The Denver Broncos and the Los Angeles Rams players fell victim to an elaborate Christmas prank by CBS Sports on Thursday.
CBS will be broadcasting the Christmas afternoon game at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, and since both teams will have to work on the holiday, they decided to troll the players with fake uniforms that were hideously Christmas-themed.
Both team’s uniforms mimicked the pattern of an “ugly Christmas sweater” and had a matching gaudy helmet.
The Rams’ jersey was the team’s blue adorned with patterned yellow snowflakes, rows of Christmas trees, and tiny Rams logos.
The matching yellow helmet had green and red Christmas lights embedded in the blue horns.
The Broncos’ jersey followed a similar Christmas tree/logo pattern in their signature navy and orange team colors, while the helmet featured a reindeer and Christmas tree that players found abhorrent.
Broncos’ place kicker Brandon McManus and Rams’ safety Nick Scott were in on the prank.
They helped CBS Sports set up their teammates by placing dummies dressed in the fake uniforms in their respective locker rooms, and playing along with the joke that they were required to wear them on Christmas day.
“We’re going to do a little ugly sweater prank on my teammates,” said Scott.
“Let’s see who’s going to fall for it,” added McManus.
For the most part, players on both teams were horrified by the holiday uniform embellishments.
“That’s not real,” said one shocked Bronco. “It’s real,” McManus assured him. “Look at the helmet.”
“Y’all put a f–king reindeer on it?” He asked skeptically.
“I think it’s a joke,” another added. “It’s gotta be a joke.”
“They want us to wear it. [They’re] discussing whether we’ll wear it,” two more players chatted as they passed the uniform.
“What we’re wearing? Us?” A Bronco remarked, then cackled as he walked away.
“The reindeer is a little childish,” one Bronco critiqued. “Our regular helmet would have been okay. I don’t know about this.”
“The Rams have theirs,” McManus trolled. “We’re both wearing them.”
On the Rams end, player reactions ranged from “ain’t no way,” and “that’s trash,” to “y’all didn’t see the lights around the Ram? That’s ugly as f–k.”
But beauty is clearly in the eye of the beholder, because one Ram remarked, “What? That’s cool, man,” while his teammate firmly stated, “No, it’s not.”
One of the Broncos enthusiastically asked if players got to pick the names on the back of their helmets.
“Can I put, like, Dasher or Dancer on my nameplate?”
But most players were clearly dismayed by the “ugly Christmas sweater jerseys.”
“They’re going to have to give everybody bonuses if we are wearing them,” a Bronco remarked.
“You can have my game check,” added another. “I’m not wearing that s–t.”
In other NFL Christmas news, Buffalo Bills star Isaiah McKenzie gifted his the entire wide receiver squad full-sized personalized arcade games ahead of the holiday.
Each machine featured the gifted player on the side and their jersey number. The full-sized unit came pre-stocked with 9,600 games.
Not to be outdone, quarterback Josh Allen gave his entire offensive line customized Phat Scooters in Bills’ colors, with each of their jersey numbers on the foot plate.
Allen wasn’t the only QB to gift the scooters, Packers’ star Aaron Rodgers bought 22 of the electric two-wheelers for his Green Bay teammates.