Mike Florio and Chris Simms enjoy all the fun details and nuggets in the Los Angeles Chargers' social team's latest schedule announcement video.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[SINGING IN JAPANESE]

MIKE FLORIO: All right, that is brilliant.

CHRIS SIMMS: Brilliant.

MIKE FLORIO: I don't know that it's better than last year--

CHRIS SIMMS: But it's damn good.

MIKE FLORIO: It's as good as last year, which was going to be hard to do.

CHRIS SIMMS: Right.

MIKE FLORIO: It was going to be hard to do. There are elements of it that are even better than last year. I went back and watched last year's. Last year's was so good because it was like this new thing. Like, what is this? Oh, my God. They took this specific animation style of anime, and they nailed it. And they have all these little Easter eggs that are slaps at various people and teams.

CHRIS SIMMS: It's amazing.

MIKE FLORIO: It was beautiful. It had the Urban Meyer thing in it, and we had so much fun with that. This one, some of the stuff in here is next level, Chris. And to their credit-- because it occurred to me last night, when you consider the experience of the LA Chargers in recent years, they're probably the last team to be talking shit about anybody--

CHRIS SIMMS: I know, but it's awesome.

MIKE FLORIO: --really, on anything. But they at least start making fun of themselves.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yes.

MIKE FLORIO: With the 27-0--

CHRIS SIMMS: The 27-0. right.

MIKE FLORIO: --lead that was blown Yeah in Jacksonville. So they stomp on that to get things rolling.

CHRIS SIMMS: Oh, it's amazing well done. And I think you're right. It's the little hidden gems of this one that make it amazing. I mean, first off, to start off with Mike McDaniel, with the whole vape pen controversy, right? I mean, that's amazing, everybody thinking he was hitting the vape pen up in Buffalo.

Then Derrick Henry the robot's amazing, right? Putting him back together because he's going to carry the ball 500 times again this year. We get to your Vikings, and the Vikings is maybe the best of all because the banners in the stadium are so good. It is amazing. And I'll let you take it from here.

MIKE FLORIO: Well, first of all, they have the birds flying into the stadium, which is a real hazard.

CHRIS SIMMS: Right.

MIKE FLORIO: It is a real hazard. And they kind of poke fun at it. And then you see Kirko Chains. But in the background behind Kirk Cousins with his chains. There the birds. Oh, so-- oh, poor birds. That's so cruel.

CHRIS SIMMS: Let's see those banners again so you can rook them again. There we go.

MIKE FLORIO: We've got the banners. The banners are hilarious. Justin Jefferson, Offensive Rookie of the Year runner-up. That's because Justin Herbert, their quarterback, won it that year. The number one NFLPA team.

CHRIS SIMMS: Oh, it's so good.

MIKE FLORIO: I remember saying, hey, at least we finally won something. Mentioned in a Lizzo song, which was hilarious.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah.

MIKE FLORIO: There's a reference to the Timberwolves making it to the play-in game. And then also played a fun game against the Bills week 10.

CHRIS SIMMS: That's amazing. That's so good.

MIKE FLORIO: Look. That bit would be better served against the Colts, but I'll take it. I'll take it. The Vikings don't have a reputation for hanging banners recklessly maybe because they have nothing to hang at all.

CHRIS SIMMS: The upper quartile of the NFL.

MIKE FLORIO: But that's pretty good. That's pretty good, number one NFLPA team. Then we've got the slot machine.

CHRIS SIMMS: Oh, this is good too.

MIKE FLORIO: The get your quarter back slot machine. And you can see-- look in the right corner, Chris. See that family, trust, respect?

CHRIS SIMMS: Oh, I do. I did not-- yes.

MIKE FLORIO: Remember, that phrase-- that phrase showed up last year when they were getting ready to play the Raiders. And we thought that it was some sort of a shot at Jon Gruden. Remember, they had the rainbow flag? It was after those horrible emails had come out.

And I thought, boy, they were really going all in with this slap at Gruden. I have since discovered that it's not about Gruden. That family, trust, respect, F-T-R, F dash dash K The Raiders. That's what family, trust, respect means.

CHRIS SIMMS: Oh.

MIKE FLORIO: It is their way of saying, F the Raiders.

CHRIS SIMMS: I like it. I like it even better. That's awesome. That's my kind of language. That hit right home. That hit home there. I like that a lot.

See, that's what I mean, though. It's one of these where, every time I go back and watch it, I see something new. So that's a great one. The Rebuild-a-bear part, I think that's another part we got to hit on here, if we can. And I mean, some of the signs up on the top, right, Mike, with-- they're selling the Bears Rexy, as in Rex Grossman. I went to a Super Bowl. Smoking Jay. Oh, that's so good.

MIKE FLORIO: And the Mitch Trubisky-- the Mitch Trubisky, and check yourself here lest you wreck yourself, the Mitch Trubisky is a reference to a very old tweet from Trubisky that surfaces from time to time, which, if you understand that bit, makes it even more hilarious than it already is. I don't understand who the guy is who's down on one knee.

CHRIS SIMMS: I don't know that either.

MIKE FLORIO: But there's Justin Fields, and it's the Rebuild-a-bear shop. And you can see there's Walter Payton, Devin Hester, and Refrigerator Perry on the wall. But yeah, they've got McMahon. They've got Grossman. They've got Cutler. And they've got Trubisky. So--

And I also don't-- I don't know what beware the brick means either. I feel like that's something that I'm missing.

CHRIS SIMMS: No, yeah. There's probably something to it that we're not--

MIKE FLORIO: I should just ask the Chargers.

CHRIS SIMMS: I'm sure somebody-- that and the guy there, I don't know what that stood for either. So I'm sure somebody on social media will figure that out and tell us. But then we have to get to the greatest single segment of all of it, right?

MIKE FLORIO: Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

CHRIS SIMMS: The Jets. The Jets part of the schedule, and this on. Broadway I'll let you take it at first and go ahead because there's so many things here.

MIKE FLORIO: There is so much there. There is so much there. And you could like stare at this for hours and not catch everything. The single cougars in your area obviously.

CHRIS SIMMS: Oh, my God. With a Zach Wilson, and a dancing woman underneath it that's live and moving.

MIKE FLORIO: They've got the-- they've got the Sam Darnold thing that we would always see the graphic next to it, but instead of a rip it, Darnold, it says out of GB and up in age, as a reference to Aaron Rodgers. I love New Jersey, obviously, instead of I love New York since they play there.

CHRIS SIMMS: Gabagool.

MIKE FLORIO: So much. There's the--

CHRIS SIMMS: Hey, gabagool.

MIKE FLORIO: At one point, as you watch the graphic, there's an ATN "Succession" reference on the Times Square video board. There's a missing poster. And a lot of people didn't know who the individual audit is, and we have confirmed it is Manish Mehta, the longtime reporter covering the Jets for the New York Daily News.

CHRIS SIMMS: He's gone missing.

MIKE FLORIO: He's kind of just gone now.

CHRIS SIMMS: Right.

MIKE FLORIO: Apparently some guys working for the Chargers worked for the Jets. So that was intended because he was the bane of the Jets. I mean, it was just-- by the time it was toward the end, it was over the top. You've got Sbarro, Michael Scott's favorite New York pizza on there as well.

CHRIS SIMMS: What about the King of Broadway?

MIKE FLORIO: It's just incredible.

CHRIS SIMMS: What's that on the-- you see that on the bottom right there? Oh.

MIKE FLORIO: Trae Young, Miami Heat. It's a shot at the Knicks.

CHRIS SIMMS: Oh, it's Trae Young? Is that-- it's Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks, I think. OK, so that's well done.

MIKE FLORIO: Oh, the Hawks. Hawks.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yes, he became like kind of the villain of--

MIKE FLORIO: I thought-- ah.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yep. And then they got, what, a Comeback Player of the Year Geno Smith on there. There's a lot of really good ones. And you know, you're right, the Manish Mehta one, that was the best.

That was the one where I was like, wait, what is that. Pause it. Let me make the picture bigger. Who the hell is this right here? And I actually spoke out of turn in the last week. I meant to talk crap about him and I said Rich Cimini by accident. I meant to talk crap about Manish Mehta. So I'll just add on to that little fun segment there.

MIKE FLORIO: And you can see it's the Jets-- the GD snack bar, the Rex Ryan GD snack bar, the reference to "Hard Knocks" from 13 years ago. There's just so much in this. And it took so much work to get it just right, creativity, execution. Well done. It makes me hungry for gabagool.

CHRIS SIMMS: Gabgool.

MIKE FLORIO: I still see the gabgool, man.

CHRIS SIMMS: Hey, Belichick watching all the film, right, as Skeletor or whatever person he is there.

MIKE FLORIO: I have a feeling-- I have a feeling that's some character from some cartoon or some animated series we're not aware of that that's a reference to. I have a feeling that that's operating on a level that we're not capable of understanding.

CHRIS SIMMS: Probably.

MIKE FLORIO: That's how he is. And then the next shot shows him watching like all these different monitors from all over the NFL.

CHRIS SIMMS: Getting all the film.

MIKE FLORIO: I have a feeling that that's a more obscure reference.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah.

MIKE FLORIO: Yeah.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah. It's really good, though. I mean, it fits him. And even in the background, if you look, he had Paul Pierce in the wheelchair and all of that. I think they had like-- you know, I don't know, somebody in a tuxedo there that I couldn't figure it out. It's just a lot of little spots that are hilarious.

And then you follow that with the spatula in "SpongeBob Squarepants" here, in the Nickelodeon thing with Russell Wilson.

MIKE FLORIO: And you know why that is. They had the Nickelodeon game last year on Christmas. And they had an animated Patrick Star doing commentary on the game, and he roasted Russell Wilson after he threw an interception.

CHRIS SIMMS: Right.

MIKE FLORIO: So that's why Russell Wilson's fighting Patrick Star. And let Russ cook. He's fighting with a spatula.

CHRIS SIMMS: Exactly. There's the other Broncos, Mike. Here's the other one. There's Sean.

MIKE FLORIO: That's the-- he's renovating Russ's personal office.

CHRIS SIMMS: Office hours. Sign up below. No one signed up.

MIKE FLORIO: Yeah.

CHRIS SIMMS: Oh, that is really good.

MIKE FLORIO: The--

CHRIS SIMMS: Go ahead.

MIKE FLORIO: The other Raiders game.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yes.

MIKE FLORIO: When they cashed out the ticket from the get your quarter back slot machine. The money on there, -72,750,000. that's the contract value for Jimmy Garoppolo for the next three years, which is great. And that is a real QR code. You should scan that QR code and see where it takes you.

It takes you to the Chargers website, and there's a link for Chargers fans, and there's a link for Raiders fans, but it's next-level stuff. That is an actual functioning QR code on that cash-out voucher in the Raiders rematch week 15. And then what they did with the Bills was great, too, burning the logos of the four Super Bowls they lost.

CHRIS SIMMS: Right.

MIKE FLORIO: With that shot then of Stefon Diggs as he was standing, watching the Chiefs-- and this goes back to 2020, watching the Chiefs celebrate the AFC Championship on the field, forelorn Stefon Diggs standing there, watching it all. And it has relevance now because there's that sense that Diggs is distant from the Bills, that there's something going on with Diggs and the Bills.

So just the knowledge of what's happening in the NFL, the creativity to bring it all together, I just think it's great.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah, it's great. It's the best one two years in a row. That Tennessee Titans one, it gave it a little run for its money this year, but this still takes the cake. This is really creative, really well done. And yeah, it was one of my favorite things. I mean, we didn't even hit on Dak with the social media team throwing him under the bus last year.

MIKE FLORIO: It was great because they had the tweet from the Cowboys official account that was up there forever, blaming Dak for the loss to the 49ers. So there's the Jerry Jones bus content team, and Stephen A standing there, watching the bus run over Dak Prescott.

Also, we saw the Chiefsaholic in there twice. That's the bank robber, alleged bank robber, who is also a Chiefs superfan, who at last word had literally removed his electronic monitoring device and failed to show up for court. I haven't seen whether or not they even caught this guy. And then for the rematch, Pat McAfee and AJ Hawk chasing him in a helicopter as Chiefsaholic makes his getaway.

That's the rematch, obviously, of the Chargers-Chiefs game. So well done, Chargers. The bar was set last year. It was met this year. We look forward to 52 weeks from today seeing what you do next.