Local child in Super Bowl commercial: The Courier-Times

Some say Super Bowl commercials are the best part of the big game day. Of course, people remember the game highlights the next day, but the commercials are what keep people talking. This year, the NFL has created a commercial for the ages and it includes a New Castle boy.

Dominic Pass, 8, New Castle, will make an appearance in the NFL’s 2016 Super Bowl commercial. He and eight other Indiana children were selected to sing in the Super Bowl Babies advertisement, featuring people adoringly referred to as “Super Bowl Babies.”

“We’ve always called him our Super Bowl baby because the Super Bowl was on February 4, and almost exactly nine months later he was born,” said Steve Pass, Dominic’s grandfather.

Pass found out about the commercial because he is a season ticket holder for the Indianapolis Colts.

Dominic has attended games with his father, but his ties to the Colts run deeper. He was named after Dominic Rhodes, a former Colts running back.

After a less than five minute Skype interview during which Dominic sang “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” for the Los Angeles casting director, the family wasn’t sure whether Dominic would be picked or not. It wasn’t until nearly a week later that Dominic was told he would be in the commercial. Things moved quickly after he was booked.

“Literally, we had, like, 12 hours before we had to leave,” said Rosanna Fox, Dominic’s mother.

In a whirlwind, they packed all their Colts gear and flew to New York City where filming was taking place. When they arrived, a car was waiting to take Dominic and Fox to the rehearsal set. They didn’t even get a chance to stop by the hotel first.

Since Fox wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, she was surprised to see people of all ages at the filming. There were people in their 40s or 50s all the way down to babies who were born after the most recent Super Bowl.

After a full day of rehearsals, Dominic and his mom saw what they could of New York City. The next day was the first day of filming, which lasted from about 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Wardrobe was a key part of this commercial, even down to the shoes. While Dominic was decked out in full Colts attire, he was given a pair of Chuck Taylor shoes from the crew to wear. Inside one of the shoes, Fox found a sticker that said “Heroes” on it, which might have been a reference to the television series.

New York was a big change for the Midwest family. Everything moved at a fast pace, especially the transportation. After the first day of filming the pair took the subway for the first time.

“It was scary. There was graffiti on the walls, and I was scared to death,” Dominic said.

But the travel wasn’t done yet. Just a few days after they arrived in New York, they caught a flight out to Pittsburgh to film the rest of the commercial. Compared to the big city, Pittsburgh was a sleepy town. Fox said Dominic asked where all the people were when they got there.

The director for the Pittsburgh shoot utilized a drone to capture the Indiana children running around a frozen orchard. To no avail, the parents tried to keep the kids out of the mud in order to keep the blue gowns clean.

Dominic has since returned to New Castle and is now something of a local celebrity. Soon after he returned, he was interviewed on Radio Now and now has two TV interviews scheduled for Monday morning. One is for CBS 4 at 6:20 a.m. and another is for Fox 59 at 6:40 a.m.

“It was kind of surreal for all of us when it happened. I mean, we didn’t think it was going to happen after we went about a week and didn’t hear anything,” Pass said.

The NFL Super Bowl Babies commercial will air sometime between the third and fourth quarter with 10-second teasers throughout the game.

*This was the first story I wrote for The Courier-Times. We had received an email from this boy's grandfather that he was going to be in a Super Bowl commercial, so I went to their home and interviewed the boy, his mother and his grandfather.