Barry Sanders did own stunts in NFL 100 commercial

One of the highlights (or maybe THE highlight) of Super Bowl 53 was the NFL 100 commercial aired at halftime. The ad spot brought together some of the league’s biggest names from both the past and the present, showing them throwing around the ole’ pig skin at an upscale NFL 100 event.

A notable inclusion was former Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders, who is seen grabbing a lateral from Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley before making two men miss and darting into open space. Seeing as the scene cuts out there and suddenly Peyton Manning has the ball, one can only assume he scored a touchdown on that run.

NFL.com’s Nick Shook spoke to some of the producers of the commercial, who revealed that Barry Sanders was among the players who were excited to do their own stunts.

“Barry Sanders, who actually didn’t use a stunt double. We were ready to go with Barry just because we weren’t sure whether he wanted to make those spin moves and the cuts. He’s like ‘I got this.’” director Peter Berg said.

At age 50, Sanders still has some of the fancy footwork that made him an NFL legend back in the day. The fact that he does not get hit in the commercial — unlike Deion Sanders who did have to use a stunt double — probably made him more adamant to doing his own stunts, but it is cool nonetheless.