Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images
The full 2026 NFL Schedule is set to release on Thursday afternoon, and with it will come a flood of creative social media posts from teams announcing their dates and opponents.
But will those teams be allowed to mock the ongoing saga between New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and former reporter for The Athletic, Dianna Russini?
Many expected that Vrabel, especially, would be the target of jokes from a number of teams, with the often-hilarious Los Angeles Chargers social media team being one that fans are especially keeping an eye on.
all of us waiting to see if the chargers social team makes a vrabel joke today pic.twitter.com/OJRmlqoEd4
— Annie Agar (@AnnieAgar) May 14, 2026
But fans also wondered if the NFL might step in and issue a directive to teams that they are not to address the matter on social media.
Apparently, it has no plans to do so.
NFL Leaves It Up To Teams To Decide Whether Or Not To Mock Mike Vrabel
Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports reports that the league does not plan on issuing any edict on the matter. Instead, it plans to leave it up to the teams to decide whether or not they want to walk down that path.
“This is the day when teams are licensed to poke fun at each other. The (Vrabel story) has become such a public matter that teams can take the shot. You may get a call from the Patriots. But the league is not going to get involved,” a source told McCarthy. “The only time Park Avenue messages the teams is around labor, CBA, or the refs. The moments when they’re trying to negotiate—and they want everyone on message. If the Jets, Bills, or Chargers choose to ridicule Vrabel, that’s an issue between the teams. The league doesn’t need to mediate that.”
Now, does that mean that teams will necessarily take jabs at Vrabel and/or Russini? Not really.
We’re sure there are plenty of teams that have skeletons they’d like to keep hidden, and by taking a shot at New England and Vrabel, you open yourself up to retaliation.
Perhaps the teams, or at least the social media departments, don’t care about that. But you can imagine that several social media departments across the league have decided that it’s a slippery slope they’d rather not head down.
Here’s hoping that at least one team (looking at you, Chargers) doesn’t have that concern.