Philadelphia Eagles tight end Brent Celek will be the first, and last, NFL player to get away with hawking a rum company. The league has outlawed doing what is known as the “Captain Morgan pose,” named after the pose struck by the cartoon pirate of Captain Morgan rum.
In hopes of raising brand awareness, Captain Morgan intended to offer lucrative charity contributions in exchange for each instance a player was caught on camera doing its pose during a game. The contributions were earmarked for the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund - a non-profit which helps retired NFL players with various hardships after leaving the game.
Celek stupidly tried to deny he had any knowledge of Captain Morgan’s campaign, but a marketing director called him out, saying, “Brent said, ‘You know what, if I get the opportunity, I’m going to go ahead and do it.’ He sort of beat us to the punch, but we’re certainly not going to complain.” Celek struck the pose (photo) after he scored a touchdown vs. Dallas last week.
The NFL is known as the “No Fun League” for the lengths it goes to prevent end zone celebrations, but I agree with them on this one. This is nothing but a shameless promotional attempt by a company that realizes it would have earned far more in free pub than the $10,000 donation to charity (which would have hit $100,000 in the Super Bowl). There’s enough NFL-approved marketing nonsense already without adding more.
on Nov 13th, 2009 at 3:17 am
He looked hot doing it live
on Nov 13th, 2009 at 7:58 am
And I am sure they offer a bonus to hot player’s favorite charities.
on Nov 13th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Really NFL??!! REALLY?!!! All the shyt you have goin on in your organization and THIS is what you want to be worrying about? How bout sending some of your low class players to some life skills and diversity classes. How about really dedicating yourself to helping older NFL players who are really suffering through brain injury related illnesses as a result of the many concussions they received over the years building your brand?? How about teaching some of your big time players what its like to be a real role model and that its not all about putting spinners on a car or buying the biggest tires you can for your pickup truck!! Ugh!!!
Really?!!!!!
on Nov 13th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
yo ho ho