Last year, I started watching American National Football League (NFL) games with my wife who grew up watching them with her dad. I didn’t have much of a history with the game, my family wasn’t a sports group so we didn’t watch anything really. I remember one year going over to an elderly friend of the family’s and watching the World Series, but that pretty much covered it. So I had no history with any of the NFL traditions that so many other houses had.
We tend to only watch NFL condensed games, with all the commercials, huddles, etc all taken out and compressing the games down to around 35 – 45 minutes. These are edited and produced by the NFL as part of their subscription service. It means that we can watch many more of the games, get all the fun highlights and plays, and still have our weekends to do more than yell at people around the television.
We also tend to watch a little differently than others, where it tends to be pretty calm and just enjoying the athleticism on display. We each have a couple of teams that we like over others, but mostly we just enjoy watching fun plays. There are definitely some teams that we don’t bother watching, because it’s harder to find good plays there… (*cough* Cincinnati Bengals pre-Flacco trade *cough*).. but overall, we just enjoy watching games.
It’s been a really great thing to have on, watching as they play, whilst talking about either the game itself or random other stuff that comes up. We’ve really used it as a time where we can sit there together on the couch and snack on some popcorn and chat / connect.
The one negative that I’ll mention is that the condensed versions of these games is that they are a tiny bit exhausting to keep up with. Because there’s no breaks, time outs, or anything else (they often even skip the penalty calls) it’s constant, non-stop action and can definitely wear a person down as they’re watching. So there’s your warning!
Either way, I’ve been really enjoying it… and as we only enjoy it together, we avoid all the toxicity that can be inherent in each individual team’s fanbase! Good luck finding fun ways to connect with the people around you though, as I have done with my wife in this particular way!
Until next time, cheers!
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