The NFL is back and I’m loving it

I had the date circled on my calendar for months: Sept. 13, the first Sunday of the NFL season. As a huge NFL fan, I had to plan my entire day around the games, which meant I couldn’t do anything else.

I woke up around 11:00 a.m. in the morning and instantly put on my Myles Garrett jersey, hoping that I could give the Browns a stroke of good luck. I ordered some donuts from Circles on the Square, which were some of the best donuts I’ve ever had. If anyone lives in Medina, I’d highly recommend the flawless maple bacon or the savory cinnabon cheesecake donut.

During my breakfast, I set my fantasy football lineups and made my daily predictions, which ended up going 12-4, by the way. After this, I shot a few pregame hoops to prepare for the next 10 hours of doing nothing but watching football. I then prepared my gameday setup on my couch, consisting of a MacBook with my fantasy teams, the TV with the Browns game on and my phone with NFL Redzone, which shows live highlights from every game. Finally, the NFL season was underway.

As the Browns game started, my hopes were high for the team, as they added valuable players in the offseason and quarterback Baker Mayfield continued his development. However, as the game progressed my optimism slowly faded. While the Browns were obviously worse than the Ravens, they managed to keep the game close until the end of the first half, when their kicker, Austin Seibert, missed two consecutive field goals, not only demoralizing the team but the Browns faithful as well.

The Browns never recovered from this moral defeat, as they went scoreless in the second half and ended up losing 38-6. Obviously I was disappointed, but it didn’t bother me too much because I’m numb to the Browns losing at this point.

Luckily, the day only improved. The Saints and the Buccaneers filled the rest of the afternoon for me and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Tom Brady lose in a Bucs’ uniform.

Then it was time for Sunday Night Football: a Cowboys, Rams showdown. The Sunday Night Football theme song sounded as good as ever and the world felt at peace as Chris Collinsworth began to announce the game. To my delight, the Cowboys, one of my least favorite teams, lost despite being slight favorites.

Although the world still seems to be burning down around us [literally and figuratively], these football games made me forget about it for the afternoon. Despite the Browns’ horrendous loss, the first Sunday of NFL football is always one of the best days of the year, and I can’t wait for the next 16 weeks.