The Arizona Cardinals' 2026 NFL schedule release is receiving backlash from fans on social media for using AI as the lackluster franchise receives zero primetime contests
11:21 ET, 15 May 2026
Arizona Cardinals
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Michael Bidwill became the majority owner of the Arizona Cardinals in 2019(Image: Getty Images)
Most NFL teams pour weeks and weeks of resources during the heart of the offseason into planning their schedule release video.
Teams like the Los Angeles Chargers and Tennessee Titans, maybe not the league's most heralded teams, typically score points from fans for their creativity. The Arizona Cardinals, already one of the NFL's worst teams and with an owner deemed cheap by former quarterback Jake Plummer, seemed disinterested.
Arizona's schedule release featured the team's mascot, a Cardinal named "Big Red," on a Microsoft Teams call alongside other mascots generated by AI. "We asked Big Red to help announce the schedule... he may have taken the assignment too seriously," the team posted alongside the brief video.
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"It seems as though the Cards filmed their own mascot on green screen and then used AI to turn it into all the other mascots," wrote popular NFL YouTuber Brett Kollmann on X.
The Cardinals regularly get some of the lowest engagement on X. Their schedule release cracked the algorithm, generating over two million viewers in 16 hours, almost solely from negative feedback.
The top comment — "Your AI slop bores me" — nearly quadrupled (3,300) the amount of likes the actual video received (900) in the first 16 hours.
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Other comments revealed further displeasure from fans, with many pointing the finger at longtime owner Michael Bidwell, who inherited the team from his father.
"If being the worst team in the NFL wasn’t enough punishment," one wrote.
"Why do you guys insist on making every minute of being a fan of your team a humiliation ritual? It's genuinely like you hate the city," another said.
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Big Red, Marvin Harrison Jr, and the Arizona Cardinals profile as one of the NFL's worst teams (Image: Getty Images)
"Get this AI slop out of here this is genuinely embarrassing," a different fan commented. "Awful team awful owner awful social team. We’re the joke of the league for a reason and you losers are the tip of the iceberg. You should feel ashamed."
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In a comprehensive study by the Action Network, Bidwill ranked as the "cheapest" NFL owner, ranking near the bottom of all teams in terms of locker room quality, food, and cap space spending.
The Cardinals were the last NFL team this offseason to pick a coach, eventually landing on Mike LeFleur. Jake Plummer, Arizona's starting QB from 1997 to 2002, blamed ownership.
He said: “It really won’t matter [who gets picked]. It’s organizationally. From the top down, they’ve got to spend the money. If it happens from the top down, then they can win. But we’ll see.”