Sports

All Jaxed up

When a soup company cast actors, Wilma knew only she should play the quarterback's mom.

By JAY CRIDLIN
Published February 6, 2005

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JACKSONVILLE - Sometimes, Donovan McNabb's life must border on the surreal.

There he was, days before the biggest day of his pro career, less than a week from a game upon which, for better or for worse, much of his legacy will be based.

And not far away, his mother was being swarmed with reporters barking questions about turkey broth.

"It does strike me," he confessed during Super Bowl media day. "But she's always been a celebrity. It just so happens you're seeing her commercials now."

Indeed, since signing on as a pitchwoman for Campbell's Chunky Soup, Wilma McNabb has developed her own cult following and put a smiling mother's face on the Eagles.

There she is onscreen in the locker room, delivering soup to her son's linemen. There she is on the sidelines, the object of a Gatorade dousing by a pack of Donovan's teammates.

And here she is in Jacksonville, in person, ready to cheer her son in Super Bowl XXXIX.

"I really didn't expect it to be like it is," she said, wearing a sequin-studded No. 5 Eagles jersey. "All I thought about is, "I could do the Chunky soup commercial.' I never thought that stardom would come with it."

Her route to fame in advertising is the stuff of Madison Avenue lore. Campbell had concocted an ad campaign built around the concept of NFL stars and their mothers. The problem was that all of the s" were actually actors.

When McNabb signed with Philadelphia-based Campbell four years ago, Wilma visited the set of one of his first commercials, and decided she, not the actor, was born to play the role.

"I was emotional about that," she said. "I was like, "Why wouldn't you use the real mom?' "

There was some resistance at first, Campbell spokesman John Faulkner said.

"The concept was great, but you've got to be able to carry it off," he said. "We'd just have to cross our fingers that the mom could pull it off."

Those fears subsided as soon as Campbell brass met Wilma. Since then, the mothers of such stars as Kurt Warner, Brian Urlacher, Michael Strahan and John Lynch have appeared in Chunky commercials. But only Wilma has stayed on all three years.

McNabb's teammates have gotten a kick out of appearing in the ads with their quarterback and his mother.

"She's just like a mom," said the Eagles' Jermaine Mayberry, who appears with the McNabbs in a current ad. "She's really nice, and she's really warm."

"I'm excited to see them receiving some positive attention," Donovan said of his parents. "She's reflecting that. She's reaching out to the other moms to give them dreams and aspirations that if their son makes it, that they can start getting commercials."

Philadelphia's recent success, culminating in this Super Bowl appearance, has made Wilma more visible than ever.

"I just do what I do normally, and that's be a team mom," she said. "And I'm happy with that."

She has grown so popular that during one promotional appearance on Wednesday, more cameras and reporters crowded around her than fellow Campbell spokesman Ben Roethlisberger.

You know, the Steelers quarterback. The NFL Rookie of the Year.

And the reporters weren't lobbing all softballs. They wanted Wilma's insight on Andy Reid's coaching, on Terrell Owens' injured ankle, on Freddie Mitchell's ego.

As she and Roethlisberger left the stage, emcee Joe Cahn, a professional tailgate party organizer, couldn't resist showing Wilma some love.

"Isn't it great that in the middle of the Super Bowl," he said, "everybody wants to talk to mom."

Jay Cridlin can be reached at cridlin@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 6, 2005, 00:22:15]

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