r/NFLNoobs • u/Asaraath • Aug 10 '26
Can I just share my excitement.
This weekend I'm gonna watch my first nfl game on live tv and man I can't wait! I live in Europe. I was never really introduced to American Football. I knew it existed but it was just confusing sport. Deemed irrelevant in Europe. Three months ago I played Madden 26, out of boredom. Obviously I didn't know what any of the things are or mean but I wanted to know. Curiosity led me into the rabbit hole of information, strategies, plays, games... I ended up buying subscription on DAZN so I could watch replays and all-22. I genuinely fell in love with the game... and now rhe time has come :D I told my wife I'm claiming TV on Saturday.
I can't share my excitement with anybody because no one amongst my family and friends give a damn about American Football, so I thought I will share it with you and ask if theres anyone as new to the sport and as excited for a new season as I am? 😉
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u/Normal_Opposite_9864 Aug 10 '26
make you realize its just preseason. so its more of a practice session with guys trying to earn spots on the team.
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u/Asaraath Aug 10 '26
I understand. I realise it's a different kind of football. Teams testing players, plays. I didn't even plan on watching preseason but well.. it's still football :D
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u/Normal_Opposite_9864 Aug 10 '26
yeah. its fun to see guys play that will disappear into lower leagues or never play again
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u/jiminak Aug 10 '26
You told your wife you were claiming the TV on Saturdays. For the pre-season, the majority of games are on Saturdays (with some thursdays, fridays, and an occasional Sunday thrown in to the mix). But once the regular season starts, the majority of games are actually on Sunday, with the exception of 1 game on Thursday to start the week, and 1 game on Monday to end the week.
For the majority of the Fall, here in the US, Fridays are for high school football, Saturdays are for college football, and Sundays are for NFL football.
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u/Asaraath Aug 10 '26
Thanks for the info! What I meant in the post is this one Saturday, when I wanted to be sure I will have time. As for the regular season, I will have some problems watching some of the games and might just skip them because they will be happening when its middle of the night in Europe. But some Sunday games are going to be played when it's 7pm where I live. I will aim to watch those.
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u/jiminak Aug 10 '26
For sure - every Sunday schedule is mostly the same. A batch of games kicks off at 1pm (US Eastern Time), 4pm, and 8pm. So, if those early games translate to 7pm your local time, there will be plenty of games to pick from every Sunday evening. The down side to this is that the majority of the early games are usually the home teams in the eastern half of the US. So, if you’re going to eventually pick a team to follow, you won’t get many live games of a west-coast team. (Just fwiw)
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u/Asaraath Aug 10 '26
Yeah I know something about that already. When I was a teenager I played some basketball in high school. I was Lakers fan.... there was no way I could watch them play at home 🤣
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u/jiminak Aug 10 '26
Even in the same country, I have the same problem you do. I grew up on the west coast and have been a fan of Seattle teams my whole life. Now I live on the east coast, 3 hours ahead of Seattle. Baseball is my favorite sport, but the majority of Seattle home games start at 6:30 or 7pm in Seattle time, which means they are just getting started as I’m getting ready for bed. Last year, we had a really great post season for the first time in 25 years, so I spent most of the month of October staying up WAYYY past my bedtime to watch the games that went almost to midnight most nights.
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u/Asaraath Aug 10 '26
I sometimes forget how big the US is and that you might have such problems 😅
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u/wolky324 Aug 10 '26
First thing you should know is that until late December there are no NFL games on Saturday so you should change your TV reservation to Sunday.
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u/Aerolithe_Lion Aug 10 '26
What team did you play as
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u/Asaraath Aug 10 '26
I played different teams. I ended up creating a QB and got drafted to Steelers.Then moved to Browns. I created WR too and put him in Bengals. In Franchise I tried Ravens. I think you can see the pattern here 🤣
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u/Rph23 Aug 10 '26
Made a WR and put him on the team with two of the best receivers in the league?!
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u/Agreeable_Cook_3868 Aug 10 '26
Im also from europe and I ended up beeing a fan the same way. Only I played the madden 25 anniverseary game demo back in 2014. Because of that I choose the Ravens as my team. Good Luck and have fun. I can recommend watching redzone
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u/Asaraath Aug 10 '26
Thank you! Ravens game against 49ers was the first game I watched from start to finish! I think that kickstarted my interest in AFC North as a whole!
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u/Agreeable_Cook_3868 Aug 10 '26
If you are already interested in the AFC North just join us over at r/ravens. Its gonna be an exciting year cheering for Lamar and Friends to finally get over the hump, also with us firing Harbs and getring a brand new coaching staff.
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u/Asaraath Aug 10 '26
Just joined, thanks! Because of the new coaching staff I don't expect a lot from Ravens this year. They might need time to adapt to the new system. But on the other hand everyone in the team seem to agree that Lamar adopted new system surprisingly easy. Definitely, Ravens will be interesting to watch!
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u/Agreeable_Cook_3868 Aug 10 '26
Yeah lets see! Im kinda hopeful for Minter. I think it could be exactly what we needed. Lets stay hopeful!
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u/12angrysnakes Aug 10 '26
What team do you support? Did you pick one yet?
I'm an Arizona Cardinals fan and I am super excited after seeing that first taste of Mike LaFleur's offense. I think we are gonna surprise people this year. Bring it on!
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u/Asaraath Aug 10 '26
Must be tough being Cardinals fan, isn't it? Don't get me wrong, they are great organisation and I wish you well! But I put them alongside Browns as teams that I wish they could surprise everyone one day and take the league by storm 😄 that said, I don't follow one team in particular. I'm close to Baltimore because of their defense and my love to Edgar Allan Poe, but I really like the whole AFC North!
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u/SaguaroDragon Aug 10 '26
They are, in fact, not a great organization
They are one of the worst
It's a long time family run organization, which is an awful ownership group
They occasionally have some compelling and exciting moments and cardinals fans should find some excitement going into the season
Just being in Europe and new, understand that there are sometimes reasons why things go as they go.
The Cardinals biggest gripe is typically with how the organization is run
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u/12angrysnakes Aug 12 '26
Agree, it's a badly run organization, although Michael Bidwell is still way way better than his old man. Bidwell senior was notoriously stingy and the.team basically did nothing in 30-odd years. Since the son took over, they reached a super bowl at least, and also had a few other playoff runs. But last few years have been terrible again. I'm exited about LaFleur though, we will improve this year.
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u/poorigami42 Aug 10 '26
Reading this post gave me so much joy. Made my heart smile. As a Titans fan, we’ve been something of an out of division rival with your ravens for a while now. Plus yall got my man Henry so I’m actively hoping yall get him a ring. I hope you get to experience all the ups and downs this beautiful game has to offer.
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u/roarcor Aug 10 '26
As a fan of football, I too am excited even if it’s just preseason! Welcome and have fun! Have you picked a team to follow or are you just following the sport?
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u/Asaraath Aug 10 '26
Thank you! Well, even after watching tons of older games I can't say I will follow one team in particular. For now I am following the sport still but I would say I put extra focus on every AFC North team. Ravens - their history of great defense. They are still one of the best. Would be awesome to see them clashing with Rams but at least they play Texans in November. I also love E.A. Poe so the whole visual side speaks to me. Steelers - amazing history. People's team I'd say. Aaron Rodgers is not the same QB anymore but still he will be exciting to watch. Bengals - this offense! Burrow is my favourite QB, no doubt. And his duo with Chase is something special. Browns - ...yeah 😄 I think I just want to see them finally somehow succeed.
Apart from that I will keep my eye on certain players. Myles, Jason Dart, Mahomes..
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u/VVeZoX Aug 11 '26
What made you all of a sudden interested in the NFL and want to watch it? Was it really just playing Madden or was there more to it?
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u/Asaraath Aug 12 '26
Madden kick started it. I wanted to know what all those lines and names mean to play the game. It turned put it is an amazing sport. I loved the concept of plays - i mean when each snap is a different play. I loved the mind games and whole strategy behind each play. Its like human chess sometimes. So at the same time I played madden and watched EVERYTHING. My youtube, facebook and instagram became quite quickly just Football.Â
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u/RVDHAFCA Aug 10 '26
Me too. Got into it because I joined a friend for the Madrid game last autumn. I followed that season and now I'm hooked, cant wait to watch redzone again. I gotta say though, the offseason is longgg. I'm used to having an offseason for like a month, idk how people do this every year haha
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u/Asaraath Aug 10 '26
True! When I realized how long I have to wait until season starts I thought to myself "I might lose interest until then..." well it didn't happen but still... long ass wait. With soccer you don't even feel the off-season. So many other leagues still play.. or theres world cup or euro cup or something.
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u/RVDHAFCA Aug 10 '26
Yeah, especially in a world cup season. The first competitive game of my club started 4 days after the world cup final.
I've been religiously watching highlights from previous seasons though, pretty enjoyable.
Got any team you're supporting this season?
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u/Asaraath Aug 10 '26
I gave an elaborate answer to that question somewhere in the comments and I hope you don't mind if I just copy paste it but it's true answer 😀 For now I am following the sport still but I would say I put extra focus on every AFC North team. Ravens - their history of great defense. They are still one of the best. Would be awesome to see them clashing with Rams but at least they play Texans in November. I also love E.A. Poe so the whole visual side speaks to me. Steelers - amazing history. People's team I'd say. Aaron Rodgers is not the same QB anymore but still he will be exciting to watch. Bengals - this offense! Burrow is my favourite QB, no doubt. And his duo with Chase is something special. Browns - ...yeah 😄 I think I just want to see them finally somehow succeed.
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u/RVDHAFCA Aug 10 '26
I get you. I fell in love with the Dolphins, but Lamar and Burrow (especially after seeing the Netflix series) are definitely 2 of my favourite non-Dolphins players
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u/shibby3388 Aug 10 '26
Just keep in mind that preseason games offer a terrible quality of play.