How Bills QB Josh Allen has become a star on and off the field - ESPN

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Here's a dirty little secret of the advertising industry: Professional athletes can be divas too.

Athletes have been pitching products in TV commercials for almost as long as there have been TV commercials. They act. They sing. They dance. They toss their game-worn jerseys to well-meaning kids who have reminded them of their long-lost innocence and they laugh — holding the product they're sponsoring label out, of course — as choirs sing infectious jingles about how all the regular people at home wish they could be a little bit more like their heroes.

One thing they don't do all that often in commercials is, well, play sports. There are plenty of reasons why this is the case, but one that's less talked about is that some athletes and their agents come on set with established constraints. It's why so many commercials for sports drinks and athletic wear consist of sluggers pointing their bats to the camera and basketball players setting up for slow-motion free throws.

It's the way it is. Unless you're working with Josh Allen.

«Some athletes will be like 'I'll give you three throws' or 'I'll kick the ball four times' or 'I'll run at no more than 50%' or whatever,» said Alex Bower, former creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day who wrote Allen's 2024 Gatorade campaign. «Josh, we shot him in L.A., it was a hot day. He gave us a lot of takes of him running lines and throwing the ball full pelt. He committed. We kind of used his shots heavily in the edit because it looked real because he was giving it 100%.»

Allen, the Buffalo Bills quarterback and betting favorite to win the NFL's MVP award (+280 on DraftKings entering Week 5), is a commercial star. He has endorsed Nike, New Era, New Balance, Nationwide and