Leave it to the NFL to make some news that doesn’t involve their own game. During the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs game, the preview of Season 2 of “Squid Games” was shown, creating quite the buzz.
Squid Game Returns, Social Media Lights Up
If you are not familiar with the show, it revolves around a secret contest in which 456 players, all in deep financial hardship, risk their lives to play a series of deadly children’s games to win a $45.6 billion prize. The series’ title draws from Squid, a Korean children’s game.
A few of the characters include:
- Lee Byung-hun as Hwang In-ho (황인호, Kor the Front Man), the game overseer and previous winner of these in the 2015 edition, who after his participation does not believe that there are truly good people.
- Wi Ha-joon as Hwang Jun-ho, a police officer and undercover detective who sneaks into the game disguised as a guard to find his missing brother and discovers that his brother is the Front Man, the organizer of the Games himself.
- Yoo Sung-joo as Byeong-gi, a doctor who secretly works with a group of corrupt guards to traffic the organs of dead participants in exchange for information on upcoming games.
The guards play a huge part in the show, and they are like the gatekeepers who keep things going and keep the contestants in line. Guards all wear the same base clothing in order to preserve anonymity — a pink-hooded jumpsuit, black gloves, black boots, and a permeated mask to hide their identity. These masks have one of three symbols that indicate their ranking.
Some NFL fans were a bit creeped out by what they saw at today’s game and compared it to the show.
The Pink Guards are watching 😳 @squidgame #KCvsPIT on @Netflix pic.twitter.com/zb0cdagypD
— NFL (@NFL) December 25, 2024
“My only issue is the Pink Guards for character consistency should’ve just stood there menacingly and done nothing. celebrate at the END of the game,” one fan suggested.
my only issue is the Pink Guards for character consistency should've just stood there menacingly and done nothing. celebrate at the END of the game. 😂
— Sassington, M.C. (@MissSassbox) December 25, 2024
“So many Netflix references it’s cringy,” a fan leaned into the Netflix programming overload.
So many Netflix references it’s cringy
— Sports Analyst (@BocaSportsBets) December 25, 2024
“Are they the back up refs?” one fan wondered.
Are they the back up refs?
— Chris For the Win (@superninerfan74) December 25, 2024
“Not a big fan of that,” another fan weighed in.
😂 not a big fan of that 🫠🫠🫠
— Recruta Zero (@RecrutaZero) December 25, 2024
The show became popular during the pandemic and caught on quickly with an American audience because of its weird and quirky storylines. However, as you can tell, it still freaks some loyal fans out.