Lil Wayne released “Special Ops” on August 28, 2026 through Young Money Records and Republic, and the song was already loose in the world before that. It soundtracked the Green Bay Packers’ reveal of their 2026 NFL Rivalries alternate uniform on August 25, 2026, three days ahead of the single reaching streaming. The jersey is a desaturated vintage green with alabaster and gold striping and a Vince Lombardi monogram, and the record was built to sit under it.
It works as a Packers anthem for the 2026 season, and Wayne names names. All three NFC North rivals get run down in one stretch, the Chicago Bears, the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings. Then he singles out Bears head coach Ben Johnson and tells him to put his shirt back on, a reference to Johnson’s shirtless postgame celebration after a Black Friday win over Philadelphia. The reason that celebration happened at all is that a Chicago hot dog stand promised him free hot dogs if he did it.
The track runs four minutes and forty-one seconds, produced by Manny G, Swede and Ethan First, with Manny G also handling programming, recording and mixing. The beat sits in trap with a rock edge scraped over the top. Mostly it sounds like Wayne enjoying himself, which is the entire appeal of a record like this one. He has been making Packers songs since “Green and Yellow” in 2011 and went back to the idea again in 2021.
The fandom underneath it is documented. Wayne’s father attended Super Bowl XXXI in 1997 and brought Packers memorabilia home, and Wayne has since built a real friendship with head coach Matt LaFleur and run out of the Lambeau Field tunnel with the team. He is also deep into a touring run built around twenty years of Carter records, scheduled through October 23, 2026. Green Bay hosts Chicago at Lambeau Field on October 11, 2026 at 4:25 p.m. ET on Fox, which gives the song a date to live up to.
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