Marcus Mariota Takes Us Back To His Roots In Emotional Ad

NEW YORK (AP) -- Just hours before the NFL draft, top prospect Marcus Mariota flaunted his Beats by Dre in a promotional YouTube video for the competitor of league-sponsor Bose.

Mariota is home in Hawaii awaiting word Thursday night from Chicago on where he'll play in the NFL. For now, he can embrace Beats any way he pleases, but watch out once he's chosen and in front of cameras on game day.

On YouTube, to the new soulful acoustic song "River" by Leon Bridges, Mariota gazes at the ocean, runs on the beach and works out in his old high school gym in Honolulu with his white, wireless Powerbeats2 on his head.

His mom and other Ohana, or family, along with friends and old mentors, narrate their love and support in the video that runs just over two minutes.

Beats, with a stable of athlete endorsers, had no comment Thursday. The league also had no immediate comment.

The NFL protects its Bose contract closely. Players are permitted to have endorsement contracts with Beats and other companies that aren't league sponsors, but the NFL has cracked down on players in the past for wearing the competition's trendy headphones.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has an endorsement deal with Beats, said he was fined $10,000 by the NFL for wearing a pink pair for breast cancer awareness at a press conference in October. He covered the logo up with tape at a later appearance.

Beats by Dre was acquired by Apple Inc. last year. A month later, the NFL reached the agreement with Bose to become the league's official headphones.

Seizing the draft limelight, Beats ran Mariota's video ahead of the action in a top-of-the-home-page banner advertisement - complete with shopping link - on espn.com.

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Online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v3pxz-NkUR7A

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