ONE MORE!

So for those who don’t know, I am a football fan, and in particular a huge New England Patriots fan (one glance at any of my social media pages would clue you in really quick). This past Sunday the Patriots faced off against the Pittsburgh Steelers for the AFC Championship and a spot in Super Bowl LI. As an outspoken and dedicated fan, I normally rally with my in support of my team making boastful comments that the Patriots can win any game. However, this game was very different for me because I wasn’t surrounded by fellow Patriots fans.

I go to a college in Pennsylvania that is 3 hours from Pittsburgh. I am in the heartland of Steelers fans. To make matters worse, many of my roommates are Steelers fans — some who are as passionate about the Steelers as I am about the Patriots. To say the atmosphere surrounding the upcoming game was tense is somewhat of an understatement.

Throughout the week leading up to the game I kept quiet about the game, shrugging off accusations that Steelers were going to blow the Patriots out of the water. Many of my friends joked that they would make sure to get me lots of Steelers gear to wear around school once the Steelers won. When Sunday finally rolled around, and as the national anthem was being sung, I made a deal with my roommate that the loser had to wear the opposing team’s spirit wear. It was also more than that. It was the rights to public shaming. Needless to say there was a lot at stake on this game.

Fortunately for me (and my pride) the Patriots won AND I got to see my friend walk around in my Patriots jersey. Now I get to watch my team play one more game this year; the football season continues on. Now I am flooding my social media pages with propaganda for One More! (the slogan for the Patriots post-season run). I am constantly entering various online contests in the hopes that I might go to the Super Bowl game to see them play. I watch every new video that comes out, getting myself psyched up for the game. Excitement growing as it gets closer to the weekend. One more ring for Brady! One more championship for Belichick! One more! One more!

And then I realized…

…one more week until the Super Bowl. I forgot the Super Bowl is two weeks after conference championship games.

Another agonizing week…

…one more…