Though the popularity surrounding Battlefield 3 has mostly been segregated to a very vocal video game community thus far, the series is branching out into the world of football with a new web series entitled Battlefield 3: Operation Gridiron. Taking four stars on both sides of the football, and placing them smack dab into recreations of Battlefield 3 campaign instances, Operation Gridiron brings the world of Battlefield 3 to life.

Led by none other than 2010 Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees is a team consisting of Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews, all-star Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, and rough and tumble Minnesota defensive end Jared Allen. How intense the situations these four top athletes were placed into are, we can’t say, you’ll just have to start watching the show to find out.

Starting today, and running consecutive Tuesdays until the 24th of October, Operation Gridiron will be available on the Battlefield 3 Facebook page with the grand finale (the episode airing October 24th) premiering on Spike TV.

For Brees this was a chance to get as close to the experience of serving our country without obviously putting himself in real danger.

“Taking to the battlefield in these real life war settings was really exciting and eye-opening. Every day men and women face challenges similar to what we tackled in this show but with potential dire consequences. Filming this show once again reinforced my respect for the soldiers who fight every day for our freedom"

Here’s your first look at the web series:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJRZnOeQN0k

As you can see, many of the “missions” the Operation Gridiron team are running closely resemble those seen in the many trailers for Battlefield 3. In the brief promo above you can see quick glimpses of the Fault Line trailer recreated and a scene or two from Operation Guillotine. While we can’t imagine the danger is real, there definitely seems to be some serious production value injected into this web series.

Of course many gamers won’t have time to keep up with this web series, what with the Battlefield 3 beta causing quite a storm, but it should be a pleasant distraction or a good source of comparison for those playing the campaign.

So, head on over to the Battlefield 3 Facebook page and hit “like” to check out the first episode of Operation Gridiron.

Will you be following the exploits of these four star athletes in the Operation Gridiron web series?

Battlefield 3 releases October 25, 2011 for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.