Bill Belichick Sprinkles His Salty Vibe on DoorDash’s Football-Themed Ads

Do not ask Bill Belichick about keto options for a game-day spread or how to cook burgers when he’s hankering for wings. And whatever you do, don’t try to recruit him for your fantasy football league—he will crush you with a stone-cold stare and a soul-withering quip. 

Belichick, former New England Patriots coach and six-time Super Bowl champ, brings his trademark suffer-no-fools persona to a subtly hilarious DoorDash campaign called “Fan Coach,” which touts the start of football-watching season and the food that fuels it.

In a series of ads that will run across TV, social, and digital channels, Belichick holds faux press conferences—some from his living room sofa—and dispenses advice to diehard fans on topics such as how to rally the home crowd at halftime. 

“You could say, ‘Let’s party,’” Belichick says in one video, bobbing almost imperceptibly in his seat—his version of a touchdown dance?—and calling back to a classic meme.

DoorDash and its in-house agency, Superette, gave the legendary coach room to add his own touches and make tweaks to the creative so that it would fit his outwardly crusty demeanor.

“Authenticity was important for both sides,” Renaldo Chapman, vice president, brand and creative at DoorDash, told ADWEEK. “We weren’t coming to Bill expecting him to be something he isn’t, and I think consumers are going to appreciate how much of his personality he allowed to come out in the work.”

For the uninitiated, Sports Illustrated has called Belichick “a scholar of history and a cutter of sleeves,” as well as “a collector of rings, schematic genius, mentor of Tom Brady, and conductor of the most successful sports franchise this century.”

In the meantime, Tom Brady Sr., father of the quarterback legend, reflecting a common perception, has said that Belichick’s “interpersonal skills are horrible.” Serious National Football League fans may consider the coach polarizing, but many probably split the difference between the glowing and the scathing critiques. 

Media, marketing, and more

The DoorDash partnership is unusual for Belichick, who rarely does endorsements. There was a 2020 campaign for Subway, but otherwise, his commercial CV is filled mostly with clip-driven montages for NFL TV.

The 72-year-old coach, who parted ways with the Patriots early this year, inked a number of recent media deals for the next phase of his career, including hosting and commentating gigs on ESPN, ESPN2, SiriusXM, The Pat McAfee Show, and Inside the NFL on The CW.

In becoming a DoorDash spokesman, Belichick is the second iconic and irascible football coach to use his stolid reputation as a hook for a cheeky marketing campaign. Nick Saban, formerly of the University of Alabama, stars as the host from hell in a 60-second spot that has gone viral for Vrbo.

Since each coach is away from the field (Saban officially retired from the Crimson Tide), this may be an ideal opportunity to lighten up, Saban recently told ADWEEK.

“Hopefully, our legacies—mine and Bill’s—are a little more far-reaching than being the hard guys that demanded a lot from a lot of people,” he said.

Landing each coach is a coup for the brands involved, potentially leading to major payoffs and commercial gold, according to Deb Gabor, founder of Sol Marketing.

“The market is abuzz with curiosity about their next moves, and these ads play right into that conversation,” Gabor told ADWEEK. “These spots don’t just keep the coaches relevant—they keep the brands in the spotlight at a time when fans are more tuned in than ever to what these two men are up to. That’s powerful.”

Gummy worms and gift cards

“Fan Coach,” shot in Miami in June, comes from director Pete Marquis, who encouraged Belichick to improv on-set, according to the brand.

For the spot called “Options,” Belichick tossed out some nontraditional choices for game-day grub like a mixed green salad, cantaloupe, watermelon, mashed potatoes, gummy worms, and chateaubriand. Those suggestions made it into the finished video.

Six ads anchor the campaign, although it broadens out via a contest that will give away signed footballs, $50 gift cards, and limited-edition Belichick-inspired hoodies—sleeves missing, of course, but with added flair like insulated pockets for storing snacks and drinks.

To get in the running for the swag—and as a mirror of the campaign’s concept—consumers will be invited to ask their own questions via #FanCoachSweeps about food, game-day rituals, or football minutiae. They will presumably get on-brand responses from Belichick through Instagram, TikTok, and X.

Belichick, in a statement, said he’s “excited” about the brand collaboration and fan coaching, as “DoorDash has mastered the playbook when it comes to delivering the perfect at-home game-day experience.”

The marketing effort also includes partnerships with A-list footballers Julian Edelman, Matt Ryan, Deion Sanders, and the now-ubiquitous Jason Kelce, who will post related content on their social channels.

“Fan Coach” continues the DoorDash outreach to sports fans after the brand’s history-making Super Bowl 2024’s “DoorDash-All-The-Ads.” The campaign, from Wieden+Kennedy Portland, won the Dan Wieden Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes Lions this summer.

Food for thought

While that work positioned the brand as an all-encompassing portal for consumer goods—with the ongoing platform called “Your Door to More”—the new ads bring the focus squarely back to food. The campaign coincides with viewing parties and spikes in orders around football season, Chapman said, and it will include promos with local vendors and restaurants.

“Fan Coach” is the first work to be released after some internal restructuring, with Chapman brought in about three months ago to oversee the combination of brand and creative divisions, per chief marketing officer Kofi Amoo-Gottfried.

Chapman—an alum of Chime, Uber, and Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser—said the change comes as DoorDash looks to be “more culturally relevant” while “expanding and scaling work at a faster pace.”

“Fan Coach” is “the first fruit of that particular labor,” Chapman said, with the goal of “being able to avoid the bottlenecks that happen when you have siloed organizations.”