No team is safe from the Chargers’ social media team’s buzzworthy schedule-release videos, but the Raiders tend to take the most direct hits.
This year was no different. The Chargers’ latest project took aim at the Raiders’ lack of success, that they were the only AFC West team to miss the playoffs and the height of first-round draft pick Ashton Jeanty.
For the uninitiated, NFL franchises have turned the release of their schedules each May into a way to flex their creative muscles. The Chargers are the gold standard, combining pop culture and sports references from the obvious to the obscure to skewer their opponents.
The video made reference to, among other things:
— A fight between two reporters at an Indianapolis Starbucks during the NFL scouting combine;
— A random clip of Giants receiver Malik Nabers pronouncing the name of quarterback Daniel Jones;
— Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson tapping out of a game last season;
— A wildly obscure and sexually explicit Minnesota Timberwolves social media account;
— The Minnesota Wild’s disappointing NHL playoff track record;
— Bears defensive back Tyrique Stevenson taunting fans before allowing a Hail Mary completion to the Commanders last season.
One of the best scenes featured a dejected Bills quarterback Josh Allen coming out of a movie theater where he is greeted by Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner, who recently posted on social media he wouldn’t watch the film “Sinners” out of respect to Allen because of the sex scenes featuring his fiancee, Hailee Steinfeld.
No internet story is safe from being referenced in a video that must be watched several times to catch everything.
Taking aim at the Raiders
The Chargers’ bitter rivalry with the Raiders tends to inspire the most savage burns of any team.
In the past, the Chargers have done Anime and Sims themed videos that blew up social media. This year’s video was based around the Minecraft video game franchise.
The Raiders and Chargers first meet in Week 2, where Part 1 of the Raiders’ scene is included in the nearly five-minute video.
As the camera pans into a fancy neighborhood called “AFC West Estates,” the sign is revealed to include the motto “Family, Trust, Respect.” FTR is a common acronym used by Chargers fans to express their hatred of the Raiders.
Three fancy mansions are shown to belong to the Chiefs, Chargers and Broncos, who all made the playoffs last season. The Raiders, however, are shown to own a dilapidated shack that is clearly the eyesore of the neighborhood.
A character enters the one-room building, which has an oddly placed box of Pop Tarts sitting outside the front door.
The breakfast pastries are a reference to one of the Chargers’ social media teams other traditions of comparing teams to different flavors of Pop Tarts. Former Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams is one of the only players to publicly express anger about the project.
“This is directed strictly toward the Chargers’ social media page: Please keep my name out of your mouth and show some respect,” Adams said during an interview last offseason.
The storyline is picked up when the video gets to the second meeting between the Raiders and Chargers in Week 13 with the character now inside his shack.
A poster is shown on the wall of a shirtless Pete Carroll from a famous video with receiver DK Metcalf in Seattle. A QR code then briefly appears.
Anyone who scans and identifies as a Chargers fan is sent to a link to buy tickets. Raiders fans are sent down an endless stream of links designed to make fun of the user until eventually a giant “L” is displayed.
Another internet-famous photo then appears that shows pre-NFL Brock Bowers standing next to Rob Gronkowski. It was one that inspired many memes about Bowers’ physique and general lack of swag.
Next, as the camera pans around the room, is a picture of Raiders minority owner Tom Brady from the “Tuck Rule” game against the Raiders. Then, a picture of a Roomba in a stale joke about the appliance’s resemblance to Allegiant Stadium.
Then comes one that might take a bit of research. An image is displayed quickly that shows what appears to be the TV broadcast of the NFL draft with just the top of the head of a player putting on a Raiders’ hat.
It’s a shot at Jeanty, the Raiders’ 5-foot-9-inch first-round pick and projected starting running back.
It’s a reference to a video that circulated on draft night of every first-round pick who was in attendance in Green Bay trying on the hat of his new team in a backstage mirror that had a camera behind it. The camera was lifted a bit too high with so many tall players being selected, so the quick version made Jeanty look comically short.
The video was a running joke on social media for only a few hours. But the Chargers’ social media department never forgets.
That photo is replaced by a group of clowns, a running gag used in the Chargers’ videos each year about the Raiders.
After that pan around the tiny shack, the shot is picked up outside, where the house is blown up by a Creeper, one of Minecraft’s villains.
A graphic declares the Raiders’ character has died with a final score of “413.”
Of course, their record last season was 4-13.
The response
The Raiders tried to step up their game this year with a highly produced parody of ESPN’s famed “This is SportsCenter” commercials. In revealing the Chargers’ matchup, a tour guide shows off the Raiders’ three Super Bowl trophies and says one was won while the team played in Los Angeles. He reminds them the Raiders and Rams have won championships in Los Angeles and the Chargers have not.
The video had its moments, particularly the Jackson Powers-Johnson cameo making fun of Jacksonville coach Liam Coen, but the Raiders have room to improve in the standings and schedule-release rankings.
Contact Adam Hill at [email protected]. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
