Brandon Lloyd Chooses Acting In Straight-To-DVD Zombie Movie Over NFL Career
BOSTON (CBS) -- Catching touchdown passes from Tom Brady, or acting alongside Daniel Baldwin in a straight-to-video zombie film? For Brandon Lloyd, the choice is easy: Zombies.
That's the 32-year-old's new career path, as uncovered Tuesday morning my MassLive.com's Nick Underhill.
Lloyd was in the news last week for turning down offers from at least six NFL teams, including one from the Patriots, with a source saying that Lloyd is "neither physically nor mentally ready to continue."
What Lloyd has apparently been mentally ready for was acting. He's listed as playing Sgt. Chuck Lloyd in an upcoming thriller "After Effect," which stars Daniel Baldwin. The 95-minute film is described thusly on IMDB: "When college students sign up for what seems a simple paid research study, they soon realize their lives are in danger. Unfortunately they've unknowingly volunteered their bodies as human collateral in an ongoing U.S. Military experiment."
The movie will be released on Oct. 8, just after Week 5 of the NFL season concludes, and IMDB says production cost $1 million, which is about $4 million less than Lloyd himself was set to earn before the Patriots released him in the offseason. It's selling for pretty cheap, too, with Walmart offering the DVD at less than $13.
It's not the first time Lloyd has entered into the world of entertainment, as he's released songs as a rapper in the past. His rap name was "B. Lloyd," his role in "After Effect" is Sgt. Chuck Lloyd, and the name on the back of his jersey was Lloyd, so there's at least a common thread keeping all three careers intertwined.
Lloyd caught 74 passes for 911 yards for the Patriots last season, second-most on the team in both categories. He caught 12 more passes for 102 yards and a touchdown in the team's two postseason games, but he was released in the offseason before he was set to receive a $3 million roster bonus. After that, Lloyd reportedly showed no interest in resuming his football career.
A couple of trailers for the film are posted on YouTube (you can watch here and here), and they feature a lot of blood, a lot of screaming, and a lot of soldiers walking down a hallway.
When Lloyd was released by the Patriots, the only explanation anyone who covers the team could muster was that he was an eccentric personality who did not get along well with his teammates. Perhaps it was because he was unhappy that he was not allowed to follow his true passion: acting in zombie films.
