--- title: The Carolina Panthers Have Introduced Creedbombing description: It was only a matter of time until someone masterminded the next ultimate prank. canonical: https://time.com/4190338/carolina-panthers-creedbombing-prank-ben-jacobs/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-22T20:55:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:29:06.271Z og:title: The Carolina Panthers Have Invented Creedbombing and It's Brilliantly Evil og:description: There's no way of knowing when it may happen to you og:url: https://time.com/4190338/carolina-panthers-creedbombing-prank-ben-jacobs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt697dc56b121dfe7e/69887a3be20a87c993a8f2d3/creedbombing-carolina-panthers.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Creed And Eve To Adam Perform At The Wiltern og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Carolina Panthers Have Invented Creedbombing and It's Brilliantly Evil twitter:description: There's no way of knowing when it may happen to you twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt697dc56b121dfe7e/69887a3be20a87c993a8f2d3/creedbombing-carolina-panthers.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Carolina Panthers Have Introduced Creedbombing and It's Brilliantly Evil > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 22, 2016 8:55 PM UTC  Singer Scott Stapp of Creed performs at the Wiltern Theatre on May 15, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. Singer Scott Stapp of Creed performs at the Wiltern Theatre on May 15, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. Kevin Winter/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 22, 2016 8:55 PM UTC It was only a matter of time until someone came up with the next [ultimate prank](http://time.com/4168584/ellen-degeneres-matt-lauer-prank/). With the spread of Creedbombing, [Carolina Panthers](http://time.com/money/4040576/nfl-teams-win-free-food-deals/) linebacker Ben Jacobs may have started us all down a very dark path. Following on the heels of [dabbing](http://www.dailydot.com/lol/guide-to-dabbing-dance/), Creedbombing is the latest sensation to come out of the Panthers’ locker room and puts a new spin on the classic photobomb. Basically, rather than ambushing someone’s picture, you sneak up on them and belt out Creed lyrics in their face. The gag was created by Jacobs, who said it evolved out of some pre-practice chats about the Scott Stapp-led band’s unique musical style. “One day we started talking about old rock bands from the ’90s and early 2000s, and Creed always came up,” he says. “And then it just kind of evolved to the voice and how they sing it with everything sounding the same. Then it started turning into a game of let’s just go up to random people and do it or do it on Snapchat or walk through the locker room after practice with all the media trying to get it in the background of other people’s interviews.” So how exactly does one go about Creedbombing someone? Jacobs says it’s all about the element of surprise. “It can be someone just walking by you or you’re walking by someone, and you don’t even say anything,” he says. “You just look them dead in the eye, like deep, almost uncomfortable eye contact — like you both feel like it’s super awkward doing this but you’ve committed to it so you’ve got to just keep going with it. And then you just hit them with one or two lines and then that’s it and you just walk away. That’s a Creedbomb.” The 27-year-old [football](http://time.com/4188893/nfl-super-bowl-football-bespoke/) player says his repertoire consists mostly of the group’s more popular songs, such as “[Higher](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J16lInLZRms),” “[Arms Wide Open](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99j0zLuNhi8)” and “[My Sacrifice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-fyNgHdmLI),” and he has one go-to victim, athletic performance analyst Brett Nenaber. “I usually do it to Brett and I try to look him dead in the eye, but he never looks back at me. So he just makes me look like a creep or a crazy stalker or like I’m trying to smell him or something.” **Read More:** [This Ingenious Senior Prank Is the Ultimate Long Game](http://time.com/3971245/corn-prank-high-school/) But contrary to the nature of the joke, Jacobs admits he was once a Creed fan. “I was back when I was younger,” he says. “I’m not going to lie, I listened to a lot of Creed. It was hard to escape. They were all over the radio and you heard them whether you liked it or not.” And now, thanks to Jacobs, they may become inescapable once again. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4190338/carolina-panthers-creedbombing-prank-ben-jacobs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4190338/carolina-panthers-creedbombing-prank-ben-jacobs/"},"headline":"The Carolina Panthers Have Introduced Creedbombing and It's Brilliantly Evil","datePublished":"2016-01-22T20:55:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:29:06.271Z","description":"There's no way of knowing when it may happen to you","url":"https://time.com/4190338/carolina-panthers-creedbombing-prank-ben-jacobs/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Sports topic","Music","Football","NFL","Pranks"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt697dc56b121dfe7e/69887a3be20a87c993a8f2d3/creedbombing-carolina-panthers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt697dc56b121dfe7e/69887a3be20a87c993a8f2d3/creedbombing-carolina-panthers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Creed And Eve To Adam Perform At The Wiltern","caption":"Singer Scott Stapp of Creed performs at the Wiltern Theatre on May 15, 2012 in Los Angeles, California.","creditText":"Kevin Winter/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4190338/carolina-panthers-creedbombing-prank-ben-jacobs/","name":"The Carolina Panthers Have Introduced Creedbombing and It's Brilliantly Evil"}}]}] ```