Schedule Release Could Make Mike Vrabel NFL’s Punching Bag

The cone of silence surrounding the Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini story inside the NFL could give way to mockery when teams release their full 2026 game schedules in mid-May.

Unfortunately for Vrabel, the annual schedule release is the one day where NFL teams are unofficially allowed to poke fun at their opponents. The league’s 32 rival clubs spare no one. The insults dreamed up by social media teams can be savagely funny. The Chargers, for example, are the acknowledged masters of throwing shade at other teams and their star players.

In their 2024 schedule release video, the Chargers showed Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker as a Suzy Homemaker-type toiling away in the kitchen. The Sims-style video mocked Butker’s controversial commencement speech, where he urged women to give up careers in favor of spousal duties and motherhood. The Chargers also lampooned Travis Kelce’s romance with Taylor Swift, with the pop superstar picking up her boyfriend in a private jet. The video has drawn 38.5 million views on X/Twitter.

Then in 2025, the Chargers taunted Bills QB Josh Allen for his wife Hailee Steinfeld’s role in Sinners, and their AFC West rival Chiefs for getting blown out in the Super Bowl by the Eagles. The nearly five-minute Minecraft-themed view from 2025 has drawn over 19 million views on Twitter. Clearly, very little—if anything—is off-limits for the Bolts, who have also parodied the infamous picture of ex-Jaguars coach Urban Meyer grinding with a woman in a bar, as well as the sexual assault allegations against Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson.

What do you know? The Chargers are set to host the Pats at SoFi Stadium this year. Los Angeles will be looking for payback after meekly losing 16-3 to Vrabel’s Patriots 16-3 in an AFC Wild Card playoff game in January. The odds are that the Chargers won’t be the only NFL team looking to settle old scores with New England.

“The Chargers have the Patriots on their schedule. Even if they didn’t have the Patriots on their schedule, they still might find a way to work it in,” one source tells Front Office Sports. “The past few years, one of the things that has set the Chargers apart is their ability to take shots at everybody. I mean what they did with Harrison Butker where they had him in the kitchen? They hit hard at people in these moments. They do a really good job at it. Once I realized the Chargers are playing the Patriots this year, I would be shocked if they don’t go there.”

Albert Breer, the senior NFL Reporter for Sports Illustrated, also pointed to the schedule release as the day the NFL‘s omerta could fall apart during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show this week. Noting the story has “crossed the Rubicon” from sports into celebrity gossip, Breer predicted Vrabel could be in for a roasting on schedule release day. 

Remember the two married executives caught canoodling during a Coldplay concert last year? As with those private citizens, the Vrabel memes could write themselves. Breer envisions somebody holding up a phone with a Spotify playlist. Patrick joked there could be a meme of a couple holding hands ala the rooftop Page Six photos from the adults-only resort in Arizona. With paparazzi stalking the 50-year-old coach in airports, the tabloid stories will keep coming. The most likely culprit to make fun of Vrabel and the Pats will be—you guessed it—the Chargers.

“It’s like nothing’s out of bounds with the Chargers,” Breer told Patrick. “My guess would be they will. And if they don’t, it will be a story that they didn’t. Did someone tell them to shut up?”

Unfortunately, that could be just the beginning. Many NFL teams and their fan bases hate and fear the Patriots for their six Super Bowl victories and history of cheating scandals. Once Vrabel and his players start visiting enemy stadiums, the catcalls from fans will begin. Yes, the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady dynasty is over. But there’s fresh resentment the reigning AP NFL Coach of the Year managed to pull the franchise out of the doldrums in just one season, then lead them back to the Super Bowl.

As Breer told Patrick: “I think this follows Mike around for a while. My guess will be that you’ll probably see hints of it in the schedule release in a couple of weeks, with the way the teams all make fun of each other. You’ll see it when they walk into any other stadium in the summer for preseason games, and then in the fall.”

The NFL has not set a specific date for schedule release but they typically do it in mid-May. The Chargers did not return an email seeking comment.