Harrison Mevis had a rough 24 hours. The Los Angeles Rams released the kicker the day after his misses helped sink them against the Buffalo Bills, and by the time the news spread, social media had moved on to something else entirely: the list of accounts he follows on Instagram.

Two kicks that cost him his job

According to NFL.com‘s Bobby Kownack, Mevis missed a 50-yarder on the Rams’ opening drive Monday night, then had a 48-yard game-winning try blocked by Buffalo’s Gregory Rousseau in overtime. The Bills won 37-34. Head coach Sean McVay told reporters the mistake “cost us the game tonight,” as Total Pro Sports‘ Lou Flavius noted.

On Tuesday, the Rams released Mevis and signed Blake Grupe off the New York Jets’ practice squad. McVay said special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone’s job is safe.

The cut was a sharp fall for a player fans had embraced. Mevis went 12 of 13 on field goals and a perfect 39 for 39 on extra points in 2025, but he made just five of his nine field-goal tries this season. After the loss, he insisted he could fix it: “I know who I am and I know how I’ll respond as a kicker. I have a next kick mentality.”

Then came the follow list

As the release made the rounds, someone screen-recorded Mevis’ Instagram following list and posted it to X. According to AS USA‘s Jennifer Bubel, a version shared by NFL commentator Dov Kleiman claimed the former “Thiccer Kicker” had been “exposed” for following “thousands of girls and OF models,” and some users quickly rebranded him the “Gooner Kicker.”

NerdBaller reported that Kleiman’s post passed about 400,000 views by Tuesday evening, with accounts like MLFootball and PolymarketBlitz sharing it too. Total Pro Sports said the clip had topped a million views on X. The replies were exactly what you’d expect. “Ion even see that many of his teammates under his following,” one fan wrote.

What nobody has actually confirmed

Here’s the part the memes skip. Both AS USA and NerdBaller stressed that they had not verified who the accounts belong to or how many are OnlyFans creators. That characterization comes from the people posting the video. Mevis has not responded publicly.

AS USA also pointed out there is no evidence the Instagram chatter had anything to do with the Rams’ decision. The football reason is simple: the team needed a kicker who makes kicks. And as NerdBaller put it, following accounts on Instagram isn’t against any NFL rule.

Not everyone piled on, either. AS USA noted that some users, including commenters on Reddit, argued that following adult creators is a private matter and questioned why it was being treated as a scandal at all.

The takeaway

Following creators on Instagram is about as ordinary as the internet gets, and for a lot of OnlyFans creators, those follows are how fans find them in the first place. What made this go viral wasn’t the follows, it was the timing: a public flop, a firing, and a follow list anyone could scroll. For athletes, the lesson is less about who they follow and more about how quickly a bad night turns their whole profile into content.

Image: SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams, photo by Thank You (21 Millions+) views (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.