Fantastic commercial success

What, you don't believe they can do it?

You doubt that Jacksonville running back Maurice Jones-Drew can be buried up to his neck on a beach, then use his superhuman burst to explode out of a hole five feet deep?

You wonder whether Denver quarterback Chris Simms can effortlessly throw passes into trash cans 45 yards away, then pull off the same trick as a can is zipping past on a golf cart?

You scoff at the comic-book quickness of New York Giants tight end Kevin Boss, who bends backward Matrix-style to one-hand a pass screaming at his head from point-blank range?

Well, Mr. Skeptic, just know that even Boss' agent wasn't sure if his client actually pulled off that stunt for an NFL.com commercial promoting fantasy football.

"During training camp that was probably the No. 1 question I heard while I was signing autographs after practice: Was it real?" Boss said. "Different people back home, if their reaction wasn't like, 'Whoa!' they'd kind of look at me funny like, 'You did that?' "

He'll never tell.

Each of the 18 "Fantasy Files" ads features a player urging the viewer: "Pick me!" They have become YouTube sensations, earning views by the millions, and have spawned dozens of homemade copycat versions.

The authentic commercials air exclusively on NFL Network but are also available at fantasyfiles.nfl.com.

A film student might say the commercials are cinema verite.

To a football fan, they're Xs and O's meets the X-Files.

"It's all about fun," said Jonathan Klein, the NFL's creative producer. "And it's showing another dimension of these athletes. These guys have great personalities. Not only did they show their skills, but they had fun doing it."

Sure, the ads can be picked apart, and someone with a keen eye can probably guess how some of the effects were achieved. But for the most part, the astoundingly realistic spots have viewers thinking, "Did I really just see that?"

There's Washington tight end Chris Cooley, busting his hands through drywall on a construction site and blindly catching a pass thrown on the other side of the wall.

(He was willing to explain how the commercial was shot, but what fun would that be?)

"What was really the hardest part was ripping the ball back through the sheetrock," Cooley said. "I kept dropping the ball trying to bring the ball back through. The harder you punched the sheetrock, the more it would explode, so the bigger the hole would be.