It’s not you. It’s me. And my team.

I have put blood sweat and tears into this team. They have given me my lowest of lows and my highest of highs. This is not even a team I am a part of.

When Sundays roll around, and it is time to watch them play, I push everything in my life aside. People think I am crazy when I dismiss plans because I want to watch football. They just do not understand. They will never understand.

I grew up in a family of casual football fans. What caused me to fall in love with this sport? I have no idea. The truth is I fell in love with football before I can even remember. Once it became a part of my life I could not back out. My passion grew at a faster rate than I did. Many people just do not understand why.

Growing up as a Washington fan in the Baltimore area was difficult, especially considering the Ravens’ success over the years compared to the disaster happening in the District of Columbia. Being surrounded by fans of many other teams and being a rare Washington fan left me on a football island.

Making fun of a loss to fans of opposing teams is all fun and games, but some people take it personally. If you insult my team, you are insulting me. Some people just do not understand.

There are two different types of people when it comes to non-football-fans. There are the ones who say they have a favorite team and pretend to be a football fan when they win. These are the people who are posting scores on their Instagram but cannot name their starting quarterback. Then there are the ones who are completely oblivious of the game and they are okay with that. These are the people who come to the Super Bowl party and say they are only watching the commercials. But when it comes to a true football fan, none of these people understand.

I have plenty of stories of times I have put football over my own life. I have planned vacations around the game, skipped hangouts with friends and ended relationships over football. Right around when I got my driver’s license I was starting a relationship with a girl I thought was really cool. It had gone on for a couple of months until I realized she was not the one. I vividly remember sitting on my couch watching the Washington Football Team (at the time) playing the Dallas Cowboys. I was watching in delay so I was trying not to hear anything about the game. She then proceeded to text me, asking me what was happening in the game even after I asked her not to. It did not help that we lost by a lot, but that relationship did not last long after that. She just did not understand.

Some people think it is funny to see me cry over a loss or throw my remote because of a bad play. They will laugh at me, mock me and one has even tried to take pictures and videos of me. They think I will laugh alongside them but I promise that is not the case. I will never find it funny just because you do not understand.

I have been a diehard fan of this team for 20 years, which is longer than I have known anyone excluding my parents. So if I have to decide between you and football, then I will pick football. You are just going to have to understand.