Sports commentators across the country keep talking about how the 2022 Divisional Round was one of the best weekends in football. All the games came down to a last-minute play, whether that be a winning field goal or a nail-biting overtime touchdown. While this did amount to some great games, they also meant more devastating losses because your team was SO close. Take it from a Packers fan who’s used to playoff heartbreak, it hurts. But here are some ways you could make it hurt a little less:
- find a team whose story you like and root for them.
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The NFL is full of inspiring stories, and sometimes stories are enough to make you want them to come out on top. This could mean rooting for the underdog just because they need the extra support or merely rooting for a specific player to have a great game. Rooting for the underdog is especially fun because it means a change in football and rewriting some odds. Plus, games just feel a little more intense when you know you want a certain team to win (and that’s in addition to playoff intensity).
Mike Morbeck / Flickr - root against the team that got yours out.
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As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And it only makes sense for this rule to apply to football too. Even if you have nothing to gain anymore, it might make you feel a little better if you could laugh at the team that got yours out instead of just reveling in the pain of football heartbreak. Yes, this temporary satisfaction does come out of a place of jealousy, but at least you can see more memes about that team than yours on NFL meme pages.
Parker Anderson / Flickr - channel your energy into trying to change nfl overtime rules.
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Look, every NFL fandom has been hurt by the NFL overtime rules at some point, and the unsatisfying Bills-Chiefs ending just further shows how necessary it is that the rules be changed. The sudden death rule just doesn’t have a time and place in the present-day play, especially with how significant each NFL game is. There are just too many times when the other team doesn’t even get a chance to touch the ball. The NFL could make their rules more like college football, where both teams start at the 25-yard line, have four downs to score a touchdown, and keep switching until one team doesn’t score a touchdown. It’s the fairest it could get.
Bjorn Hansen / Flickr - be happy that no matter what, Brady’s not getting another ring.
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Sorry Bucs fans, this one probably doesn’t apply to you. But for the rest of the football world, there’s a sense of relief in knowing that even though your team didn’t make it, the GOAT in football didn’t either. It kind of justifies your loss in some way because it must truly be a different kind of football season if we don’t have Brady even making it to a conference championship.
Jack Kurzenknabe / Flickr
After a rough football season-ending, it feels like your team will never get as close as they were or that they lost what seemed to be their only shot. But if they got this close once, they will get close again because, at the end of the day, there’s always next season. Good luck!