Nathan’s position as starting quarterback for the fictional NFL team the Los Angeles Sharks makes him a major national celebrity, and his relationship with Bree is the subject of intense public interest even before it begins. American football is an immensely popular form of entertainment, with the NFL consistently producing much of the country’s most watched television. The NFL’s championship game, the Super Bowl, is the single most watched television event in the US every year. This enormous viewership makes the Super Bowl attractive to advertisers, who pay lavishly to run ads during the game. The plot of The Cheat Sheet revolves around one such ad, as detergent company Tide seeks to take advantage of the publicity around Nathan and Bree’s relationship—and around the viral video in which an intoxicated Bree wishes that she could use a Tide pen to erase all the other women in Nathan’s life.

Nathan’s NFL career informs his character development. Football was everything to his parents, who pushed him to find success from the start of his high school career. They did not let him hold a job or do anything else that would distract from his potential athletic success. Even though he’s now an NFL quarterback, he still feels the pressure of his parents to participate in charity functions and do publicity events.