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2026 April Fools’ Day: Best and Worst Jokes in the Sports World, From Andy Reid’s Stache to the Ohio Wolverines

This day is not for the faint of heart. Or for the gullible.
Kristen Wong|
Here are some of the best and the worst April Fools jokes in the sports world.
Here are some of the best and the worst April Fools jokes in the sports world. | Michael Chow / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Welcome to April Fools’ Day, a day during which many people on social media giddily post the wildest and zaniest content imaginable in the name of a good ol’ fashioned prank. (In this era of misinformation? It’s going to be a long day, indeed.)

A legendary prank is not too unlike a legendary play-call: a creative mind draws it up and often elicits the help of others to execute it. But where a play-call delivers points, a prank delivers laughs. Sports history is littered with all-time great pranks, from LeBron announcing his retirement (it should be coming any day now) to the “Harvard pep squad” pulling an unbelievable trick during an Ivy league football game to Mark Cuban fighting a ref to Phillies’ Kyle Kendrick learning he got fake-traded to Japan.

With those hilarious, giggle-inducing bits in mind, here is a compilation of some of the best—and the worst—jokes from the sports world, starting with a real “gotcha” moment:

Best: Cleveland’s new WNBA team is called the Ohio Wolverines

You might have heard that Cleveland is getting a new WNBA team that will debut in 2028. According to owner Dan Gilbert, their name is going to be... the Ohio Wolverines.

It really isn’t. If you fell for that, joke’s on you.

Gilbert posted his funny proposal on his social media early Wednesday in which he explained why he picked the Wolverines as the new/fake name:

“The Midwest work ethic is a real thing,” Gilbert said. "As someone who has spent a lot of time on both sides of the lake, I can tell you that Ohio and Michigan have far more similarities than differences. We’re hoping Detroit follows suit with its WNBA franchise and embraces that same spirit of regional unity by naming its new team the 'Michigan Buckeyes,' as Cleveland and Detroit grow the game together from the shores of Lake Erie, the Midwest’s own Mediterranean.”

The Cleveland WNBA’s team twitter account got in on the fun, too. We love a collaborative effort.

The real team’s name and branding will be revealed later this summer.

Worst: Cleveland Browns show off a truly stupid helmet design

Speaking of Cleveland...

The worst part of this joke is, given the Browns, you really don’t know if it’s actually real. The Browns shared a photo on social media introducing their new helmet design that paid homage to a new era: “Origins.”

It sounds like something out of an Alien franchise and may have purposefully been ridiculous for the sake of fooling people but.... come on. Give those long-disillusioned Browns fans something funnier to laugh about.

Best: Chiefs sell Andy Reid’s signature look as a Halloween costume

Groucho Marx would be proud of this one.

The Kansas City Chiefs announced they were selling a limited edition “Andy Reid Disguise” for the low price of $15.87. It includes a pair of Big Red’s iconic glasses, a nose covering, and a very real and not at all photoshopped mustache.

Kudos to them for cracking a simple but funny joke that had many Chiefs fans looking for a link to buy it because let’s be honest, these would absolutely fly off the shelves.

Worst: Julian Edelman signs with the Patriots

Oh, brother. Not this again. Patriots legend Julian Edelman struck again on April Fools’ Days, this time announcing that he was signing with New England this offseason.

“Let’s get to work,” Edelman wrote on X, adding “#FoxboroForever.”

We’re sorry, but it’s getting tiresome at this point. Enjoy your retirement like a normal ex-NFL player or FaceTime Tom Brady for the millionth time, we don’t care. Just stop pretending to join football teams so that you can stay relevant.

A dis-honorable mention goes to Bills offensive lineman Dion Dawkins, who pulled the very cliché prank of announcing he was getting traded to a division rival. George Kittle did the same thing years ago, as have many NFL stars before him. Let’s try to be more original, people.

Best: Utah State’s new football field moos like no other

The Utah State Aggies displayed their new turf ahead of the 2026 season, and what a moo-tiful sight it was. With USU set to play in the Pac-12 for the first time this year, they had to celebrate their inaugural upcoming campaign with an April Fools’ Day joke for the ages.

The Aggies shared an equally stunning and laughable photo of their new field that was meant to look like black-and-white cowskin. And, just for good measure, they added a link in the social media post that routed people to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video. Respect.

Worst: University of Miami changes its color scheme to blue and pink

Big boos for Miami, as the university’s social media account didn’t even bother to change their profile pic to commit to the bit.

The Hurricanes announced Wednesday morning that they were ushering in a new era and replacing their orange and green color scheme with a very bright pink and blue one. “Inspired by the culture, color, and energy of Miami, the University is evolving its visual identity to better reflect the city that shapes us,” the school wrote in a statement. “Bold, vibrant and impossible to ignore, just like Miami.”

This prank was, in fact, possible to ignore. Boring and low effort. Next, please.

Best: Penn State Football trolls players with slightly edited photos of themselves

Now this is the exact kind of thing we’re looking for.

Penn State pulled the funniest prank on their players by photoshopping their faces and bodies in photos—but only making minor, slightly noticeable changes—and then asking if they could post them on social media. The photoshopped edits included making players’ arms shorter, changing facial proportions, puffing out cheeks and (our personal favorite) comically enlarging the nostrils.

Watch that hoot-worthy bit below:

Innovative and subtle with a strong pay-off. No notes.

Best: Georgia Tech bans “hell” and “helluva” from campus and debuts new fight song

Hell yeah, this was a great prank. As one of the more comical April Fools’ jokes out there, Georgia Tech announced the school was officially banning the words “hell” and “helluva” in favor of more “publicly acceptable” phrases.

“The decision to remove the words from campus was made by the newly formed manners and behavior assessment team that specializes in identifying incorrect or inappropriate usages of slang, vernacular, and parlance — the Fellowship of Offensive Language Suppression (FoOLS),” the school said.

We can’t help but chuckle at the clearly made-up organization. To top it off, the school revealed it had replaced the words in the official fight song, substituting in “tarnation” and “doozy” instead. Fittingly, the Georgia Tech Glee Club sang a rendition of the new and cleaner song: “I’m a Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech and a doozy of an engineer/ A doozy, -oozy, -oozy, -oozy, -oozy of an engineer.”

Straight out of the Onion, that one. What a doozy.

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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020 and has a bachelor’s in English and linguistics from Columbia University. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. She is a lifelong Liverpool fan who enjoys solving crossword puzzles and hanging out at her neighborhood dive bar in NYC.

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