If you, too, are feeling like a seize bag of feelings right now, you would possibly very properly be a soccer fan like me who’s left questioning your determination to look at the NFL, your sanity, and the structural integrity of your sofa.
I settled in yesterday for the first NFL Sunday of the 2025-26 season, feeling full of hope for each of my former groups: I performed six seasons with the Buffalo Bills and three with the Atlanta Falcons.
In the early window, my Dirty Birds had been down three to our arch-nemesis, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A nail-biter, basic divisional showdown. The Falcons had been a area aim away from tying it with the clock winding down. It’s all on the leg of Younghoe Koo, the former Pro Bowler. Snap is nice. Hold is ideal. WE GOT THIS!
Er, we didn’t “got” this. Wide proper. The ache. The agony! It’s that distinctive sort of damage that solely a sports activities fan is aware of. The sort that makes you need to throw your distant, however you don’t as a result of it may cost a little you a small fortune. A crushing defeat.
I used to be able to name it a day, possibly take up yoga or knitting, however then I remembered … my different former group, the Bills, had been going through the Baltimore Ravens in the prime-time recreation.
An opportunity for redemption in my day – however it was not going properly. The Bills had been getting hammered by the human battering ram, Derrick Henry: 169 dashing yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries. Lamar Jackson was making my Bills’ defenders seem like they had been operating in quicksand with 70 yards on the floor of his personal, 209 by means of the air and three complete TDs.
We had been down by 15 with 4 minutes to go. I began binge consuming extra junk meals for consolation. Worst opening day of the season ever.
But maintain on… Ed Oliver simply compelled a fumble. Henry, of all individuals? We get the ball again. While Jackson and Henry had been taking part in like MVPs, Josh Allen IS the MVP.
He marches down the area and brings the Bills to inside eight with a pair of minutes to go. But the Bills miss the two-point conversion. That’s it. That’s a wrap.
Like the 1000’s of Bills followers who left the stadium early, I used to be achieved too. I flip off the recreation, crushed. I’ve to get up at 4 a.m. and I ask myself out loud, “Why do I put myself through this crap?” I take into account smashing my TV, vowing to by no means to place myself by means of this torment once more, till I keep in mind that my fantasy soccer group nonetheless has an opportunity, and now we have a Monday evening recreation developing between the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings, so I don’t. Lights out.
At 4 a.m., my alarm goes off. I’ve a textual content from my neighbor Mark that simply says, “Wow.”
Hold on. Could they’ve presumably? No. Yes? I examine the scores. The phrases slip out of my mouth in the darkness of the bed room: “HOLY CRAP!”
I must additional apologize to my spouse once I get house for startling her from her peaceable, non-football watcher slumber. She’ll perceive… I feel.
My Bills pulled off a comeback of epic proportions. An unbelievable sequence of performs, a last-gasp effort, and the fortuitous foot of Matt Prater, the area aim kicker who’d been in Buffalo not more than 100 hours, booting a 32-yarder for the win. Dude doesn’t even know all of his teammates’ names but.
My Bills scored 16 factors in the last 4 minutes to drag off the un-Bill-eveable comeback. A scorigami win, first time in NFL historical past {that a} recreation ended 41-40. Afterwards, Josh Allen stated, “There’s people that left the stadium, that’s OK, we’ll be fine. But have some faith next time.”
I felt like he was talking immediately into my soul. I ought to’ve by no means turned off my TV. I ought to’ve by no means doubted my group as a result of that’s simply not what we sick NFL followers do. I like you, Josh Allen. I wanted that.
One day, two groups I performed for, and I received to expertise the full spectrum of feelings that every one NFL followers undergo. It resulted in pure, unadulterated pleasure that made me overlook all of my earlier distress.
I went from the depths of despair to peak exhilaration, all inside just a few hours. That’s the NFL in a nutshell. One second, you’re getting your coronary heart shattered and contemplating smashing your TV, and the subsequent, your coronary heart is mended by a powerful second that has you hugging your display as you’re satisfied your favourite gamers are capable of really feel your grateful embrace by means of the airwaves.
This league, man. The fixed drama, the unpredictable nature of each single recreation. The incontrovertible fact that on any given Sunday, you possibly can really feel the lowest of lows and the highest of highs. It’s a curler coaster that all of us willingly strap ourselves into, and we simply can’t get sufficient of it. It’s what retains us all coming again, week after week, season after season.
FOOTBALL IS BACK, BABY!
Oh, and my fantasy soccer group is wanting like they’ll be pulling off a comeback of their very own. Life is nice.
Well, I feel it’s time to go house and apologize to my spouse. Again.