Yes, it did and this hasn’t been the same Steelers I grew up watching for a long time now. Art II’s becoming a disgrace to the Rooney name.

We are on r/nfl with a bunch of children. What do you think?

I grew up in the 1980’s so even though the Packers don’t break all the way through as often as I’d like, I’m still excited every time they clinch a playoff spot. Same goes for the Brewers.

I really started getting into playing football and watching it around the time of the 4 Super Bowl runs.

So yeah, not great Bob.

I was 6, 8 and 9 when the Elway Broncos lost three Super Bowls. My whole childhood was spent obsessed with football and obsessed with the dream that one day we would win the Super Bowl.

I was 17 and 18 when the Elway Broncos went back to back. It was an experience that in many ways summed up closure on my childhood. As a kid I would live, breathe and sleep the Denver Broncos and dream desperately that the Broncos would win a Super Bowl like it was the most important thing that could ever happen in my life. John Elway was my ultimate life role model and summed up the epitome of an American hero. By the age of 18, there were more things in my life - college, girls, career plans, desires to travel and work abroad which meant I would see a world outside America and football.

But it was a wonderful way to get closure on that footballing childhood to see the Broncos win those rings, and it was also poignant to see Elway depart at the same time as my childhood. I was going to have to find new heroes in life beyond my quarterback.

My childhood watching the Broncos taught me a few parallels that have stayed with me in life. I had a major crush on a girl from about the age of 13 to 16, we were pretty good friends but I was way too socially awkward to say anything. Then I remember her starting to date this other dude, her first boyfriend, when I was 16.

Almost around exactly the same time, the Broncos had that haunting defeat to the Jags in the playoffs where the Broncos had looked set for a Super Bowl run and lost the divisional round. It was awful for Broncos fans because we thought Elway isn’t going to be around forever and that could be the closing of our window. And it also struck me with this girl - we were likely going off to college at 18. I was probably never going to see her again after that. There was a ‘window’ and if I got a shot again I had to take it.

Well, she dated this guy for about a year and then they had a break up, and I had to make my move, and yeah, she started going out with me. This was the year the Broncos won their first ring. It was like a lesson in life about taking your chances and recognizing the finite windows of opportunity in life. We were still dating when the Broncos won the second Super Bowl, but then we went to college in different places, and when we tried to do it long distance it faded away, just like the Broncos faded away without Elway.

But I was much better placed to deal with life and opportunities after that. And also that Broncos childhood has given me a strong belief in life that it might take you a long time to achieve something and you might have a lot of moments where you get close and just miss out, and others where you seem to be regressing alarmingly backwards. But if you make sure your fundamentals are right, the way you apply yourself to something, and the way you never quit in adversity like Elway didn’t, you have a shot at being rewarded in the end.

So for me, whatever the Broncos do or don’t do, that footballing childhood following the Broncos was an amazing experience and something for which I am eternally grateful.

The Lions set a strange bar for me honestly. When I was a kid and first started watching them, they had Barry Sanders who was must see tv and they weren’t too bad of a team and at least competed to make the playoffs most seasons. Then Barry Left and Oh My goodness. I pretty much became numb to the team for the entire 2001-2010 decade. During that decade, they didn’t have a single winning season and had a overall record of 39-121. Can you imagine winning, on average, 1 out of every 4 games for an entire decade?!?!?!?!?! That is almost impossibly bad. That decade took place from age 14-24 for me, so that is a significant chunk of growing up for me where they were so horrible that I couldn’t even feel anything other than numbness. The 0-16 season was the icing on the cake as well.

So the bar was kind of high as a young kid. But a decade of miserableness is enough to pretty much cancel out any previous bar that was set. It’s crazy how quickly the bar raises again though. Literally one full calendar year of them looking like a competent franchise and I am ready to go after that ring.

I became a fan around the 2008-2012 era. Every loss felt like the literal end of the world. Then 2015 happened and I grew out of it

Steelers fan since the 80s. I remember when Chuck Noll left and Bill Cower came in.

I grew up in the 90s. The standards are… not high. Being a reasonably competent football team is all I’m ever asking for.

I was at “the catch” in utero

go niners

Yes - Houston Oilers

Nuff said

Wasn’t into football in my earlier years. Born and raised in the KC area. The first football season I took interest in was in 2006, Herm Edwards first season as coach here. We barely made the playoffs in a crazy week 17 scenario (which you can read about here). This was also the first Super Bowl I watched, which was XLI Colts v Bears… I was 23.

Then the Chiefs went 29-67 over the next 6 seasons with only one winning record.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that the bar for me is currently being set lol

Did for me.

Yes, probably. I’m a Cowboys fan, and the first season I watched was when they lost the NFC championship game to 49ers. “The catch.” I was nine at the time. After that, I lived through the 1-15 season before things turned around in the 90’s. So I can’t relate to fans that get so angry at every little misstep. I’m like, dude, it could be so much worse.

My parents were big Oilers fans. When the team left for Nashville, they pretty much lost any interest in the NFL.

2010 was when I started showing interest in the NFL, and of course the Texans. The stars we had on defense in those early years of my fandom really did set the bar high for my expectations for defense. DeMeco Ryans, Brian Cushing, Mario Williams, Kareem Jackson, Whitney Mercilus. JJ Watt certainly leaves a hole that is impossible to fill.