Here are the 13 best NFL memes you’ve ever seen

During the NFL season, every Sunday is an opportunity. An opportunity for something awesome/terrible/hilarious to happen on a football field, something that immediately can become a certifiable meme. Football is memes, as the old saying goes.

Sometimes, though, they show up when you least expect them.

For instance, five days into the 2017 NFL season, a meme emerged from the one of the unlikeliest of places. Most sideline reporters don’t provide a plethora of pertinent information when they’re called to speak during a broadcast. But then we were introduced to Sergio Dipp, who nervously flubbed his Monday Night Football debut, leading to these internet gems (including one from Sergio).

Sergio Dipp was the first great NFL meme of 2017. Here are others from years past.

The all-time best football memes

1) Manning Face

Peyton Manning, formerly of the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos is one of the best quarterbacks of all time. His kid brother, Eli Manning of the New York Giants, has won two Super Bowls. But they’re siblings, and man, do they both display similar sourpuss faces when a game is about to be lost.

https://twitter.com/joshkatzowitz/status/909978710434107393

Peyton also has a few good ones.

2) Super Bowl LI 

The 2016 season Super Bowl was one of the most improbable in history, as the Falcons blew a 25-point lead in the final 17 minutes of regulation and allowed the Patriots to squeak out a 34-28 victory. The memes were immediate.

READ MORE:

• The best memes of 2017 (thus far)
• Reddit 50/50: What is it and why is it so popular?
• Donald Trump memes are making the internet great again

3) Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl screwup

This wasn’t quite as heartbreaking as the Falcons’ colossal debacle that would occur two years later, but the Seahawks drew plenty of criticism for opting to throw for the winning touchdown vs. the Patriots with seconds left instead of trying to run the ball. The play called by coach Pete Carroll failed, and New England won Super Bowl XLIX. Which immediately led to these.

4) David Johnson wanted

This could apply to any top player in the league, but as always: Do NOT get injured in the first week of the season if you’re one of the league’s best running backs.

5) Tebowing

Remember when Tim Tebow won the Broncos a bunch of games in 2011? Remember when he knelt in prayer and started a new trend called Tebowing? The meme got so popular Tebow even trademarked it.

Here was the genesis.

And then this happened.

6) Bradying

Basically made in response to the Tebowing phenomenon—which is OK since Tebowing basically took over for planking—this photo shows Patriots quarterback Tom Brady reacting to his team’s Super Bowl loss in 2012. The internet went wild over it.

https://twitter.com/FunnyFirehose/status/626164625931943937

7) Brady courtroom sketch

Brady is one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, and he’s also mastered the social media game. But he couldn’t contain the internet’s glee when a courtroom artist sketched him during a #Deflategate hearing in 2015.

Here’s what the sketch looked like.

And the memes that came along with it.

https://twitter.com/patrickhedlund/status/631534566407335941

8) Flaccoing

This meme was only brief. It features Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco on the turf after throwing an interception returned for a touchdown by the opponent.

https://twitter.com/MUTjacob/status/679818791849693184

In the next offseason, though, Flacco signed a contract worth $120.6 million, meaning the meme needed to be updated.

All of this begs another meme question: Is Joe Flacco elite?

READ MORE:

• How to watch ESPN without cable
• How to watch NFL Sunday Ticket without cable
• The rise and fall of ‘Bye Felicia,’ this generation’s coldest reply
• The unbearable dankness of memes

9) Marshawn Lynch and Skittles

Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch loves to eat Skittles. Once the world discovered that, the internet couldn’t stop tasting the rainbow.

https://twitter.com/fb_know/status/907289282934706176

10) The Lions are eternally bad

The team from Detroit can’t stop getting roasted.

11) The Browns are eternally worse

The Lions have nothing on the ineptitude of the team from Cleveland.

https://twitter.com/Terror10_WMC/status/857610151687327745

And what happens when the Browns win?

12) A Gronking To Remember

You probably know Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, the Gronkiest Gronk to ever Gronk across the world. In 2014, a woman named Lacey Noonan wrote an erotic ebook about Gronkowski called, A Gronking To Remember. It was three years ago, but people can’t stop talking about the book.

https://twitter.com/uncorkeddc/status/862760869452812289

https://twitter.com/TheQueenofFF/status/901557448607240193

https://twitter.com/cliftonsutters/status/895499617218973697

13) The Dildo incident

This was probably the greatest moment ever to occur during a Bills game. Some heroic soul threw a dildo on the field in October 2016. The resulting meme penetrated our souls.

https://twitter.com/TJPK21/status/818253398445170688

Editor’s note: This article is regularly updated for relevance