A new NFL promotional spot titled “Baby Mafia || You Better Believe It” turned the sacrament of Baptism into a punchline, a Catholic commentator argues in a recent Catholic Answers article.
Since the early 2010s, tailgating Buffalo Bills fans have a tradition of diving onto folding tables in exuberant displays of team loyalty. That same tradition now anchors a new parody “baptism,” with the Bills Mafia, the team’s fanbase, adapting it into a baby-safe initiation ritual.
In the 15-second commercial, parents place infants on small, breakable cardboard tables — miniature versions of the ones adults dive through — while a costumed “celebrant” recites a mock baptismal formula just before the cardboard folds beneath the child.
The “celebrant” speaks about gathering “to witness the baptism of the newest member of the Bills Mafia” and says the words of Baptism but replaces the names of the Trinity with that of the Bills’ head coach, quarterback, and another coach, concluding with an “amen.”
The commercial concludes with shots of infants on cardboard tables and the tagline “Some football fans are born ready. You better believe it.”
In his article, Nash calls the spoof “a blasphemous parody of infant baptism,” trivializing the sacrament that is the gateway to new life in Christ.
Nash writes that the commercial mocks “the baptism ritual, the associated invocation of the Holy Trinity, and the offices of both the ministerial priesthood and the papacy.” He notes that the group’s “pope,” who appears in vestments and imitates blessings, further amplifies the irreverence.
He warns that Catholics should be cautious about laughing off such imagery.
“It’s all a backhanded compliment to the Church’s ongoing relevance, because if we didn’t matter, we wouldn’t be on their minds,” he writes. “Still, one should be wary of mocking God (see Gal. 6:7-9).”
Nash also points to what he sees as a striking inconsistency within the league’s larger cultural posture. He observes that the NFL has “made special efforts to kowtow to certain groups” while giving broad exposure to content that demeans Catholic belief. He asks why no one in the league’s vetting process noticed the issue: “Surely Goodell could have consulted his NYC neighbor Cardinal Timothy Dolan or canon lawyer Fr. Gerald Murray… Where was the vetting process on this commercial? No one raised a red flag?”
He appeals to Bills fans, especially Catholic ones, to “end this charade of sacrilege.” As an alternative, he suggests that gatherings of the Bills Mafia could invite real clergy to offer real blessings, “including special ones for infants,” emphasizing that such blessings are open to all.
He added that he hopes and prays that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell “sidelines this promo permanently.”
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