WATCH: Bills QB Josh Allen’s road to NFL celebrated in new Gatorade advertisement
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is one of the faces of the contemporary NFL, an oft-marketed player who routinely cements his status among the league’s elite with his herculean on-field efforts and otherworldly play.
His talent hasn’t always been recognized, however, as the now-elite signal-caller’s road to superstardom was not an easy one to traverse. A lanky kid from a small farm town in northern California, Allen was not offered a single scholarship out of high school, prompting him to enroll at Reedley College after graduating from Firebaugh.
He kept his sights on playing collegiate football at the highest level while enrolled at a junior college, ultimately receiving scholarship offers from Wyoming and Eastern Michigan after a single season at Reedley. The Eagles ultimately pulled their offer, paving the way for Allen to head to Laramie and join the Cowboys’ quarterback room.
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The rest, as they say, is history.
Allen ultimately rose to national prominence throughout his time at Wyoming, prompting the Buffalo Bills to select him with the seventh overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft despite questions about his accuracy. He soon overcame his accuracy deficiencies as he developed into one of the league’s top signal-callers, particularly shining over the past four seasons as he’s tallied an NFL-high 174 touchdowns. Though now one of the unequivocal faces of the NFL, Allen still plays with a chip on his shoulder due to the adversity he faced on his way to the proverbial mountaintop.
And his path to his current status has been celebrated in a new Gatorade advertisement, a 30-second clip produced as part of the company’s recently renewed “Is It In You?” campaign. The video primarily focuses on the thousands of emails Allen sent to college coaches around the country as he was searching for a program that was interested in him, ending with a short compilation of his professional highlights. You can watch the full ad below:
Allen was revealed as one of the faces of the sports drink manufacturer’s new campaign earlier this year. Gatorade is one of several arms of PepsiCo that Allen is an advertising partner of, as the quarterback has been featured in commercials for Pepsi and Tostitos in the past. He’s also been the face of advertisements produced by companies like Verizon, Paramount, and Beats by Dre.
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