Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, the Fortnite phenom who has pushed the esports industry to unforeseen heights, has landed his next big gig: a starring role in a Super Bowl commercial, which he notes is set to air this Sunday just ahead of Maroon 5’s Halftime Show.
The ad will promote the NFL 100 — an annual list highlighting the league’s top football stars as selected by fellow players. In the commercial, Blevins portrays a waiter at some sort of dinner gala attended by football luminaries Peyton Manning, Michael Strahan, Aaron Donald, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell — all of whom express their curiosity about the 27-year-old and his relatively newfangled career path. “Video game master!” Manning clarifies.
The commercial also features an appearance by Juju Smith-Schuster, Dexerto notes, a wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers who is also a popular YouTuber and a member of the FaZe Clan gaming collective.
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Blevins’ Super Bowl ads marks the latest means by which he has helped to integrate the traditional and digital sports sectors. In September, he became the first gamer to grace the cover of ESPN magazine. And in December, Blevins — who calls himself “a lifelong NFL fan, which runs in my family” — partnered with the league to co-stream and commentate a Thursday Night Football game on his Twitch channel, which counts 13.3 million followers. (Twitch aired 11 NFL games in 2018 as part of a deal between the league and its parent company, Amazon).
You can check out Blevins’ Super Bowl commercial below:
So happy to share with you guys one of the many amazing things we’v e been working on and why I’ve been traveling so much. Catch me in the #NFL100 #SBLIII
commercial right before halftime. pic.twitter.com/FEAQSdsYMP— Ninja (@Ninja) January 31, 2019
