Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray did a bit of trolling while announcing his newest partnership.
The NFL star has long been criticized by fans for his video game hobby, as he's shared his love for gaming on many occasions.
On Monday, Murray announced he'd be partnering with "Call of Duty," one of the most popular video game franchises that's approaching its release of "Call of Duty: Black Ops 6" later in October.
Here's what to know about Murray's history with the video game and the memes surrounding it, his on-the-field numbers for the Cardinals related to "Call of Duty" and the details on his newest partnership.
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Kyler Murray 'Call of Duty' history, explained
Murray has long been known to enjoy playing "Call of Duty" and streaming on Twitch. However, fans on social media began to criticize the quarterback more for that hobby when his extension in 2022 included an "independent study" clause to spend time each week studying film, something that's already highly expected of NFL quarterbacks.
Never seen this in 30 years of looking at NFL contracts.
— Andrew Brandt (@AndrewBrandt) July 25, 2022
Strange they’ll give him $46 million a year (on extension years) yet worry about 4 hours a week of studying. https://t.co/Crxc3jaJrM
While that clause was later removed, Murray took time to clear the air about his work ethic as fans began to suggest the Cardinals included the clause because Murray would be too busy playing video games otherwise.
Kyler Murray with the surprise appearance with the media.
— Darren Urban (@Cardschatter) July 28, 2022
It’s “disrespectful … almost a joke” that people could think he could’ve accomplished what he has without studying and preparing for the game.
“This game is too hard” to do otherwise.
Murray previously appeared on a Sports Illustrated cover about gaming and the FaZe Clan, only adding to the jokes from fans.
Over his time in the NFL, Murray has remained an avid gamer, especially for "COD." Fans had so much fun with the jokes about Murray's work ethic that they even began looking into how his stats with the Cardinals correlated to when a new "Call of Duty" game was released each year.
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Kyler Murray 'Call of Duty' stats
While Murray is one of the game's best at his position and there's no true reason to doubt his work ethic, there have been some interesting trends in the relationship between his numbers on the field and the release of the popular game.
Redditors and NFL fans investigated the potential trend in 2022 as Murray received his extension. Some found that his fantasy points dipped after a new "Call of Duty" game was released, while others found that his production fell during "Double XP" weekends for the game.
Here's a look at some of Murray's numbers pre-and-post "Call of Duty" release between 2019 and 2021:
| Year | Games | Passing yards | Pass TDs | INTs | Rating | Record |
| 2019 Pre-COD release | 7 | 1,768 | 7 | 4 | 86.8 | 3-3-1 |
| 2019 Post-COD release | 9 | 1,954 | 13 | 8 | 88.0 | 2-7 |
| 2020 Pre-COD release | 8 | 2,130 | 16 | 7 | 99.3 | 5-3 |
| 2020 Post-COD release | 8 | 1,841 | 10 | 5 | 89.3 | 3-5 |
| 2021 Pre-COD release | 8 | 2,276 | 17 | 7 | 110.4 | 7-1 |
| 2021 Post-COD release | 6 | 1,511 | 7 | 3 | 89.3 | 2-4 |
While those statistics are more for fun and memes than anything else and chatter surrounding Murray's video game habit has slowed down since, he did recently earn a partnership with "Call of Duty," even thanking "the trolls" who helped him land it.
Kyler Murray 'Call of Duty' video
Murray dropped a video on social media in partnership with "Call of Duty" on Monday. In the advertisement, actor Peter Stormare replaces him at a presser and says Murray isn't present because he's "practicing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6."
To the trolls who memed me into a bag, thank you!
— Kyler Murray (@K1) October 7, 2024
I’m officially launching my @CallofDuty partnership! #CODPartnership #TheReplacer #BlackOps6 pic.twitter.com/JwpZKxSzYo
After all the jokes from fans about Murray's preference to play video games rather than study to become a better quarterback, he trolled them right back by fully buying into the jokes and earning a partnership while he was at it.
