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Los Angeles County is poised to pay nearly $2.7 million to a teenager whose violent beating at a juvenile hall launched a sprawling criminal investigation into so-called “gladiator fights” inside the troubled facility.

Video of the December 2023 beating, captured on CCTV, showed Jose Rivas Barillas, then 16, being pummeled by six juveniles at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall as probation officers stood idly by. Each youth attacked Rivas Barillas for a few seconds before returning to breakfast. Two officers, later identified as longtime probation officials Taneha Brooks and Shawn Smyles, laughed and shook hands, encouraging the brawl.

“What made this unique is the video,” said Rivas Barillas’ attorney, Jamal Tooson, who said his client suffered a broken nose and traumatic brain injury. “The entire world got to witness the brutality that’s taking place with our children at the hands of the Los Angeles County Probation Department.”

The video, first reported by The Times, prompted a criminal investigation by the state attorney general’s office, which later charged 30 probation officers — including Brooks and Smyles — with allowing and encouraging fights among teens inside county juvenile halls. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta referred to the coordinated brawls as “gladiator fights” and said his office’s CCTV review had turned up 69 such fights during the chaotic first six months after the hall opened in July 2023.

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Footage obtained by the L.A. Times shows a December 2023 incident in which staffers can be seen allowing at least six youths to hit and kick a 17-year-old.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will vote on whether to approve the $2.67-million settlement to Rivas Barillas and his mother, Heidi Barillas Lemus.

According to a public summary of the “corrective action plan” that the Probation Department must produce before a large settlement, officials failed to review CCTV video of the fight and waited too long to transport the teen to a hospital and notify his family.

CCTV monitors are now “staffed routinely,” and officials are working on conducting random audits of the recordings, according to the plan. A spokesperson for the Probation Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Immediately after Rivas Barillas arrived at the Downey juvenile hall, Brooks demanded to know his gang affiliation, according to the claim filed with the county. Brooks said she had heard that Rivas Barillas, who is Latino, was from the “Canoga” gang and that she “hoped he could fight” before directing the other juveniles, all of whom were Black, to attack him in the day room, the claim stated.

After the video made headlines, accounts of teens forced by probation officers to fight have trickled out of Los Padrinos. A teen told The Times in March that officers at Los Padrinos rewarded him with a fast-food “bounty” — In-N-Out, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s — if he beat up kids who misbehaved. The teenager, who had previously been housed in the same unit as Rivas Barillas, said staffers would also organize fights when someone arrived who was thought to be affiliated with a gang that didn’t get along with the youths inside.

“We get a new kid, he’s from the hood. We have other hoods in here. We’re going to get all the fights out of the way,” he said at the time. “They were just setting it up to control the situation.”

Another teenager, identified in court filings as John (Lohjk) Doe, alleged in a lawsuit filed in February that soon after arriving at Los Padrinos in 2024, he was escorted by an officer to the day room. The officer, identified only by the surname Santos, told a youth inside the day room that “you have eleven (11) seconds” and watched as the youth attacked Doe, according to the lawsuit.

On another occasion, the same officer threatened to pepper-spray Doe if he didn’t fight another youth for 20 seconds. The teens who fought were rewarded with extra television and more time out of their cells, the suit alleged.

After the teen told a female officer about the two coordinated brawls, he was transferred to solitary confinement, the suit alleged.

Times staff writer James Queally contributed to this report.

Activist Greta Thunberg says silence is more dangerous than sailing to Gaza, as she boarded a vessel that will try to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The Gaza Freedom Flotilla had to abandon its last attempt on May 2 when it was bombed.

Two Russian bridges near Ukraine have collapsed within hours. In Bryansk, a bridge collapsed onto a train, killing at least seven people, while in Kursk, another bridge collapsed, derailing a freight train. Russia is investigating the incidents as possible sabotage.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has warned that China is preparing to invade Taiwan. Hegseth made the comments at a global defence meeting in Singapore. Chinese officials rejected the allegations as ‘defamatory’.

JOJO SIWA and Chris Hughes have driven fans wild with an intimate backstage moment as her mum captures sweet moment on camera.

The pop star, 22, who just performed two shows in London, gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at her pre-show routine—with Chris, 32, right by her side.

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In a post to TikTok JoJo gave fans an inside look into her pre-show routine, the former Big Brother star was seen in the video warming up and spending time with her dancers. 

JoJo captioned the post: “Pre show is always my favorite hour. Just pure chaos and love and energy warming up. What a beautiful perfect 2 shows in London this week wow.”

The clip showed JoJo getting ready before being joined backstage by her new beau Chris.

The singer is shown stretching whilst the camera pans to Chris who cheekily chimes “Stretch it off then” as he walks into the room.

The pair were later filmed by mum Jessalyn hugging each other, holding hands and putting bracelets on each other. 

Former Love Islander Chris also learnt her hit song Karma and is videoed singing the lyrics alongside her. 

Fans rushed to the comments, gushing over the pair’s sweet on-camera moment.

One user penned: “Chris is the biggest green flag ive ever seen, u two are the cutest (red heart emoji)”

Another chimed: “The way his hand stays on her leg after she gets off his lap.”

“Sweet christopher being JoJo’s number1 fan” added a third. 

“Chris singing your lyrics Love ittttt!” wrote a fourth.

JoJo recently sent fans wild at her London gigs this week after she told them onstage she had “never felt so ­special and so loved”.

She also went on to change the lyrics of Bette Davis Eyes to “Chris Hughes’ eyes” as he looked on, giddy and red-faced at a music venue in Shoreditch.

Chris could not attend the second of her two-night run there — but JoJo didn’t miss her moment to shout out to him, singing to his orange beanie which she had placed in the crowd.

It comes after Chris made the 12-hour flight from the UK to Mexico to support JoJo as she performed to fans in Mexico City.

He later posted cosy snaps of them together online.

The two were then spotted kissing while straddling a lilo at an adults-only hotel during a loved-up getaway there.

When JoJo later returned to London the pair had a emotional reunion at Heathrow airport as JoJo flew in from Los Angeles — Chris greeting her with a large bouquet of red roses.

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Israel’s government has approved a major expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The defence minister said the aim is to prevent a Palestinian state. Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim has more details of the plan.

Activists in Paris dyed a fountain red to symbolise what they called “the bloodbath” taking place in Gaza. The protesters said a lack of political will to confront Israel’s actions in Gaza was increasingly being seen as “a form of complicity” with genocide.

In the last several years, YouTube has become an increasingly formidable competitor to streaming services and entertainment studios, providing videos from amateur and professional creators, as well as livestreaming major events and NFL games.

Now its growing threat to studios is playing out in the courts.

The Google-owned platform recently poached Justin Connolly, president of platform distribution from Walt Disney Co.

On Wednesday, Disney sued YouTube and Connolly for breach of contract, alleging that Connolly violated an employment agreement that did not expire until March 2027 at the earliest.

Connolly oversaw Disney’s distribution strategy and third-party media sales for its streaming services like Disney+ and its television networks. He also was responsible for film and TV programming distribution through broadcasting and digital platforms, subscription video services and pay networks.

As part of his role, Connolly led Disney’s negotiations for a licensing deal renewal with YouTube, Disney said in its lawsuit.

“It would be extremely prejudicial to Disney for Connolly to breach the contract which he negotiated just a few months ago and switch teams when Disney is working on a new licensing deal with the company that is trying to poach him,” Disney said in its lawsuit.

Disney is seeking a preliminary injunction against Connolly and YouTube to enforce its employment contract.

YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At YouTube, Connolly will be become the company’s head of media and sports, where he will be in charge of YouTube’s relationships with media companies and its live sports portfolio, according to Bloomberg.

YouTube accounted for 12% of U.S. TV viewing in in March, more than other streaming services like Netflix, according to Nielsen. YouTube’s revenue last year was estimated to be $54.2 billion, making it the second-largest media company behind Walt Disney Co., according to research firm MoffettNathanson.

Unlike many other major streaming platforms, YouTube has a mix of content made by users as well as professional studios, giving it a diverse and large video library. More than 20 billion videos have been uploaded to its platform, the company recently said. There are over 20 million videos uploaded daily on average.

Streaming services such as Netflix have brought some YouTube content to their platforms, including episodes of preschool program “Ms. Rachel.”On a recent earnings call, Netflix co-Chief Executive Greg Peters named YouTube as one of its “strong competitors.”

Connolly entered into an employment agreement with Disney on Nov. 6, Disney said in its lawsuit. That contract ran from Jan. 1, 2025 to Dec. 31, 2027, with Connolly having the option of terminating the agreement earlier on March 1, 2027, the lawsuit said.

As part of the agreement, Connolly agreed not to engage in business or become associated with any entity that is in business with Disney or its affiliates, the lawsuit said. Disney said YouTube was aware of Connolly’s employment deal with Disney but still made an offer to him.

Entertainment companies have brought lawsuits in the past to stop executive talent poaching by rivals.

In 2020, Activision Blizzard sued Netflix for poaching its chief financial officer, Spencer Neumann. That case was later closed, after Activision asked to dismiss the lawsuit in 2022.

Netflix years ago also faced litigation from Fox and Viacom alleging executives broke their contract agreements to work for the Los Gatos-based streaming service. In 2019, a judge issued an injunction barring Netflix from poaching rival Fox executives under contract or inducing them to breach their fixed-term agreements.

Editorial library director Cary Schneider contributed to this report.

The European Union has lifted all sanctions on Syria. The decision follows Donald Trump’s recent announcement than the US would also lift sanctions, as Syria’s new government looks to rebuild the country.

Eyewitness video captured an Israeli airstrike hitting west Khan Younis in Gaza as people flee tents amid gunfire. Israel had warned of an “unprecedented attack” and ordered evacuations. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has vowed to control all of Gaza, despite global pressure and famine fears.

Amid all of Casandra Ventura’s troubling testimony this week about life with Sean “Diddy” Combs and his “freak-off” fetish, don’t be troubled thinking about what might have happened between Combs and Justin Bieber, who was launched into the mogul’s circle when he was a teen.

Despite persistent speculation as footage of the two together has surfaced, Team Bieber said Thursday that nothing happened. Move along, nothing to see here.

The speculation comes at a time when Bieber has been worrying fans with photos showing him smoking — a shot posted Thursday had the self-declared former substance abuser sitting with a bong quite obviously in his lap — and “It’s a cult” rumors about the church he has been attending, Churchome in Beverly Hills. (Churchome pastor Judah Smith denies those rumors, by the way.) Bieber’s decision in recent years to sell his catalog for $200 million is said to have been motivated by the pop star allegedly finding himself completely broke despite generating many millions for himself and others while touring.

The new dad’s marriage is rumored to be in trouble as well, though on Friday the Biebs tagged wife Hailey in an Instagram story showing a male lion lovingly caressing a female lion with its nose and teeth.

Combs, of course, is on trial on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and more. This week in court has seen dramatic testimony from Combs’ former girlfriend Cassie.

But back to Bieber, who was discovered by Scooter Braun in 2008 and quickly signed to a label run by Braun and Usher. Usher was a Combs protégé who was sent by record executive and producer L.A. Reid to live with the mogul in the ’90s and maybe learn a few things. The “Yeah” singer was 15 when he moved to New York. Combs became Usher’s legal guardian.

Reid wrote in his 2016 tell-all memoir “Sing to Me,” via Rolling Stone, “‘Will you take this kid and teach him your swagger?’ I said. ‘Can you just give him some of your flavor?’ And so I sent Usher to New York for what I called the ‘Puffy Flavor Camp.’”

He added, “I was turning him over to the wildest party guy in the country at an age when I still needed to get his mother’s permission, but he went to New York for almost a year. I didn’t know whether I was being irresponsible or having an epiphany.”

Usher would tell Howard Stern in 2016 that he “got a chance to see some things” while living with Combs.

“I went there to see the lifestyle, and I saw it. I don’t know if I could indulge and understand what I was even looking at,” he said on Stern’s show. “I had curiosity of my own. I just didn’t understand it. It was pretty wild. It was crazy.”

Usher said he was mostly focused on making music at the time, no matter what “curious” things might have gone on around him.

So when Bieber and Usher connected, could a Combs meet be far behind?

Sean “Diddy” Combs, from left, Justin Bieber and Rick Ross at a Ciroc vodka party in Atlanta in early 2014, when Bieber was 19.

(Prince Williams / FilmMagic via Getty Images)

Combs and the “Baby” singer made news with an interview on Jimmy Kimmel’s show after the “Justin Bieber’s 48 Hrs with Diddy” video was posted on YouTube in November 2009.

In the video, Combs showed Bieber a silver Lamborghini and told him, “The keys is yours, you know, when you hit 16.” That was after Bieber pitched driving it right away with Combs in the passenger seat, because he had his permit. After staring at the kid for a moment, Combs simply said, “No.” Then he promised him the mansion when he turned 18. Combs didn’t have legal guardianship of Bieber like he did with Usher, he said, but they would be together for the next 48 hours.

“He knows better than to talk about the things that he’s done with big brother Puff on national television,” Combs said later in the Kimmel interview, adding, “Everything ain’t for everybody.” That was after he described Bieber as “a little brother” and “one of the greatest kids you could ever know” who could always call up and ask him for industry advice.

The two would continue to cross paths, including at parties for Combs’ vodka Ciroc, a brand the embattled mogul cut ties with in January 2024.

Bieber’s camp released a statement Thursday asserting that nothing untoward ever happened between the two.

“Although Justin is not among Sean Combs’ victims, there are individuals who were genuinely harmed by him,” a spokesperson for Bieber told TMZ. “Shifting focus away from this reality detracts from the justice these victims rightfully deserve.”

The Times was unable to reach a Bieber representative Friday.

On a spring afternoon in 2005, the members of OK Go dressed up in tacky suits, gathered in front of a video camera and awkwardly danced their way into history.

The band’s DIY single-shot clip for its song “A Million Ways” — in which the brainy rock quartet moves through three and a half minutes of intricate choreography on the patio behind singer Damian Kulash’s Los Angeles home — became one of music’s first viral videos, racking up millions of downloads (remember those?) and helping to establish a new way for acts to connect with fans as the internet began to supplant MTV and Top 40 radio.

OK Go doubled down on the approach in 2006 with its video for “Here It Goes Again,” another bare-bones production that had the musicians dancing on eight synchronized treadmills, then went on to make increasingly elaborate clips featuring a Rube Goldberg machine, a zero-gravity plane flight and a pack of adorable dogs.

“As soon as the treadmill thing happened, it was like: Holy s—, we’re pop culture now,” Kulash said the other day of “Here It Goes Again,” which won a Grammy Award for best music video and has been viewed more than 67 million times on YouTube.

Twenty years after “A Million Ways,” the mechanics of cultural connection have transformed again thanks to social media and TikTok, where what you encounter as you scroll is guided by the invisible hand of data analysis.

Said OK Go bassist Tim Nordwind with grinning understatement: “The algorithm has become a bit more powerful.”

“Not a big fan of the algorithm as an arbiter of art,” Kulash added. “It’s sad to see optimization in a space that was once the Wild West.”

Yet OK Go is still at it: Last month the group released its latest one-shot video for the song “Love,” for which Kulash and his co-directors installed dozens of mirrors on powerful robotic arms inside an old Budapest train station to create a kind of kaleidoscopic obstacle course.

The band’s methods have grown more sophisticated since “A Million Ways,” and these days it seeks out corporate sponsors to help bring Kulash’s visions to life. But an adventuresome — and touchingly personal — spirit remains key to its work.

“What I love about the ‘Love’ video is the humans in the room,” Kulash said as he and Nordwind sat outside a Burbank rehearsal studio where OK Go was preparing for a tour scheduled to stop Friday and Saturday at L.A.’s Bellwether. (The group’s other members are guitarist Andy Ross and drummer Dan Konopka.) “The robots are only there,” the singer added, “to move the mirrors so that we can experience that magical thing — so simple and beautiful — of two mirrors making infinity.”

A wistful psych-pop jam inspired by Kulash’s becoming a father to twins — his wife, author and filmmaker Kristin Gore, is a daughter of former Vice President Al Gore — “Love” comes from OK Go’s new album, “And the Adjacent Possible,” its first LP since 2014. It’s a characteristically eclectic set that also includes a strutting funk-rock tune featuring Ben Harper, a glammy rave-up co-written by Shudder to Think’s Craig Wedren and a woozy existentialist’s ballad about discovering there’s no “no deus ex machina working away in the wings.” (That last one’s called “This Is How It Ends.”)

“We’re old people who listen to sad ballads,” said Kulash, who’ll turn 50 in October. “That’s what happens when you become an old person, right?”

Wedren, who’s known Kulash since the latter was a teenage Shudder to Think fan in their shared hometown of Washington, D.C., said that “part of the beauty of OK Go is that they’re so musically omnivorous — that all these things that wouldn’t seem to go together always end up sounding like OK Go.” In Wedren’s view, the band “doesn’t get enough credit for how exploratory they are as musicians — maybe because of the genius of the videos.”

If that’s the case, Kulash doesn’t seem especially to mind. He knew nearly two decades ago that the viral success of the treadmill video — which the band recreated onstage at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards between performances by Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé — threatened to make OK Go “a one-hit wonder whose one hit was an exercise equipment stunt,” as the singer put it. “Or it could be the opening to an opportunity to do more and weirder things.”

Among the weird things the group ended up doing: the 2014 clip for “I Won’t Let You Down,” in which the members ride around a parking lot in Japan on personal mobility devices under the eye of a camera on a drone.

“I remember hearing that Radiohead didn’t play ‘Creep’ for 10 or 15 years because they were too cool for that,” he said. “Had we taken the path of being too cool for treadmills and homemade videos, I can look back and say —”

“We’d have had a much quieter career,” Nordwind chimed in.

There’s a way of looking at OK Go’s emphasis on visuals that depicts the band as a harbinger of an era when “musician” is just another word for “content creator.”

“It’s weird to think about a life in the vertical as opposed to the horizontal,” Nordwind said with a laugh, referring to the respective orientations of videos on TikTok and YouTube.

“What’s difficult about social media is the question of volume — the volume and quality balance is off to me,” Kulash said.

Creators, he means, are expected to churn out content like little one-person factories.

“Day after day,” Nordwind said. “We like to take our time.”

“Also: When I fall in love with a song, I want to hear that song over and over again,” Kulash said. “I will listen to ‘Purple Rain’ until I die. Do people go back and search someone’s feed to replay the TikTok they first fell in love with?

“The relationship that I think people have to their favorite YouTube star or TikToker,” he added, “feels much more like a relationship to celebrity than it does a relationship to art.”

OK Go at its rehearsal studio in Burbank.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

For Kulash, who made his feature debut as a director (alongside his wife) with 2023’s “The Beanie Bubble,” the pursuit of art is bound up in ideas of effort and limitation, which is why AI doesn’t interest him as a filmmaking tool.

“When everything is possible, nothing is special,” he said. “The reason we shoot our videos in a single shot is not purely for the filmmaking heroics. It’s because that’s the only way to prove to people: This is real — we did the thing.”

OK Go’s dedication to costly and time-consuming practical effects has led to partnerships with a number of deep-pocketed brands, beginning with State Farm, which spent a reported $150,000 to finance the band’s 2010 “This Too Shall Pass” video with the Rube Goldberg machine. (Meta sponsored the “Love” video and in return got a prominent spot in the clip for its Ray-Ban smart glasses.)

Kulash said that kind of product placement was “scary as s—” back in the late 2000s, when the fear of being perceived as sellouts haunted every rock band.

“Now, of course, it’s like a badge of honor,” he added, among influencers eager to flaunt their corporate ties.

To explain his position on the matter, the singer — whose band walked away from its deal with Capitol Records in 2010 to start its own label, Paracadute — tried out an extended metaphor: “On the other side of the planet, tectonic plates are moving and the hot magma of corporate money is coming out of the ground. That’s why the MTV Awards exist, that’s why the Grammys exist, that’s why everything you think of as a celebration of high art exists. It’s all advertising dollars, every last bit of it. You’re protected by these continents of middle-people, which let you feel like you’re marking art. But if you can manage to be one of those microbes at the bottom of the sea that gets its energy directly from the thermal vents of the hot magma money, then you get to make something other people don’t.” He laughed.

“There’s no record label in the world that would ever be like, ‘Hey, why don’t you go to Budapest for three weeks and spend a ridiculous amount of money to make this music video at a time when there’s not even a music video channel anymore?’

“But brands know that’s worthwhile, and we know that’s worthwhile,” he said. “You just have to make sure you don’t get burned by the magma.”

Reposts flood in. Likes climb faster than administrators can count.

Each spring, the Chargers know how to run up this score.

When it comes to what senior director of production Tyler Pino calls the “content Super Bowl,” the Chargers are multi-time season NFL schedule release champions. They broke the internet with popular anime videos in 2022 and 2023. A Sims 2 theme in 2024 kept online sleuths laughing for weeks at inside jokes.

The schedule reveal video posted Wednesday in the pixelated style of Minecraft surpassed one million views on X, formerly known as Twitter, in 45 minutes, and four million in three hours, confirming the Chargers’ social media dynasty. The next closest NFL team schedule video was viewed roughly 1.5 million times during that same span.

The Chargers set the bar among a throwback action figure commercial, a Mario Kart parody and an ad for a prescription drug. They had some brief competition when the Indianapolis Colts also dropped a Minecraft-themed video only to delete it roughly an hour later. The Jets even poked fun at the unexpected twin videos.

Each year’s creative videos have suddenly become more notable than the schedules they promote. But the Chargers’ content team tries to stay focused on the process of winning fans over one like, lower-case letter and laugh at a time.

“I don’t think our goal is to be the best on the internet,” said Megan Julian, Chargers senior director of digital and social media, “but our goal is to build generational fandom on the internet.”

Known for their creativity and casual humor, the Chargers were named the NFL’s best Twitter account by Complex in 2019, 2022 and 2023.

When Julian joined the Chargers in 2018, she was the only person behind the social media accounts. The franchise had just returned to L.A., where a whole generation had grown up without the NFL. Fans were already invested in different teams. Instead of trying to change an established fan’s mind, the content team aimed to cultivate new ones by reaching different, younger audiences that will fill SoFi Stadium for generations.

Allie Raymond, left, and Megan Julian of the Chargers’ social media team, walk on the practice field during rookie minicamp at the team’s headquarters in El Segundo.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Julian made the Chargers’ social media accounts feel like entering a group chat. The team, which includes director of organic social media Allie Raymond; Jaemin Cho, the senior vertical video coordinator; Lorren Walker, programming manager for organic social media; and coordinator Hannah Johnson, post in lower-case text in short, sharp bursts. They never overexplain the joke.

Here, among friends, it’s already known.

“You’re talking with the fans,” Julian said. “Not at them.”

Occasionally commenters complain about the lower case letters or can’t keep up with the newest slang. The schedule release videos often include pointed jokes toward opposing players or teams. Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson, who controversially sat out for one play last year because he was tired, ran out of gas in a go-kart race in this year’s video.

But the unique tone has built a distinct brand for an organization that is fighting for any way to stand out in a crowded L.A. market.

“We’re creative, and we think a little bit off kilter,” said David Bretto, the director of creative video. “But we do that because we’re allowed to do that, and the organization sees the success.”

A member of the Chargers’ content team films players taking part in rookie minicamp at the team’s headquarters in El Segundo on May 9.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

The content team’s reputation precedes them. When videographers checked bags at the NFL combine, security guards asked what they were cooking for the schedule release. Incoming rookies asked who is behind the keys of the social media accounts that go viral with the latest TikTok trends.

Inspired by the energy of young, charismatic stars on the 2018 team including Keenan Allen, Mike Williams and Derwin James Jr., Julian started to craft a social media persona that matched the on-field personnel. For the franchise’s current era, showing the players’ personalities remains at the forefront.

Some players welcome the sight of the social media team holding a tiny microphone tethered to their phones. Linebacker Daiyan Henley is as ubiquitous on the Chargers’ TikTok account as the team’s logo. A more reserved personality such as Justin Herbert still shines through in videos that showcase the star quarterback’s humble charm.

Highlight videos of Herbert avoiding their cameras still turn into internet gold because while this is a football team, football is only a fraction of the franchise’s digital brand.

“There are only 20 days a year that we actually play the sport,” said Jason Levine, Chargers senior vice president of brand, creative and content. “Then the other 345, we’re just entertaining people.”

Allie Raymond records players and coaches taking part in Chargers rookie minicamp on May 9.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

The biggest internet stage is the schedule release. The Seattle Seahawks sparked a revolution in 2016 with a cupcake-themed video in which special ingredients representing each city of their opponents were stirred into a batter. Some teams hire production companies and outside contractors to prepare for the big reveal. This season, NBA legend Allen Iverson and actress Brenda Song made cameos for the Buffalo Bills and the Rams, respectively.

But Julian proudly notes that all of the Chargers’ videos have been produced in-house.

The Chargers’ first major schedule release video came in 2019 when they represented each opponent with stock footage. A dog dressed in a lion’s mane. A person in a bear suit on a picnic. Both games against the AFC West rivals Kansas City Chiefs were represented by awkward chefs. The 73-second collection of clips was so weird it somehow worked.

The day before it dropped, Julian and Bretto nearly scrapped the project all together.

“To me, schedule release kind of feels like you’re on a cliff,” Bretto said. “You put all this work to get to the top of this mountain, and at the very end, there’s nothing to do but just jump. You don’t know how the audience is going to react.”

Just count the tens of thousands of likes. The reception is clear.