White 80! White 80! Set… hut!

Ahhh, that sound is magic to me. It has this wonderful gift of taking me away from all my thoughts and launching me into the next play. It brings to mind the most wonderful time of the season, Thanksgiving football. 

With Thanksgiving football comes all the wonderfully commercialized aspects of the holiday season, such as Hallmark movie family dinners and a cool autumn breeze as you walk down the street. But most importantly, it gets you thinking about what you’re thankful for this time of year.

I usually struggle to come up with this spectacular and unique thanks, that won’t be so generic, to blow everyone away at the dinner table. But this year it’s pretty simple, I’m thankful for football.

If it wasn’t for football, I don’t know where I’d be or who I’d be. Football got me through one of the hardest times of my life and gave me an escape every Sunday, by letting me transport to a world of total fandom, and providing me with a sanctuary where you don’t have to think, you just feel and see.

I didn’t start out as a football fan; in fact, I was quite the opposite. Any time my parents would try and get me to watch it, I just couldn’t understand it. What’s so great about watching 20 guys jump on top of each other just to barely move a ball? Not only that, but I would go out of my way to root against whoever they were cheering for (they’re major Tom Brady fans).

Two seasons ago, however, something magical happened. It was the American Football Conference Championship and, I don’t know why, I thought to myself “Hey, let’s see if you can get into this.” I sat down to watch the young and talented Patrick Mahomes fire it and make his way to yet another Super Bowl against the classic Brady. 

Something crazy must’ve happened that day for me to do this but ever since then, I’ve been in love with football. It was a drastic change, I went from only knowing the likes of Brady and Bill Belichick to knowing entire teams rosters and watching the draft, something only a diehard fan would do.

There is something so captivating about football, maybe it’s all the heart and personality behind it. Everyone says it in the cheesy southern football movies but it’s really the truth, football’s got heart. From the tiniest guy on the field making his way to the big time to the scrappy underdog team clawing its way to the Super Bowl, there’s never a shortage of inspiring and touchy feely moments.

Football has given me so much this past year and a half, the least I could do is honor it in that hallmark moment around the dinner table this year.

Follow Nyah (@nyah_rama) and @thesidekickcoppell on Instagram.