By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

It’s all about the presentation.

In the past, when a recruit signed with a school, or a player announced he or she was turning pro, at the most they would hold a conference at their respective school to mark the occasion.

Now, it’s all about the theatrics; Instagram posts, professionally done videos, etc.

That same hype has trickled down now to the release of the NFL Schedule.

Instead of quietly releasing the upcoming season schedule, it’s all about the creativity from each team’s marketing and social media departments. I know I might come across like a millennial version of Archie Bunker, yelling at those “darn kids”, but I actually love it.

And thankfully for those of us in this area, both Atlanta and Carolina were the two videos battling it out for the top spot.

If you’re grading on the overall creativity and consistency of the video I think you have to go with the Panthers. Their idea to present the matchups as if they were competing in an actual video game was nothing short of brilliant.

As someone who spent the better part of the ‘90s navigating through his teenage years, I appreciated their nods to games like Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, and Goldeneye. The only thing that could’ve improved their overall presentation was somehow slipping in a score of 28-3 for either of their matchups against Atlanta.

Now, since I am a big Game of Thrones fan, and even though it has become a popular trend of late, I can give the Falcons props for their homage to one of the most popular shows of my generation.

While you can debate the originality of the idea, the video did provide possibly the best five seconds put on film this year. There is certainly no love lost between Carolina and Atlanta, but the one thing both fan bases can agree upon is their complete disdain for anything associate with the New Orleans Saints.

So, when the Falcons video included a ram knocking over a Saints player, followed by a ref running up to the knocked player and waving off any infraction I almost gave them a standing ovation, in my living room. That’s pettiness at its finest, and I’m all in.

There will be numerous touchdown celebrations, quarterback sack dances, and taunts throughout the season, but I don’t know if any of them will be as brutal as that takedown the Falcons just performed on the Saints.

I do think there was some room for improvement though. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like they missed a golden opportunity by not including a “Jameis Winston running out of Publix” set piece.

I admit I haven’t actively searched out New Orleans or Tampa Bay’s schedule release video, but I doubt it compares at all to these two.

Oh, and as for the actual schedule itself, would it really matter all much if not for these videos? I mean, most of the games are already predetermined and no matter how difficult or easy we perceive a schedule to be, it all changes once the season begins anyway.

One thing the NFL does better than any other league- the NBA isn’t too far behind- is they’ve turned their season into a year around event.

The release of their schedule is just one more thing we as fans now have to look forward to. I know I sound like Meathead, but I almost don’t care how my team does this season; it’s all about the announcement video now.