The Return of the NFL: National Football Comes Back
On September 9th, the National Football League (NFL), made its season debut with the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots, a rematch of last season’s Super Bowl.
The 2026 season officially marks the 107th season of the NFL, and the hype is still as high as ever before. This is mainly because of the many storylines that have happened during the offseason that’s only heightened the eagerness of many fans across the world.
One of these storylines was the first ever game to be played in Australia, where the Los Angeles Rams went against the San Francisco 49ers on September 11th, or September 10th in U.S time. Not only was this highly anticipated due to the international play of football, it was also anticipated due to these two teams being divisional rivals, only increasing the intensity of the play of the game.
Something that also increased the hype around both the game and the entire NFL as a whole was the movement of many star players that happened during the offseason. For example, defensive end Myles Garrett got traded to the Rams, with former retired defensive tackle Aaron Donald also signing with the team. These pickups from the Rams made their defense look incredibly menacing.
The Rams weren’t the only team that made these pickups. The New England Patriots, who are former AFC champions, picked up star receiver AJ Brown, though they had to get rid of their own star receiver, Stephon Diggs in the process.
As for quarterback movement, former Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa departed from the team to sign with the Atlanta Falcons, hoping to return to his former self in a new jersey.
The hype around quarterbacks not only comes from movement, but also the return of some that were formerly injured.
Indiana Colts quarterback Daniel Jones is a great example. During week 14, Daniel Jones tore his achilles, forcing him to miss the rest of the season. Before this, the Colts were on top of their division, with a record of eight wins and four losses, two of them in games he didn’t play in. This made them one of the most feared teams in the league leading up to this injury. However, once he went down, the Colts went off to lose the rest of their games, finishing at 8-9 and missing the playoffs entirely.
Another example is with Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. Last season was a tricky year for the Chiefs. After coming off a Super Bowl loss, they had high expectations, especially after dominating the entire league for many years, making the Super Bowl five times in the last seven years and winning three of them.
However, the Chiefs finished with the record of 6-11, and while some of these games can be blamed on the season ending injury of Patrick Mahomes, according to many fans, they still were only 6-8 before he went down. This led to many questions entering their offseason, and they responded fantastically.
The Chiefs signed quarterback Justin Fields to backup Patrick Mahomes while he works on returning, while also signing last season’s superbowl MVP, running back Kenneth Walker III. These signings brought life through many Chief fans, hoping to get back on the top of the football world.
“Now that we got Kenneth Walker III after he just won a superbowl, and the fact that our team is finally healthy, it brings me hope as a Chiefs fan that we can probably go to the superbowl this year.” said junior Dwayne Davis.
And the one factor that brings the hype, to not only this season, but all the seasons before and the seasons to come, is the excitement of who is going to hold the trophy in February at Superbowl LXI, every fan base, even those who consider themselves bad, truly believe that they have what it takes to win it all by the end of this season.
“I know we might be kind of trash, but I still don’t care, I still got the Dallas Cowboys winning the Superbowl.” said sophomore Stedrick Neasman at Miramar High School.
And this is what unites every football fan, from each fanbase, the will to win it all. The hope that their favorite team can be crowned as the best team in the world. But until then, they’re just going to sit back and enjoy the journey.
