Who's The Football Player In The Geico Commercial With The Weird Play Names?
NFL players spend their careers on camera. For some of them, it's not just when they're slinging the pigskin. Footballers like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen are at the peak of their powers, and that hasn't stopped them both from becoming a ubiquitous on-screen presence for companies like Verizon, Subway, and State Farm.
Other athletes, meanwhile, blossom into commercial actors once their playing days are over. Andrew Whitworth is one such player. After spending 11 seasons playing tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals and five seasons for the Los Angeles Rams, Whitworth retired from the NFL in 2022. In his final professional football game, he won a Super Bowl ring. (Ironically, he beat the Bengals — his squad for two-thirds of his career — as a Ram.)
Now, fans might recognize the former player from his Geico commercials, both of which poke fun at the NFL's outlandishly titled play names. "Kentucky double-right, 200, imitation crab, zebra 60," Whitworth rattles off to a colleague with a straight face, pointing to a scramble of X's and O's on a whiteboard. His next word jumble turns out to be a recipe for baked ziti.
In another ad, a coach's zany play name asserts that Whitworth can't bench 350 pounds. He retorts with his own wordy play name: "Double pump fake, I'm stronger than you, I can bench 350, and I'm a good tackle."
Whitworth clearly has the chops to be a comedic commercial actor, but he can be seen most regularly as an analyst.
Andrew Whitworth is an analyst for Thursday Night Football
Before he retired from football in 2022, Andrew Whitworth was one of only two active 40-something players in the NFL. The other was a little-known quarterback named Tom Brady. Both players were thriving in middle age, but for former left tackle-turned-analyst Joe Thomas, Whitworth's achievements were a little more impressive and less in the limelight.
"Whitworth is doing this, and he's getting physically beaten down every single week," Thomas told The Ringer. "It's more amazing what he's doing out there than it is with Brady because of the physical nature of his position."
Whitworth was similarly tenacious and humble in his extracurricular activities. In 2021, he won the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award for his philanthropic and community service efforts in Los Angeles, as well as his native Louisiana.
Whitworth has been praised for his welcoming energy (during his career he regularly hosted dozens of NFL players for Thanksgiving dinner) and focus on community. He brings that spirit to Amazon Prime's NFL desk, where, as of 2022, he serves as an analyst alongside Aqib Talib, Richard Sherman, Tony Gonzalez, and fellow commercial actor Ryan Fitzpatrick. As part of his coverage, he hosts "Big Whit Little Mike."
Doing ads for companies like Geico is another opportunity for Whitworth to show off his playful side. "Had so much fun filming this spot with Geico!" he wrote on Instagram. "And yes, I stand by this play name. Always keep them guessing!"