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Laith Wallschleger was having a day. And by “having a day,” I mean he looked like he’d just emerged from a demolition derby gone wrong. After playing Rob Gronkowski’s stunt double in a Super Bowl commercial — because apparently, life isn’t chaotic enough for athletes — he was sporting a delightful mix of plaster and hair gel that could probably be marketed as the latest in avant-garde fashion.
With a red-eye flight to New York lurking just around the corner, Wallschleger scrambled to change outfits, presumably hoping to scare away any airport security who might be confused about whether they were dealing with a messy actor or a particularly disheveled piece of performance art. Off he went to LAX, where his latest gig — once again playing Gronkowski — awaited him. At this point, one wonders if he has an actual side gig as the NFL’s unofficial impersonator.
“It’s like imitating my brother,” he said, as if all of America wasn’t already taking notes on how to perfect the art of bro-ness while pretending to be the biggest party animal in the league. No wonder that their banter in the Patriots locker room went viral; it was less acting and more “just another day in the life of Gronk” in comedic form.
“That’s my good friend Laith who is playing me there,” Gronkowski said on the “Up and Adams” podcast, clearly pleased that one of his friends didn’t upstage him. “He got the laugh right on,” Gronk continued, solidifying the spot of Wallschleger as “Gronk 2.0” – no batteries required.
The résumé of this former defensive end reads like an unconventional casting call: from being Gronk’s double to pulling off roles on shows like “NCIS” and “9-1-1” — all while occasionally exploding through walls like a shiny, muscular superhero. Talk about commitment to a character! And to add to the absurdity, he’s also narrating car commercials. Because why not? If you already look like you belong in an action-packed straight-to-Netflix movie, you might as well lean into it.
His claim to fame seems to hinge on his sheer size — 6’4” and 255 pounds — which also puts him in serious contention for the “Most Likely to Get Cast as a Big White Guy in the NFL” award. The competition is fierce; just ask Tom Cruise, whose attempts at playing a formidable athlete could be likened to a hamster trying to lift weights.
In a remarkable twist of irony, Wallschleger’s big break was playing a football player in a film about Chucky Mullins, proving that life frequently imitates art in bewildering and sometimes darkly hilarious ways. Yet he often finds humor in the seriousness of actors playing athletes. “It’s really hard to find all those things in an actor,” he mused, as if he just stumbled upon the real-life conundrum of why none of Hollywood’s leading men seem to have any physical prowess.
Now, amid his many shimmering roles, there’s talk of a forthcoming Lifetime Christmas movie, where he stars as a football player who finds love with a pop star — just your classic holiday tale, really. One can only assume that the pop star is a magician, who makes all signs of his quarterback careers disappear beneath a pile of cheesy romance.
As for his filmography glide through the world of sports? “They get paid millions to ensure they don’t blow out a knee doing a freaking Visa commercial,” he quipped, hinting that he’s become the secret weapon of NFL stunt doubles—there to absorb physical comedy while the real players wish they had a personal bubble of safety.
So, here’s to Laith Wallschleger, the man bridging the absurd world of stardom and athleticism, proving that sometimes, it’s not just about the game — sometimes, it’s about who on set can best survive an exploding wall and still make it to the airport looking semi-human. Cheers to that!
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