When Football Players Meet Corporate Buzzwords: The Carolina Panthers’ Hilarious Crash Course in Office Slang
On Tuesday, the Carolina Panthers’ social media team came through the players' locker room and got one of the best pieces of content we’ve seen in quite some time.
I mean, it’s not like these guys have an NFC South division to win or anything, but there’s always time for some cheer here in the holiday season.
This latest segment was simply brilliant: see how much NFL players know about common corporate workplace slang. Typically, the Panthers are used to remembering something along the lines of “Gun Trey Left 618 F Swing,” and those plays could lead to a first down, or even a touchdown.
But terms like PTO (paid time off) to OOO (out of office), and a few zingers like KPI were thrown in there – and we’ll just say it’s good the Panthers are in the line of work they are.
At least everyone had a good time!
What Did Panthers’ Players Say in the Viral Video?
I think the better question is, what didn’t the Panthers’ players say in this viral video? Comically, though, as I’m sure plenty of people wouldn’t get all of these correct.
The video opens innocently enough, as the Panthers’ social media coordinator, armed with a microphone and a mischievous grin, walks up to rookie cornerback Lathan Ransom.
“What does PTO stand for?”
Ransom thinks for half a second and answers confidently: “Paid time off?” Correct. In fact, The bar was set – and immediately knocked off the rails.
The rookie out of Ohio State did swing and miss on “EOD,” though, calling it “every off day.”
Next victim: running back Chubba Hubbard – in unlikely running back behavior, he passes on the PTO question! Hubbard would redeem himself, though, stating “end of day” on the EOD question.
Then, came the term that broke the internet – KPI.
Punter Sam Martin was up first, and it was a jumbled response from him. Hubbard was up next and began his answer with, “computer…” before finally giving up.
Up next was the real star of the show, long-snapper JJ Jansen, “Key… performance… indicator?”
Another correct answer! Two in one video? Unheard of. The crew jokingly accuses him of having a secret LinkedIn profile.
There were also two other great answers on the words/phrases, “ideate” and “taking it offline." You can watch the attached video to judge for yourself just how funny this was.
NFL Players vs Corporate America
In about 24 hours, the clip has racked over 22,000 views on the Panthers’ X/Twitter page – and another 187,000+ on @MLFootball. It perfectly sums up a cultural disconnect that almost everyone can relate to on some level.
NFL players live in an atmosphere measured in tenths of seconds, 40-yard dashes, and win-loss columns. They spend their days in meeting rooms watching film, in ice tubs, and in weight rooms – not in Slack chats debating synergy and bandwidth.
Meanwhile, the rest us working plebs have spent the last decade drowning in a sea of acronyms and meaningless verbs-turned-nouns. We “circle back” and “move the needle” until our eyes glaze over.
The Panthers’ video hits in some type of way because it lets us watch people who are elite at something physically unimaginable look completely lost in the environment most of us inhabit daily.
The Final Word
At its core, the video is a reminder of two things. First, NFL players are not like us – and that’s a good thing. They exist in a world of controlled violence and split-second decision-making that would leave the average office worker curled in the fetal position.
Second, the average office worker’s world has become so insulated by jargon that even basic concepts now require translation.
So the next time your boss schedules a “quick sync to ideation-scrum some low-hanging fruit before EOD,” feel free to channel your inner Xavier Woods and ask if that means we’re fighting in the parking lot.
Because honestly? Sometimes it feels that way.
