Hope springs eternal around the NFL once the season starts, but Dave Portnoy has already taken one team out of the running.
After a video of Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert and his fiancée Madison Beer circulated online, Portnoy jumped on X and made his point in blunt fashion. The clip showed the two sitting on the training camp field, looking lovingly into each other’s eyes, and plenty of NFL fans had a field day with it. Portnoy went a step further and used the moment to rule the Chargers out as a Super Bowl team, posting: “Teams that can win the Superbowl” along with an image of the word “Chargers” crossed off.
Not everyone bought the idea that a romantic video had anything to do with what happens on Sundays, but the reaction online was loud either way. Some users treated the moment like a fork in the road for Herbert’s season.
“This can only go one of two ways. He’s either going to have an MVP type szn with 5K yards and 40 Tuddies.
Or he’s going to pull an Andrew Luck & retire after a few sacks… No in between,” one wrote. Another pointed to a past quarterback-celebrity pairing: “Remember when Tony Romo dated Jessica Simpson,” while a third added, “If she breaks up with him mid season they would actually be a contender… funny how that works and some people know exactly what I mean by that,”
Others leaned into the joke with even more confidence in Portnoy’s take. “Mr.
Portnoy has always been a man who knows ball.” one user said. Another wrote, “That moment when you realize your franchise QB is basically just staring in a Disney movie and he’s already completely content with life and has 0 reason to want to win at football…”
Herbert still hasn’t won a playoff game since entering the league in 2020. If that streak continues, or if the Chargers miss the postseason altogether, there figures to be plenty of uneasy talk around the team when the offseason arrives.
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