A group of Tennessee Volunteers traveled to Miami to put in work during the college football offseason before the start of the new semester. They foolishly recreated the New York Giants’ infamous boat pic, which put a curse on the organization.
The fanbase in Knoxville is going to pretend like history does not repeat but time will tell.
Should the Volunteers fall short of expectations during the 2026 college football season, we will be able to point to the exact moment where it all went wrong. I am joking… but I’m serious.
Tennessee football players took a trip to Miami.
The spring semester at the University of Tennessee does not begin until Jan. 20. The Vols are not required back in the classroom until the Tuesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
With plenty of time on their hands, a group of football players traveled down to Miami earlier this week.
Although South Florida is beautiful this time of year, this was not for pleasure. Mostly. It was as much of a business trip as it was a vacation.
Quarterback George MacIntyre traveled with tight end Desaahn Brame and wide receivers Travis Smith, Braylon Staley, Mike Matthews and Joakim Dodson. All six guys are expected to play a much larger role in the offense next season. They wanted to get a jump start on 2026.
MacIntyre is currently projected to be the starting quarterback so he wanted to build chemistry with his pass-catchers. Run routes, get a feel for how the ball spins off of his hand, stay in shape, etc.
That is a great sign for Tennessee. The Volunteers are putting in the work!
However, there was still enough time for fun while they were there and it led to a big mistake.
The Volunteers recreated the New York Giants’ boat pic.
Travis Smith posted the following image to his story on Instagram. He and his teammates were on a boat in Miami.
Oh no.
Real football heads know how this ends. It bears a striking resemblance to the infamous boat photo from 2016.
Odell Beckham Jr., Sterling Shepard and Victor Cruz traveled with some of their New York Giants teammates after the NFL regular season to celebrate making the playoffs. They took a picture together on a boat in Miami, which immediately spread like wildfire for all of the wrong reasons.
The Green Bay Packers went on to beat the Giants by 25 points in the Wild Card. New York has made the postseason only one time since— a divisional round loss in 2023. Most of the players in the photo never performed as well as they did in 2016. The evidence shows it was a curse.
Cruz says that the boat photo will haunt him “forever.” Shepard wishes it would go away.
Perhaps the Tennessee Volunteers won’t have the same luck. Maybe their trip to Miami is going to propel them to the College Football Playoff. It wasn’t under the same circumstances. They were on vacation during the offseason— not at the end of the regular season.
Or, maybe, the Miami boat pic is a curse. History repeats. We’ll see.