Can’t wait for these.
It’s schedule release day for the NFL, which has become one of the best days of the year lately thanks to the creativity that teams put into the announcements.
It really all started back in 2023 when the Tennessee Titans (coached by Mike Vrabel at the time, by the way) dropped one of the all-time best schedule release videos featuring tourists in Nashville trying – and hilariously failing – to identify NFL teams:
Over the past couple of years, teams have gone above and beyond in their schedule release videos, taking shots at their opponents and including cultural references to try to one-up each other when it comes to announcing their upcoming schedule.
Back in 2024, schedule release day was just a few weeks after Morgan Wallen was arrested for throwing a chair off a rooftop bar in Nashville, and the Los Angeles Chargers poked fun at the moment in their Sims-created video that year. (See if you can catch it).
Of course last year there was some controversy after the Indianapolis Colts removed their schedule release video that featured then-Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill getting arrested, a joke about Hill’s high-profile arrest on the way to a game the previous year.
The team issued an apology, though Hill said it wasn’t necessary and appeared to appreciate the humor.
All that to say, teams are pushing the envelope more and more in the race to win the schedule release battle every year. But how far are they going to push it this year, given the biggest ongoing story in the NFL right now?
I’m talking, of course, about the relationship between New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and now-former NFL insider Dianna Russini.
It’s been the scandal that just won’t die ever since photos first leaked of the married coach holding hand with the also-married (but not to each other) reporter at a couple’s resort back in April. Since then, there have been more photos of the two released, including one of them kissing at a bar all the way back in 2020, and most recently it was reported that the two rented a private boat together in Tennessee back in 2021, just months before Russini gave birth to her first son (who just happened to be named Michael too).
So yeah, the two have given NFL teams plenty of material to work with in their schedule release video…if any of them actually choose to use it.
But will the NFL actually let teams touch the issue?
Well according to a report from Front Office Sports, the league has no plans to censor jokes about the scandal from team’s schedule release videos. A league source has reportedly confirmed that the league isn’t viewing the videos in advance, and considers the scandal fair game:
“This is the day when teams are licensed to poke fun at each other. The (Vrabel story) has become such a public matter that teams can take the shot. You may get a call from the Patriots. But the league is not going to get involved.
The only time Park Avenue messages the teams is around labor, CBA, or the refs. The moments when they’re trying to negotiate—and they want everyone on message. If the Jets, Bills, or Chargers choose to ridicule Vrabel, that’s an issue between the teams. The league doesn’t need to mediate that.”
You love to see it.
Now, whether teams will actually want to go there is yet to be seen. But the scandal has already been mocked Inside the NBA, which shared a graphic showing Vrabel and Russini doing the Titanic pose at the front of a boat after the Boston Celtics were eliminated from the playoffs. (Ironically, this was BEFORE their private boat trip became public).
So will any teams actually take the shot with their schedule release video? Or do teams that have to play the Patriots not want to go there?
We’ll see when schedules are released at 8 PM eastern tonight.
