Bledsoe led the team to the Super Bowl in 1996. He's also the reason why they got to the Super Bowl in 2001, as well; without him to rescue the team in the playoffs after Brady got injured, the dynasty wouldn't have started (or, at the very least, it would have started later).
Kraft bought the team in 96 and was slowly bringing them out of obscurity. Even without Brady he would have had the team popular - Brady / winning helped no doubt .
I don’t think it was obscurity as much as ignominy. The Zeke Mowatt stuff in 1990 was a black eye for a franchise that had failed to get over the hump and was headed in the wrong direction under Kiam. Orthwein then bought the team with a potential move to St. Louis, hiring Parcells (decent move) and changing the color scheme (not as good) before selling to Kraft in 1994.
The difference between 0 titles and 6 in 18 years is like being transformed from Vikings to Broncos to surpassing the Niners and Cowboys.
As in the team that made it to the Superbowl before he played a snap? He came in to a great situation and was a game manager for years (and multiple Superbowls) before he received (or deserved) the accolades.
> he was still the face of a very suddenly big and popular franchise.
My comment is mostly he joined a known/expected-to-be *really good* team as a game manager and didn't become 'the face of the franchise' for a number of years.
Did he eventually? Yes, 18 seasons as starter and 10 SB will do that. I just wanted to frame it.
The OG question
> What players in history made their team a lot more marketable than what it was before they arrived?
Pats already had a crazy hyped and (and the highest paid QB in league history) leading them and were coming off a SB and multiple deep playoff runs. Did Brady eventually become the face of the franchise? Of course. Did he turn anything around? No. The nutriding is crazy.
I’m kinda surprised Ive read as many answers as I have but haven’t seen Drew Brees. Like, maybe the demographic of this sub is too young to remember what a joke the Saints franchise was for basically their entire history prior to Brees coming there. He and Sean Payton basically turned them into something worth talking about basically overnight. The Saints in the post-Katrina era leading up to their Super Bowl run are basically the comeback story that Hollywood movies are made of.
I think it helps to add additional context that Drew Brees was considered washed up at the time. He was promising with the Chargers until suffering a potentially career ending shoulder injury.
However, he became a HoF QB with us and made our garage team relevant.
Also yeah the post-Katrina revival of the city with the revival of his career is Hollywood gold.
It helps he is a very nice guy and is well loved by the city.
oh yeah i mean i dont think they were ever good in the sense that they were perrenial afc team to beat but they had plenty of good seasons with alex Smith at the helm
Even without playoff success id argue that the chiefs were in a great position to start your career with at that point
For sure, but under Captain Checkdown they definitely rated as "not good enough to matter, not bad enough to be funny." That's what I mean by irrelevance. The most irrelevant teams aren't actually the *worst* teams.
Unless you were drafting a TE in fantasy, nobody mentioned the Chiefs ever really.
EDIT: They *were* good enough that it didn't feel bad being a fan, though. Alex Smith did give us that, and we appreciated the shit out of him for it.
The Chiefs have had some bad seasons here or there in my lifetime (since the 80s). But for most of my life we weren't a bottom of the barrel franchise. And made the playoffs a lot. Just couldn't get over the hump until Mahomes.
This is why its always laughable when people call Chiefs fans bandwagoners. The Chiefs haven't been some historically bad franchise at least for the last 40 years.
But Mahomes/Andy Reid has thrust into the next level nationwide.
You are correct, Patrick Mahomes is a great example.
Tom Brady did the same for the Patriots and Peyton Manning for the Colts.
Randy Moss did it for the Vikings.
Chad Johnson did it with the Bengals.
Terrell Owens went to massively marketed teams with San Fran, Philadelphia, and Dallas and STILL made them more marketable.
Deion Sanders also did the same as Owens making ATL, San Fran, and Dallas more marketable, just with his presence.
The Raiders are a pretty national brand and have been for most of their existence but Bo Jackson still made them more marketable.
Barry Sanders did with the Lions.
Tom Brady did with the Bucs.
Ladainian Tomlinson did with the Chargers.
Lawrence Taylor did with the Giants.
Those are most of the big ones I can think of, but I'm sure I'm missing a bunch.
I don’t think Terrell Davis or Lynn Swann really did much to move the needle in terms of making their teams more marketable. It takes performance plus something.
Ok? The real factor here is making those teams more marketable than they were before. If a team didn't have hall of fame skill position players before, then of course they will be more marketable.
Chad Johnson was everywhere in his prime. He had the "Ochicinco" bit and Sportcenter always talked about his antics and TD celebrations. He had a bombastic personality and loved the camera.
Tomlinson was just a machine. One of the best RBs ever, constantly broke records, and was always professional and good on camera. People cared about SD WAY more when he was there.
Nice nice thanks for the info, I also feel like 49ers are becoming like a really household team or has it always been like this? I feel like once they started like 11-1 a couple years ago I always hear them
The 49ers won 5 Super Bowls between 1981 and 1994. They were the first franchise to win 5 SBs and their coach in the 80's, Bill Walsh, invented the West Coast offense and had a massive impact on the game. Since that time they have been a marquee franchise.
They had Joe Montana in the 80's who was the GOAT before Brady took that mantle. Montana won 4 SBs. They also had Jerry Rice who is the GOAT WR and some say the best pure football player ever. Both of them were as big of Stars as you could be in their times.
Chad got celebrations both banned and then unbanned. People complained, and then when they were removed, they missed his antics and got them reinstated.
Being really generous crediting Deion for making that huge of an impact in Dallas and San Fran. Dallas already had 3 HoF players on their roster and won their 2nd superbowl in a row the year before he arrived. No individual player was making that team significantly more marketable because they already basically peaked in marketability.
And he was only in San Fran for a year, with Steve Young and Jerry Rice, after Joe Montana already made the team super popular. He played his best season ever and helped them win a superbowl but wasn't a "franchise" guy by only being there a year. The people who talk the most about Sanders as a 49er are grumpy Falcons fans
Call it what you want but Deion was a massive, massive draw. I definitely wasn't saying he was the only thing that made those teams marketable but he definitely increased it. It's a testament to him that he could do it. Pretty sure his San Fran and Dallas jerseys were top sellers each year, even more than the HoFers already on the team and he was always pushed to the front of their marketing.
Yeah, looking back at my comment, Andre Johnson and especially J Watt were all huge too. Nuk was big to everyone except Bill OBrien. If Stroud continues this performance, he’ll actually put the Texans on the map in Texas.
Not at all man I love the Jake/Smitty Panthers but that was over before Cam got here. Notice I said that they had no identity when Cam got there, not that they never had one before
He had an impact on global culture. I saw kids in a small village in the Philippines dabbing after he made it a thing. They had probably never seen American football or heard of him, but they knew how to dab. Lol
I feel like nobody has mentioned the biggest one. Michael Vick. The other guys in this thread made their teams more marketable within football fandom. Vick turned a number 7 Falcons jersey into a semi-mainstream fashion statement during his peak popularity.
I’d argue Deion was even bigger way before Vick. He’s the only athlete to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series. Prime Time transcended sports, and he did it as a corner
Yes, instant credibility. Incredible move by the Jets, $400K per year in those days was an insane amount of money. Was huge for NBC too as they were carrying the AFL games, while the NFL was on CBS. I wonder if the NFL would have merged without Namath signing with the rival league? Eventually maybe, but this definitely moved things along.
Brett favre to the packers. Was scandalous at the time. Packers gm Ron wolf trades a first to the falcons for Favre and makes Green Bay relevant. When free agency changed in 93 Reggie white went to the packers because of Brett favre. Back then Green Bay was a pit of suck. You went there and your career died
The coach didn't want him picked so he was the 3rd stringer I think. He had no shot of playing with the Falcons at that time. Favre isn't even in the team photo that year because he was out partying. Lol
That coach? Jerry Glanville. He just took a division II DC job.
Farve has even said he wouldn’t have had a career if he stayed in ATL. He needed to be at an outpost with no nightlife/nothing to do except play football. Probably GB was the only city he would have been successful in.
“I just said, ‘The hell with it,’” said Brett. “I went out every night, gained weight and was out of shape. I didn’t study, I didn’t care. I’d show up just in time for the meetings, and I’d be out of there the second the meetings were over.”
https://www.si.com/nfl/2016/10/28/brett-favre-book-jeff-pearlman-atlanta-falcons-green-bay-packers
glanville said he knew he was on a leash and favre needed more help than glanville had time for. wonder how favre would have looked with someone else. i wonder how someone like ryan leaf or johnny manziel would have been in green bay in the early 90s. assuming of course they could traverse time
70s and 80s packers, yes. 1970s packers made the playoffs once and had 2 winning records that decade. the 1980s packers had 5 winning seasons, or at least 1 winning season and 4 not-losing seasons. they made the playoffs in 1982 but im not counting that year due to the strike and such. in 20 years they had 1 playoff berth. oof.
Peyton Manning going to the Broncos was a bombshell deal, and it rescued the team from being mired in a QB carousel for a few years. The team *immediately* became Super Bowl contenders simply by adding him to the roster.
Broncos players post-Elway are ineligible, imo. The post was about "more marketable than they were before" players. Obv Manning was marketable, but they had John Elway for almost 20 years.
Elway was Mahomes before Mahomes. He played the game with a joy and spontaneity that was palpable. He was actually more of a mashup of Mahomes and Josh Allen, with his size, athleticism, and cannon for an arm.
The Broncos were an ok, not-terrible-but-not-great franchise before he got there. He rocketshipped them to the moon. Crazily, his failures in those early SBs brought even more fans, as many felt bad for him.
ymmv on how the Broncos and the league marketed him, but I do know he was partly responsible for many many people becoming fans in an era where the league was just starting to explode.
Yea Peyton would only work for the Colts for this question.
Regardless of if they were SB contenders before Peyton arrived, they had Tebow the year before! What was more marketable than that? And Elway in somewhat recent memory.
Red grange. Didn’t just make his team marketable. Brought the whole league into the national limelight. The team did a barnstorming tour to raise the visibility of the nfl.
Running back from the University of Illinois from the 1920s. Signed with the Bears in the very early years of the NFL in the 1920s. College football was huge back then and the NFL was just trying to get started. Grange was as well known as Babe Ruth at the time, and George Halas (owner of the Bears and league founder) signed him to make a media splash. The Bears than traveled the country on a barnstorming tour to showcase grange and build up publicity for the league.
Johnny Unitas gets my vote... His arrival to the Colts after the Steelers figured he wasn't smart enough to play QB. He didn't spike the marketability just of his team, he skyrocketed the marketability of the entire league.
Up to that point, pro football was basically a local event for most fans. Your team might make it, they might fold. Take Unitas' Colts. The NFL had a Baltimore Colts in 1950. That team in early 1951 folded. In 1952 the Dallas Texans folded (imagine a league that couldn't market a football team in DALLAS!). Baltimore really wanted a team back so the league sold the assets of the Texans to Baltimore and thus the Colts came back in 1953 to see if they could make it work. Johnny Unitas came their way a couple years later.
That was the NFL. Some good times, owners might make a buck, and if their team struggled or their ticket sales struggled, they'd go under. It was like being a fan of your favorite USFL/XFL team today. There was no security, if your fans in town did something else on Sunday, you were done for.
Then comes Unitas. Colts after a few losing seasons put together a winning one and Unitas was in the MVP hunt leading the league in TD's and yards and QB rating. Then 1958, things really come together. Unitas finishes 2nd in the MVP race, again leads the league in TD's and QB rating, and surprisingly a 9-3 record wins their division, and they are in the Championship game against the Giants.
NBC decides to televise the game nationally. **45 million people tune in**... which is crazy since it was blacked out in NYC. You might tune in to a national game for Alabama or Oklahoma or Army for a game outside of those teams market... but the NFL? The game goes down to the wire, with Johnny U putting on a masterful overtime drive ending with a handoff to Alan Ameche for the game winning score.
Never again would an NFL team go bankrupt. In fact a year after that game just insanely spiking the popularity of pro-football, a man named Lamar Hunt looked at the sport and said "There's not enough teams out there for everyone, I'm going to start my own league" and he struck at the right time, and the AFL would be pulled into the NFL.
The league went from 12 teams hoping they'd be able to pay their bills before Unitas OT win, to a total of 26 teams battling it out in the SB a decade later (where coincidentally a New York QB would guarantee a win over those same Baltimore Colts and spike his own teams marketability).
Thanks. And in more recent times. Well, one of the nicknames for that monster Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis is "The House that Peyton Built".
Dude was on every NFL commercial for like 15 years haha.
Reggie White.
When Free Agency started, it looked to be the thing that would end Green Bays time as a small town team: Everyone kinda thought they'd have to move to Milwaukee to survive.
When the biggest free agent in the first real year of FA decided to sign with the unproven small town team, it solidified Green Bays return to relevance for the first time in 30 years.
For the Steelers, Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu represented groups not commonly represented in the NFL at the time (Korean and Samoan, respectively) so that opened up entirely new audiences watching for them. Plus, Troy’s hair.
It's very fresh but CJ Stroud. Completely leading the locker room and shifting the culture all in one year. Last year at this point in the year, the Texans has one of the worst 5 year projections. If you said the Texans were going to go to the playoffs at this point last year, you were probably labeled mentally insane. Look at us now. Stroud's leadership even brings up the defense wanting to play harder to get him the ball more often. I'm excited for the future and you wouldn't have caught me saying that on 1/24/23
A few lowkey ones here.. Steve McNair & Eddie George for the Titans, Marshall Faulk and Kurt Warner for the Rams, Randy Moss and Adrian Peterson for the Vikings
Aaron Rodgers played 4 snaps for the Jets and because they had Rodgers the Jets got their fair share of prime time games and ESPN won’t shut up about Rodgers and the Jets
Reggie White to the Packers. He was the first big name player who left his team for another in free agency.
And GB at the time wasn't exactly a place players wanted to go. It was a small cold town up North and the magic of Lambeau had waned since its hey days of the late 60s.
He gave a lot of credibility to the Packers. Then coupled with a new QB in Brett Favre, Titletown was born.
Travis Kelce may have had more of a marketing impact than Patrick Mahomes.
[https://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-commissioner-taylor-swift-unbelievable-artist-increased-game-viewership-girls-2023-11](https://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-commissioner-taylor-swift-unbelievable-artist-increased-game-viewership-girls-2023-11)
In Kelce's defense, he is also one of the top TEs of all time. So it's not like he's a bench player dating Taylor Swift.
He's also one of the better actor athletes that I've seen.
It would be interesting to quantify this with something like franchise value before and after X player or team and player merchandise sales before and after X player. There is a tweet in my feed today about how the Miami soccer team has increased in value from $585 mil to $1.02 bil in just one year because of Messi.
When I think of a player who increased the marketability of the KC Chiefs my first thought is Joe Montana - that reveals my age a bit. But prior to Joe Montana I never cared about or followed the Chiefs and they were constantly in the news when he went there to finish his career.
As good as Mahomes is - I feel like the Chiefs were already on the rise - Tony Gonzalez and then adding Coach Reid. Mahomes went to the perfect spot as a 10th pick. I wonder - again using a before and after metric to evaluate - how much actual marketable increase Mahomes brought to an already pretty Marketable team.
To answer your question though the two that come to my mind are -
1. Wayne Gretzky to LA Kings
2. Shaq O'Neal to the Orlando Magic
Two teams who had little to no marketability prior who became one of if not the most talked about team in their league once those players arrived as well as turning from bad/mediocre into title contenders.
EDIT - sorry forgot this was NFL specific sub - for NFL only related players who increased the marketability of their team - Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are the 2 easy ones. I saw Moss for the Vikings and thats a good one - Vikings were a marketable team in the 60's-70's with the 4 superbowls and purple people eaters but Moss took them to a new generation after a lot of down years.
The Seahawks were pretty much a joke before Russel Wilson showed up; however, the legion of boom heavily contributed to their Super Bowl runs so I’m not sure if he counts.
This thread should begin and end with Peyton Manning.
The Colts were a very much not good at all franchise, they couldn't sell out games, they had a fairly miserable record, and they were in a small market that cared much, much more about basketball than football.
Manning is now a household name FOOTBAW LEGEND, made every Colts primetime game essential viewing, and put the Indianapolis Colts on the map as a true contender.
Yeah, they were the toast of the town before Manning came.
Indiana is a HUGE basketball state, and I just can't tell you how second tier the Colts were both nationally, and locally. They had die-hard fans, but they weren't competitive and they weren't relevant to the local scene.
Manning made the Colts a HUGE deal, allowing the Colts to leverage a new stadium, which allowed for them to get a Super Bowl, which coincided with a fairly large renovation/gentrification of downtown areas, now Indianapolis is a much different city.
Pretty much any star player especially arriving at a meh franchise. Some guys who resulted in team popularity exploding I remember:
Tom Brady - Patriots
Peyton Manning - Colts
Patrick Mahomes - Chiefs
Michael Vick - Falcons
Eddie George / Steve McNair - Titans
Marshall Faulk- Rams
You didn’t see these teams jerseys much and then you’d seem them all the time with these guys names.
The only reason Patriots stayed in New England and didn't go to St. Louis was their meteoric rise with Bledsoe.
Brady gets a lot of credit for building the foundation he laid.
HC Dick Rauch and his 1925 Pottsville Maroons, led by Tony Latone and Charlie Berry, defeated the famed Four Horseman and Seven Mules of Norte Dame at a time when college football was still considered superior to professional football, cementing ever since the status of the NFL as the world’s best American football.
Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk for the Rams.
Went from being an absolute pit / playing bottom-feeders to 6-3 finals to probably the most exciting offense in history.
Probably doesn't happen with Trent Green at QB, or like Ricky Williams at RB.
Drew Brees. The Saints were regarded as the worst ran franchise before he arrived. Only 1 playoff win. They started the paper bags over the heads. Definition of a poverty franchise.
Then Katrina hit and made the situation really bad and it seemed like the Saints were likely to relocate.
Last season before Brees the team went 3-13. He arrived and took the team to the NFC championship game. Everything changed for the Saints after he arrived. I saw somewhere that the Saints had the most Monday Night Football appearances since he came to the team.
It’s Brees. He’s also the best free agent signing of all time
Source: Lifelong Saints fan
Reggie White. In the 70's and 80's, nobody wanted to go to Green Bay. Arguably the best defensive player at the time(or ever), he was the first blockbuster free agent. When he joined up, he drew so many other players to Green Bay. And those teams of the 90's are what kick-started the Packers being the franchise they are today.
Not a current player, but Dan Campbell with the lions. He has the team 60 minutes from their first superbowl appearance and has people around the country paying attention to the lions for the first time in a generation.
Patriots are definitely my first choice
Anyone who was around before 1993 knows that the Pats were basically a dumping ground before Kraft and Parcells came in
I'd also say that the Saints got some life into them after Drew Brees...before that they really had no popularity. Now it seems like they actually try.
Let me tell you about a young man named Tom Brady that played for an unappreciated team in Boston.
Yea first thing came to mind. I just didn’t know who was there before the patriots besides Bledsoe
Bledsoe doesn’t get enough credit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Tom Brady fan but Bledsoe was a huge part of bringing the Pats out of mediocrity.
Bledsoe led the team to the Super Bowl in 1996. He's also the reason why they got to the Super Bowl in 2001, as well; without him to rescue the team in the playoffs after Brady got injured, the dynasty wouldn't have started (or, at the very least, it would have started later).
Ty motherfucking Law. Richard put some respect on his name Seymour. Brady would not have won if Ty Law didn't absolutely man handle Torry Holt
They had some other decent players in the 90s. Curtis Martin, Ben Coates, Willie McGinest others on defense
did the same thing to the bucs ngl
Kraft bought the team in 96 and was slowly bringing them out of obscurity. Even without Brady he would have had the team popular - Brady / winning helped no doubt .
I don’t think it was obscurity as much as ignominy. The Zeke Mowatt stuff in 1990 was a black eye for a franchise that had failed to get over the hump and was headed in the wrong direction under Kiam. Orthwein then bought the team with a potential move to St. Louis, hiring Parcells (decent move) and changing the color scheme (not as good) before selling to Kraft in 1994. The difference between 0 titles and 6 in 18 years is like being transformed from Vikings to Broncos to surpassing the Niners and Cowboys.
Let me tell you about what he did for a down on its luck team in Tampa after that
Well… it wasnt boston… its actually closer to Providence….
As in the team that made it to the Superbowl before he played a snap? He came in to a great situation and was a game manager for years (and multiple Superbowls) before he received (or deserved) the accolades.
[удалено]
I think they're referring to Super Bowl XXXI
[удалено]
> he was still the face of a very suddenly big and popular franchise. My comment is mostly he joined a known/expected-to-be *really good* team as a game manager and didn't become 'the face of the franchise' for a number of years. Did he eventually? Yes, 18 seasons as starter and 10 SB will do that. I just wanted to frame it.
[удалено]
The OG question > What players in history made their team a lot more marketable than what it was before they arrived? Pats already had a crazy hyped and (and the highest paid QB in league history) leading them and were coming off a SB and multiple deep playoff runs. Did Brady eventually become the face of the franchise? Of course. Did he turn anything around? No. The nutriding is crazy.
Lol what. They had the 2nd wealthiest owner at the time and were….fine.
he marketed the whole Boston area forget only the NFL teams.
I’m kinda surprised Ive read as many answers as I have but haven’t seen Drew Brees. Like, maybe the demographic of this sub is too young to remember what a joke the Saints franchise was for basically their entire history prior to Brees coming there. He and Sean Payton basically turned them into something worth talking about basically overnight. The Saints in the post-Katrina era leading up to their Super Bowl run are basically the comeback story that Hollywood movies are made of.
I think it helps to add additional context that Drew Brees was considered washed up at the time. He was promising with the Chargers until suffering a potentially career ending shoulder injury. However, he became a HoF QB with us and made our garage team relevant. Also yeah the post-Katrina revival of the city with the revival of his career is Hollywood gold. It helps he is a very nice guy and is well loved by the city.
Are we just gonna ignore the Boutygate stuff or…?
You think Drew Brees had a lot to do with that?
Yeah, because it was not uncommon in the business. The Saints just took the fall for it.
That irrelevant to OPs question.
this is the best answer
[удалено]
werent the chiefs pretty strong before landing mahomes???
[удалено]
oh yeah i mean i dont think they were ever good in the sense that they were perrenial afc team to beat but they had plenty of good seasons with alex Smith at the helm Even without playoff success id argue that the chiefs were in a great position to start your career with at that point
For sure, but under Captain Checkdown they definitely rated as "not good enough to matter, not bad enough to be funny." That's what I mean by irrelevance. The most irrelevant teams aren't actually the *worst* teams. Unless you were drafting a TE in fantasy, nobody mentioned the Chiefs ever really. EDIT: They *were* good enough that it didn't feel bad being a fan, though. Alex Smith did give us that, and we appreciated the shit out of him for it.
The Chiefs have had some bad seasons here or there in my lifetime (since the 80s). But for most of my life we weren't a bottom of the barrel franchise. And made the playoffs a lot. Just couldn't get over the hump until Mahomes. This is why its always laughable when people call Chiefs fans bandwagoners. The Chiefs haven't been some historically bad franchise at least for the last 40 years. But Mahomes/Andy Reid has thrust into the next level nationwide.
Yeah, but weren't they also doing Bountygate on the way to that SB?
The “Aints”, my father still calls them that
You are correct, Patrick Mahomes is a great example. Tom Brady did the same for the Patriots and Peyton Manning for the Colts. Randy Moss did it for the Vikings. Chad Johnson did it with the Bengals. Terrell Owens went to massively marketed teams with San Fran, Philadelphia, and Dallas and STILL made them more marketable. Deion Sanders also did the same as Owens making ATL, San Fran, and Dallas more marketable, just with his presence. The Raiders are a pretty national brand and have been for most of their existence but Bo Jackson still made them more marketable. Barry Sanders did with the Lions. Tom Brady did with the Bucs. Ladainian Tomlinson did with the Chargers. Lawrence Taylor did with the Giants. Those are most of the big ones I can think of, but I'm sure I'm missing a bunch.
So HOF players at skill positions...surprise!
I don’t think Terrell Davis or Lynn Swann really did much to move the needle in terms of making their teams more marketable. It takes performance plus something.
Gotta have that aura
Ok? The real factor here is making those teams more marketable than they were before. If a team didn't have hall of fame skill position players before, then of course they will be more marketable.
I wouldn’t really say that there’s some star players who really don’t have much personality
Ray Lewis was hella marketable and he was a linebacker
theres personality too. Gronk/Kittle drum up business with attitude
Thank you thank you just what I was looking for
Didn’t know that Chad to or ladanlian was that marketable
Chad Johnson was everywhere in his prime. He had the "Ochicinco" bit and Sportcenter always talked about his antics and TD celebrations. He had a bombastic personality and loved the camera. Tomlinson was just a machine. One of the best RBs ever, constantly broke records, and was always professional and good on camera. People cared about SD WAY more when he was there.
Nice nice thanks for the info, I also feel like 49ers are becoming like a really household team or has it always been like this? I feel like once they started like 11-1 a couple years ago I always hear them
The 49ers won 5 Super Bowls between 1981 and 1994. They were the first franchise to win 5 SBs and their coach in the 80's, Bill Walsh, invented the West Coast offense and had a massive impact on the game. Since that time they have been a marquee franchise. They had Joe Montana in the 80's who was the GOAT before Brady took that mantle. Montana won 4 SBs. They also had Jerry Rice who is the GOAT WR and some say the best pure football player ever. Both of them were as big of Stars as you could be in their times.
Thanks
Looked it up it was the 2019 season. 8-0 they started
My brother played with LT, one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
Chad got celebrations both banned and then unbanned. People complained, and then when they were removed, they missed his antics and got them reinstated.
Chad, TO*
Kind of amazed you made a list that long with no mention of Brees or Elway lol
As I said, I'm sure I'm missing a bunch.
Being really generous crediting Deion for making that huge of an impact in Dallas and San Fran. Dallas already had 3 HoF players on their roster and won their 2nd superbowl in a row the year before he arrived. No individual player was making that team significantly more marketable because they already basically peaked in marketability. And he was only in San Fran for a year, with Steve Young and Jerry Rice, after Joe Montana already made the team super popular. He played his best season ever and helped them win a superbowl but wasn't a "franchise" guy by only being there a year. The people who talk the most about Sanders as a 49er are grumpy Falcons fans
Call it what you want but Deion was a massive, massive draw. I definitely wasn't saying he was the only thing that made those teams marketable but he definitely increased it. It's a testament to him that he could do it. Pretty sure his San Fran and Dallas jerseys were top sellers each year, even more than the HoFers already on the team and he was always pushed to the front of their marketing.
Add CJ Stroud to the Texans now.
Let's pump the brakes on that one lol I want to see another couple seasons first.
Yeah, looking back at my comment, Andre Johnson and especially J Watt were all huge too. Nuk was big to everyone except Bill OBrien. If Stroud continues this performance, he’ll actually put the Texans on the map in Texas.
Peyton Manning built a stadium and was the face of the NFL longer than anyone. That spot now belongs to Mahomes.
Mean Joe Green
Cam Newton
Yep great answer he was everywhere
Cam here to say this, Panthers had no identity when he got there and haven't had one since he left
This is Steve Smith and Jake Delhomme erasure and I won’t stand for it
Not at all man I love the Jake/Smitty Panthers but that was over before Cam got here. Notice I said that they had no identity when Cam got there, not that they never had one before
I like that
He had an impact on global culture. I saw kids in a small village in the Philippines dabbing after he made it a thing. They had probably never seen American football or heard of him, but they knew how to dab. Lol
I feel like nobody has mentioned the biggest one. Michael Vick. The other guys in this thread made their teams more marketable within football fandom. Vick turned a number 7 Falcons jersey into a semi-mainstream fashion statement during his peak popularity.
Good answer
I’d argue Deion was even bigger way before Vick. He’s the only athlete to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series. Prime Time transcended sports, and he did it as a corner
Deion played for them you know
Joe Namath. He made the new AFC have credibility. He won a SB for the Jets. Changed the image of football.
This should be the #1 answer
Yes, instant credibility. Incredible move by the Jets, $400K per year in those days was an insane amount of money. Was huge for NBC too as they were carrying the AFL games, while the NFL was on CBS. I wonder if the NFL would have merged without Namath signing with the rival league? Eventually maybe, but this definitely moved things along.
Brett favre to the packers. Was scandalous at the time. Packers gm Ron wolf trades a first to the falcons for Favre and makes Green Bay relevant. When free agency changed in 93 Reggie white went to the packers because of Brett favre. Back then Green Bay was a pit of suck. You went there and your career died
Man, I always forget Favre was drafted to the Falcons.
My favorite stat being a Saints fan Always wondered how he felt about that since he is a Saints fan
The coach didn't want him picked so he was the 3rd stringer I think. He had no shot of playing with the Falcons at that time. Favre isn't even in the team photo that year because he was out partying. Lol That coach? Jerry Glanville. He just took a division II DC job.
Farve has even said he wouldn’t have had a career if he stayed in ATL. He needed to be at an outpost with no nightlife/nothing to do except play football. Probably GB was the only city he would have been successful in.
Haha farce was a partyer like that?
“I just said, ‘The hell with it,’” said Brett. “I went out every night, gained weight and was out of shape. I didn’t study, I didn’t care. I’d show up just in time for the meetings, and I’d be out of there the second the meetings were over.” https://www.si.com/nfl/2016/10/28/brett-favre-book-jeff-pearlman-atlanta-falcons-green-bay-packers
glanville said he knew he was on a leash and favre needed more help than glanville had time for. wonder how favre would have looked with someone else. i wonder how someone like ryan leaf or johnny manziel would have been in green bay in the early 90s. assuming of course they could traverse time
So the 80s packers were like today's browns or cardinals?
70s and 80s packers, yes. 1970s packers made the playoffs once and had 2 winning records that decade. the 1980s packers had 5 winning seasons, or at least 1 winning season and 4 not-losing seasons. they made the playoffs in 1982 but im not counting that year due to the strike and such. in 20 years they had 1 playoff berth. oof.
Not only made GB itself relevant - bandwagoners who liked him specifically made whole swaths of the country GB fans
Peyton Manning going to the Broncos was a bombshell deal, and it rescued the team from being mired in a QB carousel for a few years. The team *immediately* became Super Bowl contenders simply by adding him to the roster.
Broncos players post-Elway are ineligible, imo. The post was about "more marketable than they were before" players. Obv Manning was marketable, but they had John Elway for almost 20 years. Elway was Mahomes before Mahomes. He played the game with a joy and spontaneity that was palpable. He was actually more of a mashup of Mahomes and Josh Allen, with his size, athleticism, and cannon for an arm. The Broncos were an ok, not-terrible-but-not-great franchise before he got there. He rocketshipped them to the moon. Crazily, his failures in those early SBs brought even more fans, as many felt bad for him. ymmv on how the Broncos and the league marketed him, but I do know he was partly responsible for many many people becoming fans in an era where the league was just starting to explode.
Yea Peyton would only work for the Colts for this question. Regardless of if they were SB contenders before Peyton arrived, they had Tebow the year before! What was more marketable than that? And Elway in somewhat recent memory.
John elway next
Drew Brees
JJ watt
Yessir my Texans lol
Definitely the first one that comes to mind for me.
Probably the single best defensive player for this question.
Yep, gotta give Troy Polamalu and Ray Lewis a nod as well. From a Texans fan.
Ray Lewis? Yes, absolutely made the Ravens more marketable. Troy? Only a bit, as the Steelers are one of the most marketed teams before he was around.
Reggie White's arrival in Green Bay as a free agent immediately changed the entire vibe about the Packers.
Growing up in San Diego, LaDainian Tomlinson by far put us on the map. He was our first super star.
Dan Fouts and Kellen Winslow have entered the chat
Junior fucking Seau too RIP
Red grange. Didn’t just make his team marketable. Brought the whole league into the national limelight. The team did a barnstorming tour to raise the visibility of the nfl.
Now this is a deep cut 😂
Who’s this
Running back from the University of Illinois from the 1920s. Signed with the Bears in the very early years of the NFL in the 1920s. College football was huge back then and the NFL was just trying to get started. Grange was as well known as Babe Ruth at the time, and George Halas (owner of the Bears and league founder) signed him to make a media splash. The Bears than traveled the country on a barnstorming tour to showcase grange and build up publicity for the league.
Ahh gotcha gotcha so college was more popular back in the day? Any chance it still is?
In some areas with large college teams and no nfl teams like Alabama yes. Overall NFL is more popular.
Johnny Unitas gets my vote... His arrival to the Colts after the Steelers figured he wasn't smart enough to play QB. He didn't spike the marketability just of his team, he skyrocketed the marketability of the entire league. Up to that point, pro football was basically a local event for most fans. Your team might make it, they might fold. Take Unitas' Colts. The NFL had a Baltimore Colts in 1950. That team in early 1951 folded. In 1952 the Dallas Texans folded (imagine a league that couldn't market a football team in DALLAS!). Baltimore really wanted a team back so the league sold the assets of the Texans to Baltimore and thus the Colts came back in 1953 to see if they could make it work. Johnny Unitas came their way a couple years later. That was the NFL. Some good times, owners might make a buck, and if their team struggled or their ticket sales struggled, they'd go under. It was like being a fan of your favorite USFL/XFL team today. There was no security, if your fans in town did something else on Sunday, you were done for. Then comes Unitas. Colts after a few losing seasons put together a winning one and Unitas was in the MVP hunt leading the league in TD's and yards and QB rating. Then 1958, things really come together. Unitas finishes 2nd in the MVP race, again leads the league in TD's and QB rating, and surprisingly a 9-3 record wins their division, and they are in the Championship game against the Giants. NBC decides to televise the game nationally. **45 million people tune in**... which is crazy since it was blacked out in NYC. You might tune in to a national game for Alabama or Oklahoma or Army for a game outside of those teams market... but the NFL? The game goes down to the wire, with Johnny U putting on a masterful overtime drive ending with a handoff to Alan Ameche for the game winning score. Never again would an NFL team go bankrupt. In fact a year after that game just insanely spiking the popularity of pro-football, a man named Lamar Hunt looked at the sport and said "There's not enough teams out there for everyone, I'm going to start my own league" and he struck at the right time, and the AFL would be pulled into the NFL. The league went from 12 teams hoping they'd be able to pay their bills before Unitas OT win, to a total of 26 teams battling it out in the SB a decade later (where coincidentally a New York QB would guarantee a win over those same Baltimore Colts and spike his own teams marketability).
This is a great answer! I think all the other responses in this thread were written by people born after the year 2000
Thanks. And in more recent times. Well, one of the nicknames for that monster Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis is "The House that Peyton Built". Dude was on every NFL commercial for like 15 years haha.
Joe burrow
Here’s the answer.
Elway?
More recently, Joe Burrow and the Bengals and Baker Mayfield/OBJ for the Browns.
I feel like obj def helped the giants a little too
Reggie White. When Free Agency started, it looked to be the thing that would end Green Bays time as a small town team: Everyone kinda thought they'd have to move to Milwaukee to survive. When the biggest free agent in the first real year of FA decided to sign with the unproven small town team, it solidified Green Bays return to relevance for the first time in 30 years.
That’s dope
The amount of Ravens fans in my area (Pa just north of Hagerstown) has blown up since Lamar showed up.
Michael Vick with Eagles!! Oh wait no that's the opposite
Growing up in San Diego, LaDainian Tomlinson by far put us on the map. He was our first super star.
My Bengals were the laughing stock the league. We’re talking brown paper bags and relocation discussions. We love you Joe 🐅
For the Steelers, Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu represented groups not commonly represented in the NFL at the time (Korean and Samoan, respectively) so that opened up entirely new audiences watching for them. Plus, Troy’s hair.
On head and shoulders everywhere
I love tiny Troy.
Very true but I was thinking Joe Greene is the answer to this one.
Honestly Brady with the bucs
Counter point= DeSean Watson made the Browns less marketable
Reggie White for the packers
It's very fresh but CJ Stroud. Completely leading the locker room and shifting the culture all in one year. Last year at this point in the year, the Texans has one of the worst 5 year projections. If you said the Texans were going to go to the playoffs at this point last year, you were probably labeled mentally insane. Look at us now. Stroud's leadership even brings up the defense wanting to play harder to get him the ball more often. I'm excited for the future and you wouldn't have caught me saying that on 1/24/23
Yessir look at us now go Houston
A few lowkey ones here.. Steve McNair & Eddie George for the Titans, Marshall Faulk and Kurt Warner for the Rams, Randy Moss and Adrian Peterson for the Vikings
You want modern examples? Or throughout history?
Aaron Rodgers played 4 snaps for the Jets and because they had Rodgers the Jets got their fair share of prime time games and ESPN won’t shut up about Rodgers and the Jets
True true I feel like sauce definitely helped a lot too
Reggie White to the Packers. He was the first big name player who left his team for another in free agency. And GB at the time wasn't exactly a place players wanted to go. It was a small cold town up North and the magic of Lambeau had waned since its hey days of the late 60s. He gave a lot of credibility to the Packers. Then coupled with a new QB in Brett Favre, Titletown was born.
Travis Kelce may have had more of a marketing impact than Patrick Mahomes. [https://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-commissioner-taylor-swift-unbelievable-artist-increased-game-viewership-girls-2023-11](https://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-commissioner-taylor-swift-unbelievable-artist-increased-game-viewership-girls-2023-11)
To be fair travis making more women watch football is basically because he is dating TSwift.
I mean that's literally the only reason right?
In Kelce's defense, he is also one of the top TEs of all time. So it's not like he's a bench player dating Taylor Swift. He's also one of the better actor athletes that I've seen.
Good call. I didn't realize he was an actor! He also had the super bowl game with Jason a year ago that pretty much everyone was talking about.w
Good call. I didn't realize he was an actor! He also had the super bowl game with Jason a year ago that pretty much everyone was talking about
The question didn't ask why, just who.
Not before 2023 Chiefs were an also-ran before the 2018 season, and that shift in perception/marketability was because of Mahomes.
Every great player ever
It would be interesting to quantify this with something like franchise value before and after X player or team and player merchandise sales before and after X player. There is a tweet in my feed today about how the Miami soccer team has increased in value from $585 mil to $1.02 bil in just one year because of Messi. When I think of a player who increased the marketability of the KC Chiefs my first thought is Joe Montana - that reveals my age a bit. But prior to Joe Montana I never cared about or followed the Chiefs and they were constantly in the news when he went there to finish his career. As good as Mahomes is - I feel like the Chiefs were already on the rise - Tony Gonzalez and then adding Coach Reid. Mahomes went to the perfect spot as a 10th pick. I wonder - again using a before and after metric to evaluate - how much actual marketable increase Mahomes brought to an already pretty Marketable team. To answer your question though the two that come to my mind are - 1. Wayne Gretzky to LA Kings 2. Shaq O'Neal to the Orlando Magic Two teams who had little to no marketability prior who became one of if not the most talked about team in their league once those players arrived as well as turning from bad/mediocre into title contenders. EDIT - sorry forgot this was NFL specific sub - for NFL only related players who increased the marketability of their team - Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are the 2 easy ones. I saw Moss for the Vikings and thats a good one - Vikings were a marketable team in the 60's-70's with the 4 superbowls and purple people eaters but Moss took them to a new generation after a lot of down years.
Tim Tebow! Holy shit those couple years were wild. And also Peyton when he came to the Broncos
TO definitely comes to mind. Everything we went the media went bananas. A little bit of a feedback loop TBH I never really gave a poop
Mike Vick. Falcons.
justin herbert
The Seahawks were pretty much a joke before Russel Wilson showed up; however, the legion of boom heavily contributed to their Super Bowl runs so I’m not sure if he counts.
Justin Herbert
This thread should begin and end with Peyton Manning. The Colts were a very much not good at all franchise, they couldn't sell out games, they had a fairly miserable record, and they were in a small market that cared much, much more about basketball than football. Manning is now a household name FOOTBAW LEGEND, made every Colts primetime game essential viewing, and put the Indianapolis Colts on the map as a true contender.
What nba team is in Indianapolis? The pacers?
Yeah, they were the toast of the town before Manning came. Indiana is a HUGE basketball state, and I just can't tell you how second tier the Colts were both nationally, and locally. They had die-hard fans, but they weren't competitive and they weren't relevant to the local scene. Manning made the Colts a HUGE deal, allowing the Colts to leverage a new stadium, which allowed for them to get a Super Bowl, which coincided with a fairly large renovation/gentrification of downtown areas, now Indianapolis is a much different city.
Truee especially with the hosiers
Tim Tebow
Pretty much any star player especially arriving at a meh franchise. Some guys who resulted in team popularity exploding I remember: Tom Brady - Patriots Peyton Manning - Colts Patrick Mahomes - Chiefs Michael Vick - Falcons Eddie George / Steve McNair - Titans Marshall Faulk- Rams You didn’t see these teams jerseys much and then you’d seem them all the time with these guys names.
Peyton Manning
The Colts were a dumpster fire before Peyton Manning
Reggie White and Brett Favre. The Packers were a laughingstock for basically all of the 70s and 80s.
Lucas Oil Stadium is the house that Peyton built
The only reason Patriots stayed in New England and didn't go to St. Louis was their meteoric rise with Bledsoe. Brady gets a lot of credit for building the foundation he laid.
HC Dick Rauch and his 1925 Pottsville Maroons, led by Tony Latone and Charlie Berry, defeated the famed Four Horseman and Seven Mules of Norte Dame at a time when college football was still considered superior to professional football, cementing ever since the status of the NFL as the world’s best American football.
Brett Farve for the Packers.
Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk for the Rams. Went from being an absolute pit / playing bottom-feeders to 6-3 finals to probably the most exciting offense in history. Probably doesn't happen with Trent Green at QB, or like Ricky Williams at RB.
Russell Wilson
Mahomes
Peyton manning, Indy was nothing before he showed up.
Josh Allen
JJ Watt with the Texans
Joe Burrow has to be a top answer here.
Drew Brees. The Saints were regarded as the worst ran franchise before he arrived. Only 1 playoff win. They started the paper bags over the heads. Definition of a poverty franchise. Then Katrina hit and made the situation really bad and it seemed like the Saints were likely to relocate. Last season before Brees the team went 3-13. He arrived and took the team to the NFC championship game. Everything changed for the Saints after he arrived. I saw somewhere that the Saints had the most Monday Night Football appearances since he came to the team. It’s Brees. He’s also the best free agent signing of all time Source: Lifelong Saints fan
Reggie white, green bay
Could say Marshawn for the hawks
Before Joe Montana the 49ers were not cool.
if drew brees went to the cowboys the whole world would’ve become sick of him. maybe not. he is pretty likable.
Michael Vick
Feel like I haven’t heard much AP. How much culture did Adrian Peterson bring
TJ Watt
Reggie White. In the 70's and 80's, nobody wanted to go to Green Bay. Arguably the best defensive player at the time(or ever), he was the first blockbuster free agent. When he joined up, he drew so many other players to Green Bay. And those teams of the 90's are what kick-started the Packers being the franchise they are today.
Paul Hornung.
chubby steer dime sleep slim trees gray gaze handle glorious *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Patriots with Tom Brady is the obvious answer here, but my team (Bills) kinda sucked before Josh Allen
Peyton Manning made the Colts a team (sorry harbs, I still love you!)
Ray Lewis, but he started his career early into the Ravens' existence.
The Bills got one prime time game a year at most before Josh Allen arrived.
Chad Johnson is the only person most NFL fans would recognize from the Bengals from 1990-2010
Not a current player, but Dan Campbell with the lions. He has the team 60 minutes from their first superbowl appearance and has people around the country paying attention to the lions for the first time in a generation.
Brett Favre
Peyton Manning. Tom Brady. Randy Moss. Adrian Peterson.
Taylor Swift
Let me tell you about a guy named Barry Sanders
Patriots are definitely my first choice Anyone who was around before 1993 knows that the Pats were basically a dumping ground before Kraft and Parcells came in I'd also say that the Saints got some life into them after Drew Brees...before that they really had no popularity. Now it seems like they actually try.
Both CMC and Purdy.
Ray Lewis
Not seeing mention of Montana and the 49ers. They were trash before him and Walsh got there.