The NFL Season begins tomorrow...and that's okay!
 

I used to drink all day long on NFL Sundays, from the first game all the way to the last. Alone in my apartment or with friends, it didn't matter, I was drunk from 10am-10pm that day.

So it's no surprise that in early sobriety, I was worried about watching football again. Would I be triggered to drink? Would I enjoy the games? Heck...did I even really LIKE football?

This will be my 3rd NFL season that I will celebrate watching sober. And let me tell you, the game has only gotten better! I still watch the games (and check all my fantasy scores) throughout the day. I still enjoy some munchies at halftime.

Some of the perks: I don't have to take pee breaks every 5 minutes and miss the action. I don't PASS OUT for 3 hours and miss an entire game. I don't wake up with a terrible hangover on Monday and start work off with anxiety and depression. I don't order pizza and junk food because I'm too drunk to cook - I make my own fresh guacamole and tortillas!

So enjoy the NFL season everyone! You can do this - the game will be 10x better from a sober perspective! Trust me! :)

Nice Big S...I really enjoy cooking. I find that I get into entertainin either for my wife and kids or extended family during the games. I usually will serve sliders, homeade frech fries with my own seasoning, wings with my own blue cheese sauce and hot sauce, shrimp that I cook in a broth with tomatillo dipping sauce...the list goes on.

My timing of meals would be off when I was drinking. 2 martinis was fine but 3 and things would go awry. I don't have this problem anymore and I enjoy the game and serving others more.

it should be interesting. I was in rehab during the playoffs last year. I missed the first half of the superbowl because I went to a meeting instead. my cable is disconnected and I have no TV this year. if I want to watch a game it will be with the neighbor - they drink beer, I drink water. Should be interesting, but I know what you mean about drinking all day during football. If I survived past half time of the Sunday nite game. Most times I didn't make through the afternoon game.

Great that you are going through 3rd season. this will be my first.

I watch much less football now that I'm sober, which makes me think much of the "attraction" was the drinking, not the games. I find it very difficult to sit and watch an entire day of football...even a whole game. But I am a sports fan and will follow the season and all the sports talk radio/TV discussion.

Yes!!!! Food and munchies and a glass of sparkling carbonated water on ice is so refreshing. No need to crack a beer because then my focus would be on guzzling instead of the game

I'm not much of a professional sports fan EXCEPT for football ( american ). I watch the games, play fantasy football and enjoy the sports talk during the week too. For me its just as enjoyable sober as well, in fact probably more so for many of the same reasons you mentioned bigS.

Being from Wisconsin and a Packer fan, we are all very much anticipating the Thursday night game this week against the Seahawks.

Go birds

Yeah LBrain, I hear you - I was in rehab over the summer a couple years ago and when I got out, football season was just beginning. I was terrified, to be honest! I actually was much less football oriented that first year. I did some traveling, soul searching, etc. However, I still found myself checking the scores every Sunday, even when I was sober and living abroad. I was actually kind of scared that I'd "lose interest" in the game - but that didn't go away.

I think that in rehab, we are often taught that our natural instincts are out of whack - in my case, I had to re-examine a lot of my perceived "likes & dislikes". I was happy to discover that things like Travel, Sports, and Science were still items of interest to me, even after getting sober.

Bring on the new season!! :ushup:

I have been thinking about that. Football without beer...will I enjoy it now? I sure hope so. Club soda and limeade with a twist of lime is my new special treat. Geaux Saints! And ScottfromWI, I hope the Packers win Thursday!

I watched the NFC championship game from my first of two trips to Detox (this January). It was so sad to be there. It is, frankly, even sadder to say 'my first, of two, detox's'... :(


I do not honestly know what watching football is going to be like this year. I have certainly watched games sober, but I have never watched several games/weeks worth of games sober, and DEF not a season. I am trying to figure out where/how I am going to watch 'my team' since I root for an out-of-state team, which means only being able to watch them at a sports bar.

To be honest, bars still (knock on wood) do not scare me. I have been to three for various reasons since I have been sober. I didn't find it difficult. I hope this continues.


Go Lions! (Yes- I said it.)

I can't wait to watch the packers game tomorrow evening! :-)

Go eagles!!!!

People always thought I was a die hard Bucs fan, we always had season tx. I was really a diehard tailgating fan. You don't know how often I spent the game sleeping it off in the back seat. Rested enough to start the post game tailgating party. I cringe.

Great topic, thanks bigsombrero. A first sober football season is going to be a real challenge for me. I'm sure I'll be checking in on this thread more than a couple times in the next few days.



I sure hear ya about tailgating too. Being a fan of Buffalo (a drinking city with a football problem) means the April draft is our Super Bowl - the rest of the season is all about pre and post game boozing for most Bills fans. Looking forward to following my team with a club soda and a clear head now.

Such a helpful thread BigSom. :)

We think we'll never adjust to life without it - nothing will ever be fun or exciting again. It's a lie we tell ourselves. Yes, there's a period of adjustment as we get used to our 'new normal' - but after that, things are actually more enjoyable and real. :) It's more fun being coherent - and no regrets the next day.

Go Giants.

You don't have to knock on wood. You can simply avoid the bar, Hobbers. Just a thought - have you ever thought about the NFL Ticket package from DirecTV? Or, perhaps just go to NFL.com and order the online package? Both are somewhat expensive, but let's be honest: they are not NEARLY as expensive as it will be sitting at a bar for 4 hours every Sunday - even if you're not drinking. Why put yourself in that situation? You'll save money by watching the games from home, and it's an easy and viable option. I'd highly recommend it, those packages are great and really give a true fan a better NFL experience! I say skip the bar...no reason to play with fire. Just a thought.

Also, since you're an NFC North fan, your team will probably have half their games televised anyway, as you live in an NFC North market. Good luck to your Lions - I'm a Vikings fan myself! Arroooooo!!!!

The dark horse Vikings.. SKOL!

Great thread! Agreed, I enjoy sports better sober, I don't forget about what happened during the game, I'm not running to the bathroom every few minutes, I'm not getting distracted by stupid things. Looking forward to a sober NFL season, I know it will be fantastic

I'm a huge Jets fan and I used to lose 2-3 games a season where I just simply was either blacked out during the game or so hammered it was all a blur. I wouldn't even be able to talk about the game the next day. I even lost pretty much an entire few Sundays too, little recollection of anything when I had continued drinking throughout from Saturday night and never slept. That happened twice last season. No way to live. Never again.

I love watching football. Now that I'm not drinking I'll actually remember it. Alcohol never made watching football better. It just made it so I had to watch espn in the morning with a hangover to remember what happened.