NFL

Yes, it did and this hasn't been the same Steelers I grew up watching for a long time now. Art II's becoming a disgrace to the Rooney name.

Yep. I can't enjoy my NFL team unless they up and move to Nashville and take all the history and branding rights with them.

Nah, I've been watching the Dolphins get rekt for years and it's still as painful as ever

Pretty much. I'm a 90's kid.

I don't expect Superbowls or deep playoff runs every year. I had been a Steelers fan for well over a decade before I saw them win a Superbowl. I'm happy rooting for my team rather than getting too into hating them for all the ways they aren't perfect.

But damned if I don't feel entitled to a good defense. When we don't have a good defense, I get pissy.

My childhood consisted of my team just Fucking leaving and it’s been pain and misery since so I guess yea. Bar set.

Grew up with the Urlacher Bears. It's all been 100% downhill since Lovie Smith was fired. And at least the Super Bowl team had a legendary defense and I could make fun of the Sex Cannon at QB. And that's an actual funny joke. The Bears have been a really unfunny joke for over a decade now. Whenever the QB throws it deep and it's picked off I can't say "You just gotta unleash the dragon" and laugh it off knowing the defense is coming into the field. Now everything just sucks and it's not funny at all. The whole identity of the team has been gone for years and years. And then the '18 team which was actually really good has its season end on the goddamn double doink. The Bears were good enough that year that they'd certainly have made the Super Bowl if they win that game. But nope...ended on a joke.

Op I was at that game. It was my first year following the jags. I was 13. That game was bliss the next one I occasionally see in my nightmares.

My flair combined with the fact I was born in the 70s says "yes."

Besides WWE/Impact wrestling.. I did not watch sports growing up, unfortunately. I started watching college football in the fall of 2006 when I was 19 years old. I started really liking it, love college football now. Then in 2018 someone asked if I would like to play in their fantasy football league. I never watched any NFL games besides a few Superbowls at that point but I said sure. I really got into and and playing fantasy football was fun. As an added part of it, I started watching the games to see how my players did. I mainly watch the Sunday night and Monday night games. The NFL has taken away the Thursday night ones to hide them behind having to sub. to Amazon...

Yup. I started watching football around the time the Bills drought was only a toddler.

I always expect heartbreak and disappointment.

We are on r/nfl with a bunch of children. What do you think?

Your childhood setting the bar of expectations is completely accurate. Watching my team win back to back Super Bowls while in elementary school definitely set an unreasonable bar.

As a result, I feel like I'm a fan of (insert whichever historically awful franchise is in your division) and am in a panic every year because **checks notes** 5 franchises have won a SB more recently than the Broncos. "The pain I have to endure, this is bullshit!" STFU me every week

Became a fan around the time Boomer got there so I was born in the darkness.

I grew up in the 1980's so even though the Packers don't break all the way through as often as I'd like, I'm still excited every time they clinch a playoff spot. Same goes for the Brewers.

The latter. Football doesn't matter as much since 28-3, and I knew the moment the game was over it never would.

2018 win was great, but it was just icing on the cake. Doubt a game will feel the same. Makes a year like this much easier.

The first season I fully started watching the NFL was 2016, where we moved the ball with ease. It certainly took me a while to realise that it's not completely normal to expect the team to march down the field.

Distinctly remember watching a 99 yard drive like it was nothing against the Seahawks in the playoffs. An absolute buzzsaw down the field

I first became aware of the Lions in 1980 when I was seven. The kids at school were singing Another One Bites the Dust and the first game I watched the Lions beat the Saints to go 5-1. They ended up missing the playoffs and it has been nothing but pain ever since.

Yep, I was 9-years-old when Jerry bought the team, and I was just starting to really follow/understand sports. Watched Jimmy build a team that won three Super Bowls. I’ve accepted the fact that I’ll never see anything like that again.

Bro, as a lifelong Seahawks fan, let me tell you about a certain Vinny testaverde touchdown scored in 1998 to dash my playoff dreams.

Started watching the Lions at 0-16. So yeah, it's been all uphill from there.

The Lions set a strange bar for me honestly. When I was a kid and first started watching them, they had Barry Sanders who was must see tv and they weren't too bad of a team and at least competed to make the playoffs most seasons. Then Barry Left and Oh My goodness. I pretty much became numb to the team for the entire 2001-2010 decade. During that decade, they didn't have a single winning season and had a overall record of 39-121. Can you imagine winning, on average, 1 out of every 4 games for an entire decade?!?!?!?!?! That is almost impossibly bad. That decade took place from age 14-24 for me, so that is a significant chunk of growing up for me where they were so horrible that I couldn't even feel anything other than numbness. The 0-16 season was the icing on the cake as well.

So the bar was kind of high as a young kid. But a decade of miserableness is enough to pretty much cancel out any previous bar that was set. It's crazy how quickly the bar raises again though. Literally one full calendar year of them looking like a competent franchise and I am ready to go after that ring.

I became a fan around the 2008-2012 era. Every loss felt like the literal end of the world. Then 2015 happened and I grew out of it

I was 6, 8 and 9 when the Elway Broncos lost three Super Bowls. My whole childhood was spent obsessed with football and obsessed with the dream that one day we would win the Super Bowl.

I was 17 and 18 when the Elway Broncos went back to back. It was an experience that in many ways summed up closure on my childhood. As a kid I would live, breathe and sleep the Denver Broncos and dream desperately that the Broncos would win a Super Bowl like it was the most important thing that could ever happen in my life. John Elway was my ultimate life role model and summed up the epitome of an American hero. By the age of 18, there were more things in my life - college, girls, career plans, desires to travel and work abroad which meant I would see a world outside America and football.

But it was a wonderful way to get closure on that footballing childhood to see the Broncos win those rings, and it was also poignant to see Elway depart at the same time as my childhood. I was going to have to find new heroes in life beyond my quarterback.

My childhood watching the Broncos taught me a few parallels that have stayed with me in life. I had a major crush on a girl from about the age of 13 to 16, we were pretty good friends but I was way too socially awkward to say anything. Then I remember her starting to date this other dude, her first boyfriend, when I was 16.

Almost around exactly the same time, the Broncos had that haunting defeat to the Jags in the playoffs where the Broncos had looked set for a Super Bowl run and lost the divisional round. It was awful for Broncos fans because we thought Elway isn't going to be around forever and that could be the closing of our window. And it also struck me with this girl - we were likely going off to college at 18. I was probably never going to see her again after that. There was a 'window' and if I got a shot again I had to take it.

Well, she dated this guy for about a year and then they had a break up, and I had to make my move, and yeah, she started going out with me. This was the year the Broncos won their first ring. It was like a lesson in life about taking your chances and recognizing the finite windows of opportunity in life. We were still dating when the Broncos won the second Super Bowl, but then we went to college in different places, and when we tried to do it long distance it faded away, just like the Broncos faded away without Elway.

But I was much better placed to deal with life and opportunities after that. And also that Broncos childhood has given me a strong belief in life that it might take you a long time to achieve something and you might have a lot of moments where you get close and just miss out, and others where you seem to be regressing alarmingly backwards. But if you make sure your fundamentals are right, the way you apply yourself to something, and the way you never quit in adversity like Elway didn't, you have a shot at being rewarded in the end.

So for me, whatever the Broncos do or don't do, that footballing childhood following the Broncos was an amazing experience and something for which I am eternally grateful.

The jaguars cannot hurt me

Steelers fan since the 80s. I remember when Chuck Noll left and Bill Cower came in.

I really started getting into playing football and watching it around the time of the 4 Super Bowl runs.

So yeah, not great Bob.

Let's see.... the first season I remember watching as a kid was about 1991 and I've watched and hated it ever since.

Yep, still a football fan.

I grew up watching the Giants beat the patriots twice and they’ve been the worst team in the league since. So kinda yeah

One thing that I cannot get out of mind is that I felt like it was much rarer for kickers to miss FGs when I was growing up compared to now.

I think it's honestly a product of RedZone. Back then, I didn't see every scoring play, or attempted scoring play, every week.

First season I cared about football was the 2014 season when we won the Super Bowl. Yeah I have a pretty high bar

Born in 03 to parents who root for the Seahawks and Patriots. I’ll be the first to admit success is all I’ve known and losing affects me more than the average fan probably.

But I’m not a fair weather and wont stop following because we’re losing.

I grew up in the 90s. The standards are... not high. Being a reasonably competent football team is all I'm ever asking for.

I was at "the catch" in utero

go niners

Yes. My childhood was the golden age of QBs. Now i have to watch Tommy Devito, Dobbs, and Aiden Oconell

Yes - Houston Oilers

Nuff said

Grew up as a bucs fan, so... yeah.

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The first glimmer of success I remember was when they got Derrick Brooks, Sapp, Lynch, Alstott in the mid 90s.

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Had a nasty Defense, but was still quarterbacked by Trent Dilfer

Yes and no. Growing up the Niners were a dynasty that just kept reloading and always seemed like they were competing for super bowls, and that would always be the case.

But into my teens and as a young adult the Niners sucked. I was at the playoff win against the Giants back in the 2002 season. We just squeaked by them, and then would go on to get stomped by the Bucs the following week.

At the time it was a disappointing season (for the standard I’d become accustomed to), but I figured we’d get it sorted out. We’d then go on to miss the playoffs for the next 8 seasons, which really molded my current fandom.

Harbaugh was as a breath of fresh air and I it was super disappointing when the team parted ways with him because I knew how bad things could get; and it did. Now with ShannaLynch I’m super happy to have them and I just laugh when a “fan” talks about putting them on the hot seat.

Lol no it’s been shit my whole life

Did for me.

Wasn't into football in my earlier years. Born and raised in the KC area. The first football season I took interest in was in 2006, Herm Edwards first season as coach here. We barely made the playoffs in a crazy week 17 scenario (which you can read about here). This was also the first Super Bowl I watched, which was XLI Colts v Bears... I was 23.

Then the Chiefs went 29-67 over the next 6 seasons with only one winning record.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that the bar for me is currently being set lol

Yes, probably. I'm a Cowboys fan, and the first season I watched was when they lost the NFC championship game to 49ers. "The catch." I was nine at the time. After that, I lived through the 1-15 season before things turned around in the 90's. So I can't relate to fans that get so angry at every little misstep. I'm like, dude, it could be so much worse.

You may or may not know this, but in Hootie & The Blowfish's breakout hit "Only Wanna Be With You" has a line "I don't know why, but the dolphins made me cry."

I met Darius Rucker in a bar 6-mo before they got big & he told me everyone thinks that line wasn't about Flipper, but it was really about the year the Dolphins had the best record in the NFL after winning on Thanksgiving but missed the playoffs b/c Marino and backup Scott Mitchell had season-ending injuries. The Panthers didn't exist yet, so I was a Dolphins fan at the time, and I cried that year, too.

We both grew up in the Carolinas and talked about how it was common was pick whatever teams were good in the year we started liking sports, which is why he and I were both Dolphins, Reds and Sixers fans.

Yes, and it’s been downhill ever since. I was 13 and 17 watching the giants win improbable super bowls, and it gave me this false impression that I would experience peak football glory every few years, adulthood has been a rude awakening 😂

As a Texans fan through the Kubiak and Buttchin era... The only thing I expect to see is an elite Wide Receiver.

First game I really watched was the tuck game. Raiders have sucked ever since. Inb4 their run to the 2003 Super Bowl, that just makes it worse

Oh yeah. This team is easily the best Dolphins team since I was in diapers. If we win one playoff game this will be the greatest Dolphins season I ever saw

I was cursed to be a titans fan when I watched the first Super Bowl I understood and saw them miss taking it to overtime by 1 yard. It was the first time my innocent optimism was taken from me.

There have been many times since. When they win a Super Bowl… if they win a Super Bowl… I can lay my burden down and never care about football again

I never realized this, but I think I agree with you.

I get the memes and they're obviously well founded when everyone says the Cowboys haven't won anything since 95' but to me... I wasn't alive then, every other year I've been alive the Cowboys make it to the post season, and that's a lot more than someone can reasonably EXPECT.

Maybe the reason is that I grew up with it. I'm only 22 years old, so my earliest memories are of Romo, who I think was great but obviously never won the big games.

But that might be why I'm satisfied with this team, from my point of view, we're doing fine. In all my years of watching football, my team has only had 2 QB's both of whom have been pretty decent. In that time they've won their division like 6 times or so, and been to the playoff like 8 or so. Do they win the SB? No, but seeing how other fans suffer insanely long periods of having horrible QB, horrible coaching, horrible owners, not going to the playoffs in years and years... I just don't find it in me to complain.

Im definitely in the minority here where I only got into football recently (last 5 years) when I was already in my 20s so I have literally no childhood memories of any form of football

My parents were big Oilers fans. When the team left for Nashville, they pretty much lost any interest in the NFL.

2010 was when I started showing interest in the NFL, and of course the Texans. The stars we had on defense in those early years of my fandom really did set the bar high for my expectations for defense. DeMeco Ryans, Brian Cushing, Mario Williams, Kareem Jackson, Whitney Mercilus. JJ Watt certainly leaves a hole that is impossible to fill.