Gendered Sports: Football Cops Commercial

This commercial aired about a year and a half ago for Directv that I think was exclusively aired on their on demand channels.  Personally, I think this commercial is hilarious and I was dying laughing so hard the first time I saw it.  Especially Peyton Manning's line at the end when he says "He knows what it means!"  Obviously, that it was the commercial is going for, a funny commercial with two professional quarterbacks that aren't known for their acting talents.  A deeper meaning behind this commercial shows gender roles and also the fame that the American society holds professional athlete to.  Although Eli Manning and Peyton Manning are playing fake cops there still is some resemblance to the way these two men represent and stand for the city they play in.  These men and especially professional athletes in general are more popular and famed than actual police officers that protect the city.  Furthermore, there are also no women athletes in these commercials, which shows the gross inequality of men over women athletes in media.  In almost every women sport played, especially in the US, women sports continue to stay in the shadows of male sports (Rodriguez).  The only time we are likely to see women in the media with commercials and advertisements come from sexualized ads where the females exposed their bodies for whatever the product is even if it has nothing to with a person's body.  On an obscure level this commercial with the women in distress being saved by the Mannings is sort of related to the way men's sports is viewed as the savior of sports within American society.  Women's sport is viewed as this lesser form of sport and not equal to the level of play within men's sports.  Therefore, American society reinforces gender roles by men being this being made for sport and physical activity while women are seen as mere sex symbolic rather than actual superior athletes.  This may be an extreme classification of of men and women's sports, however at one time in history society was truly viewed this way.  Today I think women have made great strides in being viewed as equals and I think things are continually getting better.