NFL SuperPro was a Marvel Comics series, the product of a brief collaboration between Marvel and the National Football League. It was one of the early works of Fabian Nicieza.
Phil Grayfield, a former aspiring football player, lost his chance to make it to the big leagues when he suffered a crippling knee injury while saving a child, and now he works as a sports reporter. While interviewing a wealthy but eccentric scientist who created a new, high-tech football uniform, Grayfield is caught in the middle of a robbery that goes south quickly, resulting in the scientist's house being set on fire. In the ensuing conflagration, Grayfield is doused in chemicals that turn him into a superhero. Donning the experimental football uniform, Grayfield dubs himself "SuperPro" and decides to use his new powers to fight crime.
With Marvel's partnership with the NFL having long since ended, NFL SuperPro is currently Exiled from Continuity.
This series contains examples of:
- Braids, Beads and Buckskins: During Buzz Dixon's runs on the series, SuperPro fought Hopi villains with costumes inspired by kachinas.
- Big Bad: Sanction, AKA mobster Marco Sanzionare, is Grayfield's main nemesis.
- Career-Ending Injury: Phil Grayfield's football career ended after he suffered a terrible knee injury.
- Dream-Crushing Handicap: Phil's bad knee ended his hopes of becoming a professional football player.
- Drugs Are Bad: Phil's Starter Villain is a football player mutated into a rampaging giant from years of experimental steroid abuse. He's beaten when he suffers a heart attack from the strain of extended combat.
- Wolverine Publicity: Spider-Man and Captain America guest starred in the first and eighth issues. Spidey has little to no interaction with the title character, while Cap only appears for three pages.
