American Football Meets English Football

Two of the most marketable superstars in their respective sports, Reggie Bush of the New Orleans Saints and David Beckham of the LA Galaxy/English national team (for now), have come together and filmed several commercials for Adidas as part of the sports giant's "Futbol meets Football" campaign. They can be seen on YouTube by searching "David Beckham and Reggie Bush".

The commercials are quite good, in my opinion. You can see that Reggie Bush is an incredible athlete. For someone who probably hasn't ever played soccer before, he picks up the game incredibly well. Beckham and Bush establish a solid chemistry right off the bat and the scenes are pretty entertaining. The two fire penalties at each other, Beckham shows Bush how he hits one of his trademark free kicks, and Bush shows Beckham a few things about American football. The shot with Beckham lofting a long ball, much like a quarterback, and Bush acting as a wide receiver and hauling it in yards down the field is classic.

Nothing bad can come out of commercials like these and surely David Beckham's arrival in LA later this month will provide soccer with increased visibility here in the States. He and Reggie Bush are two athletes who are easily recognized wherever they go and joint efforts like these are good for both sports, but primarily soccer as it needs credibility in the US. Rapper P. Diddy is a reknowned Arsenal fan (http://www.itv.com/news/entertainment_6fea0f017e4b7c37a7299c15ab7cd75e.html) and has been to Premiership games before. He visited Manchester United in Copenhagen when they were there for Champions League commitments and he was in town for the MTV Europe Music Video Awards. Superstars of that magnitude are so important for soccer to succeed in the United States and the commercials with Beckham and Bush are just another illustration of soccer's attempt at growth here.

Here are a few of the commercials:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfpm7FrdQyI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmhgiY9uvKU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc6csxqtrBk