My favorite thing about a new season is easily welcoming the rookies. The NSFL draft is, in my mind, the biggest event of the offseason. I'm always reminded of hearing my named called, and the joy and elation that came with that moment. Getting to watch the draft and see similar reactions from draftees gets me hyped up for the regular season.
After the draft comes my favorite part: bringing the new players into the locker room. Each rookie brings energy and a winning attitude into the locker room. It doesn't matter how active and positive and energized your locker room already is: the rookies will take it to another level. They're always so excited to play in their first game, to sign their first real contract, to contribute to an NSFL team and to help make a run at an Ultimus title. Every single rookie wants to win so badly, and that's a great motivator for the rest of the team. I love getting that energy in the locker room, and this offseason has been no exception. To sum it up, the start of the season means breathing new life into each team, and the rookies are the biggest factor in that.
I think as a player, the most exciting thing about the beginning of the season in the national simulation football league is getting to start fresh. Especially as a rookie, it is cool to see how your team meshes off the field and on the field, after having potentially been changed considerably in the offseason. As far as people who are not rookies, if their team did well the previous season, it offers them a chance to defend their status as being on top of the league. For struggling teams the new season marks a rebirth of sorts, a wiping of the slate in order to start anew and try to accomplish what they could not in seasons previous. For Ruff Ruff in particular, the new season brings many exciting things. First off, a lot more people like to play fetch and catch with him since he's now being paid to do it. Secondly, a packed football stadium has so many new interesting smells to explore--the hot dogs and beer from the stands, the fresh grass or turf, and of course the sweaty disgusting men that he's trying to dodge. Finally, it brings so many new people for him to get pats from during the game!
Opening day is exciting indeed. All these months of sitting here, just WAITING for football to be back. I've been very busy since the conclusion of last season, and frankly, last season was tough to follow as a Panthers fan. I mean, such a bright start that became more shattered than Newton's shoulder after the Steelers game. It's just been a while since I've followed football properly. I mean, it just took me a sec to remember who the Panthers first round pick was (Brian Burns, defensive end) and I don't know any of the second or later round picks. Of course, deleting reddit helped with productivity but probably hurt knowledge of football news. So frankly, as a football fan, I'm just excited for football to be BACK. To spend my Sundays watching Panthers football with my girlfriend again (though this time I suppose will be on a stream, not in person. Long distance really do be like that). For Ashley Owens, football coming back is a new chapter. He's moved on up to the National Simulation Football League; aka, the one that matters. This is the league where he hopes to make money, and make a name for himself. Where he hopes to break records.
So funny as it is, as a fan, the return of football is the return of normality. For Owens, it's a new chapter. For both, it's a blossoming of happiness!
My favorite thing about every new season is that it's exactly what it says it is - new. Everything that was frustrating or annoying about the season before kind of just fades away and all focus is directed on getting done what we need to this season. I get to stop ruminating about last season's playoff failures, stop wondering what might have changed if I'd done things differently. Just full steam ahead, focused on being the best team we possibly can for this season. My plans as a fan are naturally to root the Otters on, though we unfortunately saw how that went. Still, it was a good opening day. We made some mistakes but hung around that game and gave ourselves a chance at the end. Didn't turn out exactly how we'd hoped, but things don't always work that way. As a player I was just focused on doing what I could to give my team a chance to win that game. I think I wound up with something like 4 catches for 50-something yards, maybe a little more. But the other great thing about opening day is that, even after it's over, you still know that there's a ton of football left to be played. So now we're just giving this coming week the same treatment as we look to bounce back from the week one loss.
Written Option: It’s everyone’s favorite time of year, both in the NSFL and our counterpart NFL. What is your favorite thing about the beginning of a new season, whether it is your first year, you are a veteran, or you are just excited your team hasn’t lost yet. Write about what you are excited for or what your plans are for opening day as a fan or player.
The beginning of the season is always a very exciting time. I know that the Copperheads are going to be looking for blood this season after our very successful first season in the league. Now I know that there is no way for there to be drama to start out the season so I look forward to playing some very fair football in which all players on the field can play to the best of their potential. All shade throwing aside, my plans for opening day (I'm going to consider week 2 opening day for all intents and purposes) is to just go out there and give it my fucking all. I want to prove people wrong on the potential in Austin, I know all of my teammates want to do the same as well. After the game, I plan on watching all of the other games from the week so I can start to prepare for our other upcoming games. While there definitely have already been some ups and downs this season, I think the beginning of the season is always the most exciting because there are so many new opportunities to go out and prove yourself. Opportunities to show the rest of the league that you mean fucking business when it comes to winning football games. I know we were the joke of the league last season, but our locker room is dedicated as hell to turning this squad into a championship caliber team.