NFL Playoffs: 10 Recommendations for Fans of Teams Left out of the Postseason

"Mathematically" and "eliminated" are the two words every NFL fan spends December dreading. Unless you cheer for the one of the seven lucky teams who've already punched their ticket to the postseason party, you've been trying to make the calculus work for several weeks running.

For some teams, though, hope died weeks ago. For others, it cruelly lingers: Kansas City Chiefs fans are still figuring out how they can win the AFC West with an interim head coach and a waiver-wire quarterback.

No matter when your chosen squad falls is eliminated—for five-eighths of you, it's a question of when, not if—it'll be a long, cold January without the football team you love. Here are 10 tried-and-true ways to keep body and soul together until your NFL team is officially undefeated again.

1. Watch College Bowl Games

College bowl games are a wonderful diversion. The huge pile of late December bowls with also-ran matchups and regional sponsors you've never heard of is particularly entertaining.

The low quality of play will remind you that your NFL team isn't really THAT bad, and you'll likely convince yourself some 5'7" MAC receiver is just the spark your team needs to get over the hump in 2012.

That brings us to the next diversion...

2. Start Doing Your Draft Research

You're not an NFL scout. You're not an NFL GM. Your team doesn't even know who you are. But the rules of modern NFL fandom dictate you pen a pile of seven-round mocks for your favorite team for some reason.

You have a lot of research to do to fill out your personal draft board, so start by reading everything Matt Miller writes and don't stop until your team is on the clock.

3. Jump to Another Team's Bandwagon

"What, you didn't know I was a Patriots fan? Yeah, I've had this Danny Woodhead jersey for years. I've got family out there, you know. My second cousin's ex-boyfriend is from Boston. I only met him once at a family reunion but he seemed like a pretty chill bro."

4. Plan Your Super Bowl Watch Party

The Super Bowl is not only the culmination of the entire NFL season—it's become a global holiday celebrating everything that is football culture.

That means YOU have to get on your friends' social calendars NOW. Call everybody and tell them the party's at your house, and everyone's already coming, and don't let them hang up until they've promised they're coming too.

Go big. Take those Christmas tech store gift cards and up your flat-screen game. Work on regionally appropriate food to serve, like Wisconsin Beer-Cheese Soup and Authentic Texas Chili. Hunt down some local microbrews like Cambridge Brewing Company's Tripel Threat, from Boston, or Detroit Brewing Company's Sanders Chocolate Stout.

Anything to kill the pain of your team's party being shut down weeks earlier.

5. Get in Shape

After a long season of pork rinds and oat sodas, chances are your favorite jersey's fitting a little snug around the middle. Now's the perfect time to make a New Year's resolution and shed that extra luggage.

Two years ago, I followed the Couch to 5K newbie running program, starting in the middle of January. Never having run farther than the distance from home plate to first base without stopping, I actually completed a 5K race right on schedule.

Of course, once the weather got hot enough to make running obnoxious, I parked my rear right back on the couch...but the accomplishment eased the pain of the Lions going 2-14.

6. Take Up Knitting

Don't laugh! Knitting is a repetitive, mostly physical task that helps take your mind off your worries. Besides being great for stress relief, you can whomp up some one-of-a-kind gear in your favorite NFL team's colors.

7. Start Watching Soccer

Your NFL team's done for the year. Basketball's gone topsy-turvy. Baseball is months away. But there's another sport you should consider: soccer.

MLS has already shut it down for this year; northern American and Canadian winters just get too snowy. But the English Premier League boasts some of the best players in the world and goes all winter long, snow or no.

Better yet: There's plenty of live coverage available on US cable and satellite packages, and all the blogs and news websites are (of course) in English too. There's even an EPL section here on Bleacher Report!

But how do those English fans turn out for the bitter cold of January and February matches? They wear supporter's scarves. Scarves you just learned how to knit.

If you need help picking a team to buy yarn for, I suggest Chris Ryan of Grantland.com's 2011-12 season primer.

8. Start Watching Hockey

So, soccer's not for you, or at least you think it's not. Maybe it lacks a certain je ne sais POW.

Hockey has all the speed and explosion you could ask for, and many of the top contenders this year come from areas whose NFL squads have flopped. Minnesota Vikings fans, do you realize your Minnesota Wild are No. 2 in the Western Conference?

The best thing about hockey is the NFL regular season ends just as the NHL season gets interesting. If you haven't paid a lick of attention to the NHL this season, you haven't missed anything yet.

9. Bitterly Rewatch This Season's Games

Thanks to NFL.com's new Game Rewind feature, you can subject yourself to hours and hours of renewed agony. For a nominal fee, you can drive yourself crazy all over again with the near misses, the blown calls, the infuriating mistakes and the obvious interventions of the Football Gods that kept your team from making the postseason this year.

Where would we be without technology, eh?

10. Write About It at Bleacher Report

Better than doing any of all those things, why not join Bleacher Report and deal with your feelings constructively by writing about them? You can get what you have to say off your chest and interact with all the amazing folks in the B/R community!

Better yet: You can keep doing it all spring and summer, if you like.