#Seven epic pop culture cameos by New York sports stars

George Steinbrenner & Billy Martin in Miller Lite commercial: Weeks before Billy’s famous “One’s a born liar, the other’s convicted” quote in 1978, he tells George the best part of the beer is it’s less filling, George says it tastes great, then tells Billy: “You’re fired,” and Billy laughs as he says: “Not again!” Later, Steinbrenner would dub “hired” over “fired” and it was still hilarious.

Joe Namath on “The Brady Bunch”: Joe Willie’s in town and Cindy cooks up a way for Bobby to meet his hero: She writes a note saying Bobby is very, very sick. Namath shows up at Chez Brady, smells a rat, Bobby apologizes and they toss a football around the backyard; it is unknown if playing on the Bradys’ Astroturf yard helped hasten the end of Joe’s career.

Joe DiMaggio pitching for Mr. Coffee: For years, the hyper-private DiMaggio shied away from doing commercials but he actually used and enjoyed the coffee-maker, agreed to a series of ads, and as a result the ballplaying icon of the ’30s and ’40s would become a pop-culture touchstone of the ’70s and ’80s.

Paul O’Neill and Derek Jeter/Bernie Williams on “Seinfeld”: In season 7, Kramer promises a sick kid that O’Neill will hit two home runs for him. O’Neill says, “It’s hard to hit home runs!” In season 8, George, the Yankees’ traveling secretary, tries to tell Jeter and Bernie how to hit more homers. “Hey, we won the World Series,” Jeter protests. “In six games,” George scoffs.

Eli Manning/Derek Jeter on “Saturday Night Live”: Eli mostly played the cartoon version of Eli, goofy and good-natured. Jeter dressed in drag (as did David Wells and David Cone) for a truly memorable skit called “Yankee Wives.”

Reggie Jackson in “The Naked Gun”: Jackson playing himself as an Angels outfielder is programmed to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II during the late innings of a game against the Mariners (“I must … kill the Queen …”). The plot is foiled by Leslie Nielsen, masquerading as an umpire.

Lawrence Taylor in “The Waterboy”: After Adam Sandler as Bobby Boucher Jr. offers a rambling speech to campers at LT’s football camp Taylor adds, in a masterful piece of acting: “Gentleman, which brings me to my next point: Don’t. Smoke. Crack.”