Texas, Texas A&M Football Stars Partner With Actor Terry Crews in Sonic NIL Deal
By Darian Kelly
Last Updated on August 26, 2025
Sonic is letting its creative juices flow in its first endeavor into the name, image, and likeness space. The fast food chain known for its service at the speed of sound has signed five college football players from Texas and Texas A&M, including Texas defensive back Michael Taaffe, linebacker Colin Simmons, and wide receiver Ryan Wingo, along with Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed and running back Reuben Owens.
Each player will act in four episodic commercials fueled by drama, and will be an ode to the Lone Star Showdown rivalry, with the main character being the Sonic Smasher Cheeseburger. However, the burger chain isn’t just throwing these athletes on stage and telling them to break a leg. Sonic understands that success on and off the field is connected to excellent coaching.
That’s where renowned actor Terry Crews comes in.
Sonic entrusted Crews, a former athlete himself, to be the players’ on-set acting coach, ensuring that the same level of discipline, effort, and execution they bring to the field on Saturdays is displayed when the director says “action.” Crew’s background as a former Western Michigan football player and his five years in the NFL make him the ideal reference point for the newly assembled group of athlete-actors.
The Everybody Hates Chris and Brooklyn Nine-Nine star put the college football stars through a litany of acting courses at the Terry Crews School of Acting for Athletes, from vocal warmups, vulnerability, technique, bite and smile, and emotion.
Crews made his presence felt with the college athletes as if he were a coach in the football meeting room. In the introductory video, he expressed to them, “Endorsements mean you actually have to be good on camera. That’s where I come in.” He followed that up with asking the group, “Who’s ready to emote!?” Crews put the acting troupe through vocal warmups, where they had to recite the phrase “Sally sells seasoned Sonic Smashers by the seashore.” Both Owens and Simmons struggled initially during the vulnerability lesson. However, as the acting session progressed, each player was able to graduate with their diplomas, showing their completion of the Terry Crews School of Acting for Athletes.
You can catch the latest commercials featuring the Longhorns and Aggie television stars starting on August 30. The two teams will face off on November 28 in the Lone Star Showdown.
