It's time for my annual Superbowl SuperPro post!
NFL Superpro was the alter ego of Phil Grayfield, a former NFL player who became a sportscaster after his football career ended. Phil was an aspiring professional football player who received a career-ending injury on his knee while saving a small child. Unable to play sports, he decided to transition into sports reporting - which is believable. Whie interviewing a scientist, a group of thieves broke into the lab. The scientist then gave him a specially designed suit (as one does) to stop the robbers and was allowed to keep it, which he used to fight crime as SuperPro.
NFL Superpro was created by Marvel Comics in 1991 in partnership with the NFL by Fabian Nicieza, at the time the writer of X-men, who doesn't remember the character fondly. "He was never cool enough to attract teens or older readers," he said. Each issue of SuperPro plays out as standard superhero fare. Grayfield goes on a job assignment, encounters a villain, puts on his football-inspired Captain America costume, and resolves the story by the end of the issue. The reaction to the books was overall negative, but Nicieza says it was less about the content on the page, and more about how blatant the NFL's tie-in attempts were.
SuperPro has not been seen since the demise of the series. Writer Robert Kirkman reportedly wanted to use SuperPro in an issue of Marvel Team-Up but could not, due to copyright concerns. The closest he came was Marvel Team-Up #9, in which the character Stilt-Man says, "I beat up a guy called SuperPro last week. Silliest looking guy...".
