In one of the most long overdue announcements in gaming and football, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray has announced that he is finally partnering with Call of Duty. The famed signal-caller took to social media to announce the partnership while calling out “trolls” for making this happen.
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Murray shared a video of the announcement on his X page, which showcases famed character actor Peter Stormare as “The Replacer” pretending to be Murray. Stormare has the same headband and eye black under his left eye much like the Cardinals quarterback uses, and states he is now Murray.
The video’s caption and what Stormare says are pointing directly to the heat that Murray has garnered for years over playing “Call of Duty.” The post reads:
“To the trolls who memed me into a bag, thank you! I’m officially launching my @CallofDuty partnership! #CODPartnership #TheReplacer #BlackOps6.”
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 06: Kyler Murray #1 of the Arizona Cardinals reacts after a two point conversion in the fourth quarter of a game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on…
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 06: Kyler Murray #1 of the Arizona Cardinals reacts after a two point conversion in the fourth quarter of a game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on October 06, 2024 in Santa Clara, California. Cardinals QB Kyler Murray announces Call of Duty partnership.
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Stormare as Murray also states, “Kyler is practicing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.”
Murray was tied to “Call of Duty” in the oddest way possible, as fans or “trolls” online began to speculate that the signal caller played poorly during the times that the video game offered their “two times experience” weekends. The speculative joke even went so far as to garner a study, which was posted online.
A statistical analysis of NFL Quarterback Kyler Murray’s performance shows that he plays worse when there’s active Double XP weekends happening in Call of Duty. There were rumors stating that they he played a lot of Call of Duty, even during the season. https://t.co/47sI8lwN8u pic.twitter.com/PcBMs33RcY
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) August 2, 2022
Murray was rumored to have played a ton of “Call of Duty” though none of that was ever corroborated in any way. This independent study was instead done, adding more fuel to the proverbial fire that Murray was far more invested in the popular FPS over playing football.
Now, over two years later, Murray has chosen to finally partner up with the famed video game for the new release. “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” is set to release on Oct. 25 for PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
It will be interesting to see what the video game does regarding the new partnership with Murray. There have been skins offered on the FPS that showcase famous entertainers. For instance, rapper Nicki Minaj was a popular skin for “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II in Aug. 2023.
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It would be hilarious and would add more to this running joke if Murray’s partnership allowed players to purchase a skin of him as an operator in the game.
There are likely more details that are set to be released, but be on the lookout for what this new partnership will entail before the game launches on Oct. 25.
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