Carli Lloyd kicks a field goal in Super Bowl commercial, and the message goes beyond just her NFL dreams
- USWNT star Carli Lloyd will take center stage in a Secret deodorant ad set to air during Super Bowl LIV.
- In the ad, Lloyd drills a game-winning field goal in front of a stadium full of fans, driving home a message that she says "goes beyond football."
- "It's about showing women and girls that it's okay to set big goals for themselves and to aspire to be more than what they think is possible," Lloyd told Business Insider.
- At the moment, Lloyd is focused on her USWNT responsibilities for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, but she hasn't ruled out the prospect of kicking field goals for an NFL team in the future.
- Read more of Business Insider's Super Bowl 2020 coverage here.
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Carli Lloyd has been pushing the limits of what women can do on the soccer pitch since her first World Cup in 2007.
But now, she's taking that ambition to the NFL - at least for one commercial.
Lloyd and US Women's National Team teammate Crystal Dunn will take center stage in a Secret Deodorant ad set to air during Super Bowl LIV. In the commercial, Dunn places the ball for Lloyd, who drills a game-winning field goal to the delight of fans inside a loud, jam-packed stadium.
The crowd temporarily hushes when Dunn and Lloyd remove their helmets, but the roars of applause resume shortly thereafter.
Lloyd told Business Insider that Secret's message "goes beyond football."
"It's a lot bigger than that," Lloyd said. "Secret wants to awaken the potential in others to see that there are barriers that can be broken and things that can be accomplished. It's the bigger conversation of having women and young girls and females to be able to pursue whatever they dream of doing."
"I didn't want to turn this down at all because I thought it was an unbelievable message and campaign to be apart of," she added.
Lloyd made headlines over the summer when she hit a 55-yard field goal at a Philadelphia Eagles practice. Since then, chatter about the longtime USWNT star taking her big boot to the NFL has proliferated. A number of pro teams reached out to Lloyd about joining their preseason rosters, but her focus was firmly on the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo. Still, she's not ruling anything out.
"I'm in the thick of things with Olympic qualifying at the moment and have a big year ahead so I really want to pour my heart and soul into it just like I do every year," Lloyd said. "I'm not closing any doors. There is always an opportunity. Given my age, I wouldn't say, well, at 39 you might not be able to kick a field goal. It's still a possibility."
Though kicking in the NFL would be a first both for Lloyd and for womankind, trailblazing is par for the course for the prolific striker. Lloyd and the rest of the USWNT are famously suing the US Soccer federation to fight for equal pay, and she sees the Secret ad's message as furthering the greater message behind that public battle.
"[The USWNT] is fighting for equal opportunity on our side and for equality as a whole to better the generation coming behind us," Lloyd said. "This ad is the same sort of message. It's about showing women and girls that it's okay to set big goals for themselves and to aspire to be more than what they think is possible. We want to show people what a truly equal world can look like in our USWNT world and it's no different than the ad that I've just taken part in."
Though she acknowledges that there's still a long way to go, Lloyd is encouraged by the change she's seen over the course of her career.
"For so many years, the idea was that women can't be as successful as men in the workplace, in the athletic world, in the professional sports world, in the business world," Lloyd said. "We're seeing a huge shift and we're seeing a trend that that is changing. Women are becoming more and more confident to go after their dreams."
"It's changed, and it's pretty remarkable and pretty amazing," she added.
Check out the full Secret deodorant commercial featuring Lloyd and Dunn below:
- Read more:
- Carli Lloyd scored 2 goals in Vlatko Andonovski's first USWNT game as head coach, and the performance could support her bid to start at the 2020 Olympics
- Carli Lloyd is serious about becoming an NFL kicker after finishing her USWNT career - 'I'm entertaining it'
- USWNT captain Carli Lloyd said the 2019 World Cup was 'absolutely the worst time of my life'
- Carli Lloyd was offered a roster spot for an NFL preseason game, but she had to turn it down because of prior USWNT commitments