Cornerback Malcolm Butler and receiver Julian Edelman are scheduled to be honored in a parade today on Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A., one day after playing key roles in the New England Patriots’ victory in Super Bowl XLIX.
Butler and Edelman will also be featured in an “I’m going to Disneyland” commercial, which was to begin airing late Sunday, according to Darrell Fry, Walt Disney World’s sports media director.
They shouted the phrase on the field at University of Phoenix Stadium moments after the Patriots’ 28-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks Sunday in Glendale, Arizona.
Edelman caught the game-winning three-yard game-winning touchdown pass from Tom Brady with two minutes, two seconds to play. Butler sealed the victory by intercepting a pass by Russell Wilson in the end zone with less than 30 seconds to play.
The last time two players visited a Disney park after winning a Super Bowl was in 2009, when quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and receiver Santonio Holmes helped lead the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 27-23 victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII.
Edelman was selected by the Patriots in the seventh and final round of the 2009 NFL draft out of Kent State, where he was the Golden Flashes’ starting quarterback as a senior. The Redwood City native began his college career at the College of San Mateo.
Butler was an undrafted rookie out of West Alabama, a Division II school, after beginning his college career at Hinds (Mississippi) Community College.
The commercial is the 48th in the series that began in 1987 with then- New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms after he was selected as the MVP of Super Bowl XXI. This is the 28th commercial to follow a Super Bowl.
“Sometimes its the MVP, but often it is not,” Fry told City News Service. “We look for those players who inspire us with the combination of a great personal feel-good story and great plays in the game.”
The “American Idol” winners David Cook, Kris Allen and Lee DeWyze have also been subjects of “I’m going to Disneyland/Walt Disney World” commercials, as has Gretchen Carlson, the 1989 Miss America, now the host of the Fox News Channel program, “The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson.”
