How Patriots’ 2024 Opponents Trolled Them In Schedule Releases
The NFL schedule release is a big day in league circles, at least for the 32 content teams, and the Patriots this season were no different.
New England unveiled its 2024 slate with an ode to Boston-based cinema and the Patriots’ prolific past. You probably already saw that one, though.
What you might not have seen, however, is what the other 31 teams did to release their schedules. Some were brilliant, some were awkward, some were uninspired and some were just kind of there.
The best ones, if you ask us, were the videos that added a little good-natured ribbing. A few came from 2024 Patriots opponents, meaning New England was in the comedic crosshairs of some team’s content departments.
Here’s how teams trolled the Pats with their schedule releases.
HOUSTON TEXANS (Week 6)
Sticking in the AFC South, the Texans leaned into the hydraulic press video craze that has taken over parts of social media and the internet. For the Patriots, they crushed a Boston creme doughnut — get it?
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS (Week 7)
The Jags, in addition to a schedule release video, created a thread detailing their opponents as Vine videos. For the Patriots, they leaned into the Drake Maye of it all with a little *NSYNC.
TENNESSEE TITANS (Week 9)
The Titans went back to the well with a slight tweak to their super-viral 2023 offering.
“I know that they used to kick the Super Bowl’s ass for consecutive like three to four years straight with Tom Brady,” is pretty much the perfect encapsulation of the last four or five years in Patriots history.
It’s a good screen shot, too.
LOS ANGELES CHARGERS (Week 17)
Fittingly, we save the best for last. It’s true that the Chargers have never won anything on the field in their history, but they have a pretty prolific reputation as social-media superstars (also fitting given the reputation quarterback Justin Herbert has, at least with some).
Anyhoo, after taking the world by storm with Anime over the last two years, the Chargers this year went with a “Sims” theme packed with Easter eggs. The Patriots weren’t spared.
Some of the many Patriots highlights:
Yes, that would be the Foxborough Retirement Home with Celtics legend Paul Pierce — in his wheelchair — sitting out front.
Go inside, and we’ve got the six Super Bowl trophies displayed inside the retirement home along with Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman and Devin McCourty playing a bingo game led by Ben Affleck from the Dunkings commercial. You also might notice the nod to Bill Belichick’s dog on the wall as well as a “Good Will Hunting” movie poster.
And then we end up with Tom Brady painting — a picture of his “newly single thirst trap” — alongside another old man, presumably Robert Kraft? Hard to say. You might also the not-so-subtle jab at the Deflategate debacle with the “PSI” poster in the background, too.
Fun times.
The Patriots start their 2024 regular-season schedule on Sept. 8 in Cincinnati against the Bengals.