Briscoe High Challenges the First Amendment
September 12, 2006 by Albert Bianchi
Filed under Sports, Sports Rumors
I am completely engrossed by these Nike commercials that star NFL Athletes as high school football players. (I discussed the first commercial and any STD related subplots at my old site.) The ads have everything. The cameos! The concept! The constitutional law debates!
The second commercial of the series revolves around the day of the Marlin Briscoe Hawks first day. Some highlights include Lee Corso as the Briscoe Hawk, Matt Leinart holding a clipboard and Shula knowing that theres no way that the Hawks would win with Vick throwing the ball, so they call on LaDainian Tomlinson and the halfback pass trickeration.
When they took that knee before the game, it appeared to me as though they were praying. Although they don’t explicitly say so, taking a knee and bowing one’s head in silence before a sporting event seems like a prayer to me. And a clear violation of the separation of church and state, as Marlin Briscoe High is a public school…probably. Is Nike taking a stand? Do they think that the establishment clause is overreaching? Is the Lemon test too strict for them?
Probably not, but the religious right wear sneakers too. And where there’s potential customers, Nike will be there.
You really think they’re praying? Overlooking the fact that “Spirit in the Sky” is playing throughout the whole commercial (and is actually looped so the words “Spirit in the Sky” are sung again at the very end), and that the final play is basically a “Hail Mary” into the end zone to win the game, and finally that the WR (Ryan?) was clearly covered yet somehow managed to come out with the ball to win the game… other than those minor details, I’m not sure how you would come to the conclusion that they were religious overtones.
Seriously – it’s a great commercial; almost genius. Directors of television commercials don’t get enough credit for what they do.
Definitely genius. Nike continually blows my mind with their ad campaigns.
it’s wieden + kennedy who are the real brains behind the nike commercials. they’ve been doing those ads for years and a lot of other well known ones too.
I heard that the kid Ryan is Deion Sanders’ son in real life.
you do know that if briscoe high is a private school- that would eliminate the longest paragraph of your blog. great commercial! half-ass blog!
Do you know that Briscoe High is fictional, right? And damn right it’s half-assed, it wouldn’t be blogging if it was full-assed.
You are a fucking moron.
This commercial blows my mind. Is it really cool to show a bunch of pro athletes kicking the shit out of a group of high school kids?
Woop-T-doo… Was there any doubt the pro athletes would score or win. What exactly is Nike saying… These pros are dumb enough to be in high school and they would really beat the hell out of a bunch of 16-18 year olds….
heyy..well …i go to a public school and play varsity football..we all take a knee and pray before every game…almost every team we face does it to..its not uncommon…..even the kids that dont pray just be respectful…if u dont like it then dont let ur kids play football!!!
Yes, I firmly believe that Nike had considered the “Religous Right” when making this commercial. You make me sick.