I was eating at a cafe in Paris a few years ago and Peyton Manning and his family came in.
Nobody but me had any clue who he was. They were laughing and chatting and having a blast as a family. I live in the Denver area and he is notoriously private, rarely seen out in public except at football games or charity events (if you can even call that “in public”)
John Elway, OTOH, is always hanging out somewhere and doesn’t seem to give a crap if he’s recognized.
I imaging some of the very famous aging football (soccer) players from around the world feel the same way when they come to play in MLS (US soccer league.) David Beckham excepted, of course.
There was a video from a few years ago of Richard Sherman (cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks) at the Super Bowl in New Orleans interviewing football fans and asking who they thought the best cornerback in the game was. I don’t think any of them recognized him. That team started doing very well the following year and he has become very recognized.
Oddly, I started typing “Richard Sherman New Orleans Super Bowl” into Google and it autocompleted to “Richard Sherman New Orleans Dermatologist”.
There was an amusing news story from New Jersey a while back. Someone called the cops on an eccentric-looking old man wandering around on a rainy night; the cops were very suspicious, and “indulged” his fantasy of being Bob Dylan. You can guess who he turned out to be. I agree this sort of thing would vary celebrity to celebrity, but Bob was apparently very polite and friendly about the whole thing.
And I have no idea who Tom Brady or Peter Manning is (though I guess you are talking about Peyton Manning from what is posted below, who from context I’d guess is a Denver based athlete. I’d guess football - but I haven’t watched a football game in fifteen years, don’t read the sports page or pick up sports based literature. I follow a little golf, and sometimes a little baseball. I hear my local football team made the playoffs, I think, because someone hinted at such a thing on my Facebook page.
And he isn’t the face of those brands in the U.S., because most Americans don’t have a clue who he is.
He’s not big on being famous - although before he was famous, he was obsessed by it.
(My in-laws knew him in his Dinkytown days - apparently pretty well as in he used to fiddle around on the guitar in their apartment and steal my father-in-laws cigarettes.)
I think most celebrities can dress down and go pretty well unnoticed when they want to.
I mean, when I’m at a restaurant, a movie theater or a supermarket, I rarely pay close attention to people around me. So if, say, Matthew McConnaughey put on a casual shirt and jeans and walked past me in one of those places, I probably wouldn’t notice him at all. And even if I did, I probably wouldn’t see any reason to bother him.
To repeat a story I’ve told before, my family bumped into auto racing star Jeff Gordon at the Central Park carousel about 8 years ago. Practically nobody except us recognized him, and that seemed to suit him fine.
In a Southern city, he might have been hounded by fans. But in Manhattan, he was just another anonymous Dad pushing a stroller.
Why is it surprising? I have no idea who he is. I don’t follow sports in general, and certainly not those outside the US. So if I saw him in a commercial, I would just think he was some dude in a commercial.
Yeah but you guys know Unca Google… I use him all the time when people talk about US politicians, brands or TV programs, for example. That use hasn’t broken my wrists yet. But there is a noticeable amount of US posters who make a point of posts like that one.
Hockey, in Canada, is probably like football in the USA, or Soccer (football) in the UK, or the rest of the world. Doug Gilmour was a sensation in Toronto when he played there (91-97).
When he got traded to New Jersey he was amazed that he could walk down the street, eat in restaurants and not even be recognized.
He suddenly liked the anonymity. Imagine never being able to out in public without being recognized?
I had never heard of Lionel Messi before this thread. I had to look him up to even know which guy he was in that photo you linked to. I’m not the most clued up when it comes to pop culture, particularly sports, but I’m surprised someone you say is one of the most photographed men in the world isn’t at least partially on my radar.
Having said that, I probably will say “I’ve never heard of him” in a year’s time, having forgotten this thread.
As an American who doesn’t follow soccer at all, I would have no clue. As far as fairly modern guys go I would recognize a couple guys named Ronaldo, David Beckham, and Landon Donovan. That’s about it.
On the other hand, I could probably name most players on MLB (800 or so), NFL (1600-ish), or NBA rosters (400) and recognize the majority of starting players.
From the pic posted, the only thing that really stands out to me is Messi is the only one who looks like an actual adult man. The rest look like they need parental permission to stay out past dark and they are 20 years late for a boy band audition.
ETA: I have heard the same Lionel Messi just from being around. He’s just not recognizable to me in the way I might have heard the name of a top curler or gymnast or jockey or whatever, but don’t follow it at all.
This goes to show that in the world of sports, there are comparatively few truly global celebrities. In many parts of Europe, 95 percent of all people would not be able to even name one NFL player and 99,9 percent don’t know a single MLB player.
Certainly seems like there are quite a few of us who’ve never heard of him. Speaking personally, I’ve never even seen or heard his name before this thread. I asked my other half, and he hadn’t heard of him either.
Back when I had my restaurant, one of my regular customers brought a buddy in for breakfast. The buddy was a little more scruffy than most of my guests (mine was literally the only restaurant in a very small town, so a lot of people seemed to think they ought to gussy up, in case they ran into the preacher’s wife or the ex or whatever.) Beyond his general dishevelment, I took no real notice - brought his coffee, cooked his eggs, whatever. Another guest told me at lunch time that he was Jan-Michael Vincent. And that still didn’t ring a bell for me. I learned from his host later that JMV was pretty offended by my lack of recognition. I still don’t know who he was.
A few years before that, a very well known college basketball coach tried to pick me up at the IHOP. I didn’t know who he was, just that he was several decades beyond my dating range. Again, someone later told me who he was. He didn’t seem offended that I didn’t know, though. And he was actually less creepy than the usual dirty old man - I suspect that there were a handful of 19-year-olds who were more informed and more receptive?
I also used to hang out and shop with someone who became famous during the course of our acquaintance. She was generally relieved to be left alone when we were on the prowl for amazing shoes. As her fame grew, that became rare, so I got to enjoy a couple of private shopping trips around Atlanta - either going to a store after hours, or having 50 pairs brought around for an in home trial. She missed being anonymous, but enjoyed the other perks of fame.
And I once met a very nice NASCAR driver at a bar. He flirted away. I had never heard of him. Told me his car was right outside. In my innocence, I asked if he would pop the hood - I didn’t know that the engine configurations were national secrets! We walked out with a friend of mine (playing bodyguard - I’m innocent, not dumb!) He opened the trailer and popped the hood, and I missed the chance of a lifetime to get rich with a couple of surreptitious pictures of his motor, I guess - my bodyguard friend told me the next day that a NASCAR competitor would have paid good money. The driver and I each left alone that night, but he actually seemed to enjoy the fact that I had no idea who he was. He won the Winston Cup later that year.
I once got into a Toronto subway car and took a seat across from a former prime minister of Canada. He sat there, unnoticed and unrecognized by everyone (including me) until, after a few stops, someone greeted him by name. He seemed grateful for the attention. After that, people leaving the car tended to say goodbye to him personally.