NFL Regular Season, Playoffs and Super Bowl: A Fan's Take

Now that my beloved New York Giants are finally back in the Super Bowl, I finally have realized why all fans put themselves through the torturous journey known as the NFL regular season and playoffs.

I know some of you will say that I don't know how good I have it, that I could be a Buffalo Bills fan amidst a 12-year postseason drought, or a Cincinnati Bengals fan enduring 21 years without a playoff victory.

But the fact of the matter is, that my favorite team has reached the Super Bowl for the second time in five seasons, and it's all I've got. The Mets are an absolute mess as of now, the Knicks haven't had a successful playoff run since I was still in the womb, and the Rangers are trying to make up for years of disappointment with a promising season.

The reason that diehard fans put themselves through the absolute heartbreak year in and year out is that they all are hanging on to a shred of hope that their team will pull through.

Every Sunday from the beginning of September to the end of December, the fans of every team sit on the edge of their couches, heart in throat, hoping and praying that their team can do what it takes to win. For a few hours, everyone forgets that the weekend is winding down and the daily grind starts bright and early the next day. Fathers and sons who otherwise would be apart are brought together for such a simple reason.

The idea of being a fan is pretty insane in some ways. You have no impact on the performance of your team no matter how hard you try. You can yell till you shatter your wife's good china but in the end, there is absolutely nothing that can be done to give your team an advantage. Wearing that lucky jersey won't do it, crossing your fingers won't get the job done and neither will your inside-out underwear.

That's the strange thing about it, you know what you do won't make your kicker put it through the uprights or keep your punt returner from fumbling, but you know you have to do it. God forbid your team loses and you forgot to put your toddler in his (your) favorite jersey, because as far as you're concerned, you caused it. You did this to your team.

Take this guy in the video above for example. Aside from being hilariously entertaining, this just shows how far a fan will go to satisfy his superstitious needs. This guy isn't even a Giants fan.

As a matter of fact he’s a New York Jets fan, and he's jumping off a roof into a pile of snow in hopes of giving his rival team some good fortune. Looks strange right?

The more you think about it the more normal it seems. When you have nothing else in life, if things don't seem to be going your way, you always have sports. Sports will never fire you, break up with you, or make you feel like you aren't good enough.

If football is good enough for you, you are good enough for football. I realize that I'm excessively personifying the sport of football but if you love the game, you just get it.

And this next one is even better, well sadder I guess. That's a grown man watching his favorite team, the San Francisco 49ers, lose in overtime in the NFC Championship. A grown man. I wish I could poke fun at him for it but I’d be a hypocrite to do so because I've had many similar (and nearly identical) reactions.

I couldn't sleep for days after DeSean Jackson ran that punt back as time expired against the Giants in 2010. I was hounded by recurring nightmares of Jackson running east to west at the goal line, squeezing every last second he can out of the return. That play won an ESPY for best game.

Yes, the lowest point of my entire life as a fan pretty much won the Oscar for sports.

But when everything falls into place and the stars align, it makes the disdain worth it. Three seasons of failure, five seasons of failure, 20 seasons of failure are all forgotten when your team reaches what the millions who follow had so desired. And for those of you who think the players are in this for the money, I hear that a lot nowadays, take a look at Steve Weatherford after Lawrence Tynes’ game winner on Sunday in San Francisco.