Carl Weathers may have passed away earlier this month, but he will still be centre stage when Super Bowl LVIII takes centre stage tonight (Sunday).
The Rocky star, who played Apollo Creed in the first four episodes of the all-time great movie franchise, died peacefully at his California home on February 2 at the age of 76.
But prior to his passing, the universally loved Weathers had filmed a Super Bowl commercial with NFL great Rob Gronkowski, which will air during tonight’s big game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ads for the big game cost a whopping $7million for just a 30-second slot, and there is unlikely to be a dry eye in America when Weathers plays trainer for Gronkowski as he makes a football comeback – just as he did for boxer Sly Stallone in his epic return to beat Clubber Lang in Rocky III.
This time the stakes are not quite so high – Gronkowski is a kicker who is back to take part in the FanDuel Kick of Destiny 2. Last year ‘Gronk’ embarrassingly missed the 25-yarder during halftime of the Super Bowl in Arizona, this year he tries to make amends.
The FanDuel commercial sees Gronkowski, haunted by that miss last season, being coached by Weathers in his bid for football redemption.
A short version of the ad will air during Super Bowl LVIII tonight (along with a ton of Taylor Swift shots as she watches BF Travis Kelce in the big game), but you can watch the whole thing right here….
When does Super Bowl LVIII kick off?
The big game kicks off at 6.30pm Eastern Standard Time, which is 3.30pm PST. That is 11.30pm in the UK. CBS will have the call in the US with Jim Nantz handling play-by-play and Tony Romo on color analyst duties.
If you are in the UK you can catch the action on Sky Sports, NFL Game Pass on DAZN or ITV.
