From many Ben Johnsons to Minecraft and Mario Kart: How NFL teams revealed their schedules on social media

Chicago Tribune

15-05-2025

From Minecraft to Mario Kart, plenty of NFL teams had younger fans in mind while revealing schedules in the growing tradition of videos on the social platform X.
The Los Angeles Chargers and Indianapolis Colts had Minecraft themes, and both poked fun at a fight in a Starbucks between NFL reporters Ian Rapoport and Jordan Schultz that went viral during the NFL combine this year.
should we REALLY make our schedule release video in minecraft?
yes yes yesyesyesyes yes yes yesyes yes yes yes yesyes yesyes yes yesyes yesye yes yesyes yes yesyes pic.twitter.com/gxk31Dql5L
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) May 15, 2025The winner for comedic effect Wednesday night was the Chicago Bears playing off the common name of new coach Ben Johnson, featuring Emmy Award-winning actor and comedian Lamorne Morris.
Johnson is wearing a Chicago Cubs jersey when he says he's going to be at the game all day and asks Morris to email him the schedule. Morris pretends to know how to send the email but ends up sending 'the entire schedule to every Ben Johnson on the Chicago Bears marketing list.'
The rest of the video is Morris and Bears players, including quarterback Caleb Williams, trying to track down all the Ben Johnsons and destroying computers and cellphones along the way.
https://twitter.com/ChicagoBears/status/1922804157020311817
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrated their 50th season with the longest of the 32 videos, a 10-minute version featuring former coach Jon Gruden. The Bucs won their first Super Bowl during the 2002 season under Gruden.
The 2025 schedule's got @BarstoolGruden feelin' nicey 😎 pic.twitter.com/khoxdFwbwM
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) May 15, 2025He resigned as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021 over emails he sent containing racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments seven years before his 2018 hiring by the Raiders.
The video from the Bills started with star quarterback Josh Allen shooting baskets while taking a call from general manager Brandon Beane, who tells him he's trying to figure out how to reveal the schedule. When Allen says 'just use AI,' Beane looks confused and appears to research the term on his computer.
Beane calls retired NBA star Allen Iverson, who reveals the schedule by simply holding up a piece of a paper. Iverson can't resist the temptation to give his other nickname, 'The Answer.'
Our 2025 schedule powered by AI.@AllenIverson | @Ticketmaster pic.twitter.com/ohmuEVsJWm
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) May 15, 2025The Tennessee Titans decided to poke fun at the countless advertisements for medical treatments, with a spoof called 'Schedule-rizi.' Just as in the real ads, the video includes an exhausting list of potential side effects, before the participants finish by saying, 'Thanks, Schedule-rizi.'
Schedule-rizi: The new treatment for moderate-to-severe FSW (Football Season Withdrawal) presented by @Shift4
📺: 2025 Schedule Release on @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/y5GaLyzPla
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) May 15, 2025Somehow, the Chargers and Colts ended up with the same approach of a Minecraft theme, and both making a spoof of the Rapoport-Schultz scuffle. They were among a number of videos featuring video games or action figures. The teams included Washington, San Francisco and Seattle.
The Atlanta Falcons appealed to a couple of generations with their Mario Kart theme. The team 'selected' promising running back Bijan Robinson as the single player and had his go-kart knocking out Atlanta opponents along the way.
Welcome to ATL Kart! pic.twitter.com/moDDimA2db
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) May 15, 2025