Since the age of six, there has been only one thing that I have known when July rolled around. I am a lifelong Washington Redskins fan and have constructed a man cave in my basement to show that devotion. Every week from preseason through the Super Bowl, I get a cold beverage, peanuts, and the occasional hot dog and baton myself down to watch the greatest game on earth. Howevern if the two sides do not agree on a new deal soon, that rich tradition could be put on hold. So what then is a fan to do?
The most important thing to remember is that recuperation from this deadly illness cannot be fixed with a transfusion of one sport. It just cannot be done because the NFL is a sport unto itself. It is bigger than all other sports going today, so figure on taking bits and pieces of other things and cobble them together into some form of entertainment.
The first thing I will do is look for the closest alternative. Being a football fan and having Verizon and ESPN ensure an absolute plethora of college football games to choose from. Sure, it is not the Washington Redskins versus the Dallas Cowboys, but I have favorite teams that play on the college gridiron to follow. Notre Dame, Alabama , and Virginia Tech give me a rooting interest and hey, I can also feel like I am scouting players that might inevitably end up on my NFL team in the future!
The great thing about college football these days is that it is on almost everyday of the week now. Use to be just a Saturday thing, now you have Thursday night, Saturday, Sunday, and a few Tuesdays just for kicks. Again it is not the pros, but its something to watch with a football, tackling, a little drama, and so on. That only gets a fan part of the way there though.
From July to the end of September will be the hardest part. I am also a big Orioles fan, which means for the past thirteen years we have been nowhere near a playoff or pennant race, so baseball can only fill some of the time. The occasional Sunday night game or possible the Sunday afternoon tilt will keep me amused for a short time, but again it is not the playoffs and it's hard without a rooting interest.
Being from the DC Metro area, MLS does have a team here in DC United and they might have been some enjoyable entertainment if this were about five years ago. United was a perennial MLS Cup contender and made it to the playoffs each season. However, last year was a very down year and with a young team, they might be hard to watch come September. So I figure between college football, and a dash of baseball and soccer, I would somehow find my way to October.
That is when things will become a whole lot better for me. October 1 usually kicks off the National Hockey League, which is easily my second greatest passion next to the NFL. Living in Washington, I have the unique privilege of watching one of the greats of the game, Alex Ovechkin, do his magic on the ice. Once hockey starts lighting up my airwaves, things will become a bit easier to stomach.
The NBA starts in November, but that really does not do it for me. The game has become about maybe five or six teams, and a league full of also-rans. When Michael Jordan played, it was fun to watch. Self absorbed players like Lebron James who believe contraction of teams is good so to have super teams show you the state of that game, so I pass on the NBA.
Will I, as a diehard NFL football fan, survive? Yes, I suppose that I will somehow. Late summer and early fall will be trying times, but I will endure. Those people that talk about getting house chores taken care of and completing projects are fooling themselves. Sundays are fun days and were meant to watch football, both for men and for women. Let us just hope that it does not come to that. A year without football would be a year without sunshine.
Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.
