marino's past work includes ads for Bombas socks, Pepsi soda, and Nutrisystem's weight loss products, among other national brands. He's even pulling double duty for Super Bowl LVIII, also appearing in a commercial for M&M's. 

The lion's share of Messi's commercial work, meanwhile, is for Gatorade and, on a couple of occasions, fellow PepsiCo product Pepsi soda. He's also advertised Lay's, Adidas, and 23andMe, among other companies. Messi was named a brand ambassador for Michelob ULTRA near the end of 2023, so it's entirely possible this new Super Bowl spot was written with him in mind first and foremost.