On Wednesday, the Arizona Cardinals released their full 17-game schedule, as did the rest of the league. In the modern age, schedule release day has become an opportunity for teams' creative and social media departments to put together unique presentations - each trying to outdo one another in their creativity.
The Cardinals, however, turned to one of their players to create an entertaining, unique style of presentation.
Linebacker Mack Wilson Sr., known by his rap name as "Rocketship," performed a song titled 18 Bars that took fans through the 17-game schedule.
Wondering what the hype about? Come around and find out. pic.twitter.com/gWbYHYdKsx
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) May 15, 2025
On NFL Network's Good Morning Football, Wilson explained just how that rap came to be:
.@MackWilSr aka Rocketship explains how his new track "18 Bars" came about for the @AZCardinals schedule release pic.twitter.com/KUbVXJyPue
— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) May 15, 2025
"They reached out to me from the Cardinals, obviously, and kind of just [were] like, 'What do you think about doing a song for our schedule release?' And I really didn't know what I was getting myself into, for real, but I accepted it, obviously.
"I didn't know how much hard work was going to go into this, but it was a dope experience, and they obviously [were] able to find me because Jesse Luketa and Zach Pascal, who I was doing music with last year, my little third and goal group, we [were] making a lot of songs last year, bumping it in the locker room for the guys to hear it, and the guys [were] liking our music, so we kind of just stayed with it and just [were] making music after every home game, you know, if we had time, so that's kind of like how it came about," Wilson said.
Whether or not the song itself is to one's particular liking, many have noted that the decision to let Wilson seems to be indicative of a shifting culture in Arizona — a positive one, at that.
While it's certainly just one of the little things, and hardly means much when the Cardinals will be eventually entrenched in a tough 2025 season, perhaps it is a symbol of a more positive organizational identity.
At the very least, it was certainly creative.
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