The Chargers have one of the NFL's most universally beloved social media teams, and they shined once again during the league's 2024 schedule release.
After revealing its schedule with anime trailers in consecutive years, Los Angeles changed things up this time around. The Chargers' creative brain trust utilized a spoof of "The Sims" video game to present their schedule to fans.
Per usual, Los Angeles did not disappoint and took numerous shots at the team's opponents ahead of the 2024 NFL season.
Those who haven't watched the Chargers' schedule release video can check it out below:
should we REALLY make our schedule release video in the sims?
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) May 16, 2024
yes yes yesyes
yesyes yes yes yes
yes yes yes yes yes
yes yesyes yes yes
yes yesye yes yes
yes yes yesyes pic.twitter.com/MXzfAPyhe8
The Chargers' video is packed full of so many references and Easter eggs that it's hard to spot all of them. Here's a breakdown of the jokes in Los Angeles' schedule release video as the Chargers' finest work goes viral on social media.
MORE: Winners and losers of the 2024 NFL schedule
Chargers schedule release video, explained
The Chargers' schedule release featured vignettes on their opponents for each of their 17 games in the 2024 NFL season. Below is a brief explanation of each scene.
Week 1: vs. Raiders
The Chargers start the schedule release video with a rather tame jab at the Raiders. The video shows a Sim in a Raiders jersey putting on a clown wig and makeup. This seems like a shot at Vegas fans — who earned a reputation for dressing up in all-out fashion at the "Black Hole" and have carried that over to the "Death Star" — since the vignette ends in a posed picture.
Week 2: at Panthers
Cam Newton was involved in a brawl at a 7-on-7 football tournament in February, and footage of the former Panthers quarterback jousting with several others went viral. The Chargers poke fun at that video by putting Newton in a boxing ring against three opponents to announce their Week 2 game against Carolina.
Week 3: at Steelers
Los Angeles needle Pittsburgh over its acquisition of both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields during the 2024 NFL offseason. The scene depicts Wilson moving into a house from a moving van that says on it "Broncos Country: Let's Move." He warmly greets an unidentifiable individual inside the house before Fields arrives. That causes Wilson to throw a minor tantrum as he sees Fields for the first time.
MORE: Which NFL teams have the most, least prime-time games in 2024?
Week 4: vs. Chiefs
The Chargers' first joke about the Chiefs naturally involves the Kelce brothers and Taylor Swift. The video shows Travis and Jason hosting an episode of their "New Heights" podcast — they are talking about squirrels — before Swift shows up. The pop superstar and boyfriend Travis go off together in Swift's private jet.
Swift's usage of her private jet has come under scrutiny as she has traversed the world for her Eras Tour and to attend Travis' Chiefs games. It also spawned a viral joke (seen below) just after Super Bowl 58.
Taylor swift switching seats at the super bowl 😭 pic.twitter.com/nxOeDTpLrA
— Sam. (@boysamiie) February 20, 2024
Week 5: BYE
The montage for the bye week shows Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, identifiable by his Oregon pullover, golfing, fishing and throwing some meat on the grill. What better way to spend a week off early in the season?
Week 6: at Broncos
The Chargers land a massive blow against the Broncos in Week 6. The video depicts Denver coach Sean Payton entering a "Ball-Mart" store — a play on Wal-Mart, the primary business of the Walton Penner-led group that owns the Broncos — with Russell Wilson, Jerry Jeudy and Justin Simmons alongside him. The veteran coach heads to the returns department and scolds the employee before sending the three players into the stock room.
The Broncos released big-ticket veterans Wilson and Simmons during the offseason and traded Jeudy to the Browns, so this is a jab at Denver blowing up its team.
Week 7: at Cardinals
The Cardinals famously tweeted a Kliff Kingsbury quote supporting quarterback Josh Rosen less than three months before selecting Kyler Murray No. 1 overall in the 2019 NFL Draft.
Y’all are having fun with speculation, but... pic.twitter.com/dy4NbJ82iB
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) February 12, 2019
Arizona has been adamant this offseason that Murray is still their guy after he played in eight games while returning from a torn ACL. The Chargers reference this in the video while paying homage to the popular meme that shows the Grim Reaper going from door to door and outlining his next victim.
In this case, Murray is the Grim Reaper's next victim, while Rosen was his last.
MORE: More is more? Not in the case of an 18-game NFL schedule
Week 8: vs. Saints
The New Orleans scene is full of references, including a streaker and a nod to NBA star Zion Williamson, before a Falcons fan picks up a voodoo doll. The fan is then prompted with the following four options:
- Bountygate
- Minneapolis Miracle
- Kevin James as Sean Payton
- No PI call
The fan eventually chooses Kevin James as Sean Payton, but all four of those events mark lowlights that have occurred since the Saints' 2009 Super Bowl win.
Week 9: at Browns
The Chargers keep it simple in their ribbing of the Browns. They show the Browns' proverbial "Factory of Sadness," where numerous Sims wearing Brownie the Elf costumes — the face of Cleveland's alternate logo — work on various projects.
Week 10: vs. Titans
The Titans' schedule release video for 2023 was one of the best-received in the NFL's brief history of such promotions. That evidently irked the Chargers, who in this year's video include a monument to the Titans' 2023 release.
The scene ends with a repo man taking a statue, seemingly meant to represent Derrick Henry, from the monument. The Titans veteran left the team after eight seasons to join the Ravens in free agency.
Week 11: vs. Bengals
The Bengals' segment starts with Ja'Marr Chase working at a 7-Eleven, a reference to the chain he wears because he's "always open."
From there, a man who may or may not be Joe Burrow wanders out of the store and down to Kentucky while trailed by a handful of Sims women. He passes a sign that says "Welcome to Kentucky" before being eaten by some sort of carnivorous plant-cow cross-breed with a birthday cake tongue.
What does that all mean? Your guess is as good as ours.
Week 12: vs. Ravens
This is perhaps the finest bit of Los Angeles' schedule release video. The matchup with the Ravens shows two little Sims named John and Jim sharing a room. Fast forward 50-odd years and they are coaches John and Jim Harbaugh, having a pillow fight before they square off against one another on "Monday Night Football."
Week 13: at Falcons
Kirk Cousins was occasionally known by his alter ego "Kirko Chainz" at times while with the Vikings. Now with the Falcons, the Chargers depict him as the DJ at an Atlanta nightclub, with characters such as Lou Williams featured in the background.
Then Michael Penix Jr. walks into the club. That upsets Cousins, a reference to the fact that he didn't know the Falcons were selecting a quarterback with the eighth overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
The Chargers social media team also sneaks in a 28-3 joke in the poster outside of the nightclub, so they put a lot of effort into this dig at Atlanta.
Week 14: at Chiefs
Kansas City had a superfan known as ChiefsAholic, who used to attend Chiefs games in a wolf costume. He was arrested on 19 charges related to several bank robberies after several months on the run. The Chargers paint their Week 14 matchup with the Chiefs as a scene from ChiefAholic's trial, which includes a depiction of a wolf in a Kansas City jersey sobbing.
Week 15: vs. Buccaneers
"Let Baker cook" became a common refrain from Buccaneers fans as Baker Mayfield led the team to the postseason in his first year as their starting quarterback. The Chargers let him do that in the Sims to honor their Week 15 matchup with Tampa Bay. The result? Mayfield set the kitchen on fire.
Week 16: vs. Broncos
The Chargers take another shot at Russell Wilson to announce their second Broncos game. They depict a Denver fan attending a wishing well (that Nikola Jokic was at, for some reason) before wishing for cap space rather than a franchise quarterback or good uniforms.
There's a "wishing well error," per The Sims. The Broncos are instead rewarded with "dead cap." Denver absorbed a record dead-cap hit of $85 million by releasing Wilson.
Week 17: at Patriots
The Chargers' video shows many of the New England greats from the team's dynastic run — including Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman — in the Foxborough Retirement Home. They are playing games, painting and generally having fun before a prompt pops up that says the following:
Your dynasty has ended, but the town lives on. There's no reason to let this house stay empty. Would you like to restart?
This proves to be an effective way to use the end of a lineage in The Sims to reference the end of Bill Belichick's 23-year run with the team.
Week 18: at Raiders
The schedule release finishes with the Chargers seeming to take a shot at themselves but flipping the script. Los Angeles displays a video from its 63-7 loss to the Raiders in 2023 and a group of Las Vegas fans watching it. The twist? The Raiders fans were behind bars with a "Property of Tom Telesco" sign attached.
Telesco worked for the Chargers from 2013 to 2023. Thus, the social media team seems to imply that the Raiders might soon have a flawed roster, much as the Chargers did during Telesco's final days with the team when that blowout defeat occurred.
Chargers take shots at Harrison Butker, Aaron Rodgers in end credits
The Chargers weren't done after announcing the 18-game schedule. They also take shots a Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker and Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the end credits of the schedule release video.
Butker came under fire for the controversial commencement speech he gave Saturday at Benedictine College, in which he encouraged women to be homemakers. The Chargers' video shows a scene of Butker working in a kitchen.
Rodgers, meanwhile, has garnered criticism over the last few years for his belief in various conspiracy theories. The credit sequence shows Rodgers, in a green jersey, being frightened by 5G phone towers and a radioactive baby, even though Los Angeles doesn't play New York in 2024.
The end credits provide a perfect parting shot as Los Angeles once again set the standard for schedule release videos in 2024.
