How NFL teams turn schedule reveals into viral social media moments
For NFL teams' social media departments, May 14 is the Super Bowl.
NFL Schedule Release Day has become an unofficial holiday on the league calendar. All 32 teams unveil their season schedules in the most creative and entertaining ways possible—chasing quote tweets and marketing impressions before the internet crowns a winner.
This year, the Los Angeles Chargers dropped a Minecraft-inspired video, complete with a nod to a viral Starbucks altercation between NFL reporters Ian Rapoport and Jordan Schultz during the combine. 'Give the Chargers every award,' Pro Football Talk posted on X.
The New York Giants reimagined their 2025 opponents as contestants on Love Island. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles weren't done flexing last season's success.
This unofficial competition started nearly a decade ago with the Seattle Seahawks' 'cupcake schedule' video. What could've been a simple email has since evolved into full-blown productions—where the schedule itself can feel like an afterthought.
Brainstorming starts as early as December, months before the reveal. Teams usually don't receive their finalized schedules until the day before the official release, prompting a last-minute sprint to produce and post final edits within 24 hours.
Everything is kept under tight wraps until 8 p.m. ET, May 15. 'People will ask me,' said Megan Julian, the Chargers' senior director of digital and social media, in an interview with Sports Illustrated. 'I definitely have been on Hinge [the dating app] and people are like, 'What are y'all doing [for this year's schedule video]?' This is Hinge, bro. We gotta calm down. We gotta chill out. I'm not telling you.'
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