Easton Simpson x Atlanta Falcons
The 7th Annual Awards
- Most Creative Partnership with an Athlete or Influencer
ABOUT THIS ENTRY
Easton Simpson has traveled the country to various settings – red carpets, sit-down interviews, and sports teams, challenging folks on their media training. This time, he took the mic to players of the Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans to mumble his way through interviewing them, resulting in an incredibly humorous video that humanized NFL players to millions of viewers.
How does this represent "Excellence in Engagement"?
This was a low-lift, organic video that created high-engaging and fun, yet simple, content. Anyone who watched the video felt a laugh and wanted to share it amongst friends. It provided an opportunity to collaborate with another NFL team (Tennessee Titans), while allowing us to reach far beyond Atlanta Falcons, Tennessee Titans, NFL and general football fans.
Objective
In the dog days of Training Camp, the Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans had a joint practice week. Social teams from the Falcons and Titans met to find ways to elevate the week and collab on a project that could involve players in an organic way, that was outside the norm. How could we bring an element of fun content to what is otherwise a basic football practice?
Our objective was to create fun, engaging social content that would showcase our players’ personalities and resonate with a broad audience. This was during a busy window of Training Camp, preseason and kickoff preparation, so a key element was finding something that would not require significant time resources.
The Falcons team searched for creators who could amplify the message to not only football fans, but non-fans as well and landed on Easton Simpson. Easton is a content creator with over 650K followers across TikTok and Instagram who calls himself a “Professional Mumbler.” Easton is known for his humorous videos of interviewing strangers while mumbling.
The idea was simple: Easton would “interview” players after practice. We believed this would get the best organic reaction from the players, and the results did not disappoint.
Strategy & Execution
On the day of, social and communications teams were tasked with bringing over a player to a special 1-on-1 interview with Easton, under the guise that it was an NFL.com reporter after practice. No prep work was done with the respective players, and Easton improvised his questions.
Easton’s style is to ask a couple of clear and direct questions that the guys can truthfully answer, and then he will start mumbling and see which direction the player wants to go. It is fully unscripted and reactionary content. Easton edited the video within the day, and it was uploaded to Falcons social immediately after the next day’s joint practice. Easton also posted a version on his own account.
Both the Falcons and Titans targeted players who were leaders and well-trained in the media, to really give this video a chance to be as engaging as it eventually became.
We felt it was important that collabs be agreed upon before the contract was signed, and had the full support of Easton, both NFL teams, and the NFL on amplification.
Organizations
Atlanta Falcons
Links
Featured
Easton Simpson – Content Creator
Jaxon Cindrich – Content Creator
Kaden Elliss – Atlanta Falcons Player
Jessie Bates III – Atlanta Falcons Player
KhaDarel Hodge – Atlanta Falcons Player
Arden Key – Tennessee Titans Player
Jeffery Simmons – Tennessee Titans Player
Credits
Ryan Delgado
Director, Digital Platforms
Atlanta Falcons
Jackie Kinney
Senior Manager, Social Media
Atlanta Falcons
Nate Bain
Director, Social Media & Influencer Marketing
Tennessee Titans
Easton Simpson
Influencer
N/A
Jaxon Cindrich
Influencer
N/A
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Join us for the 7th Annual Hashtag Sports Awards™ on the evening of June 24, 2025 as we celebrate finalists and reveal the winners of this year's awards live during the show.
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