It’s finally the time of the year for screaming at the TV, eating overpriced stadium food, and seeing Patrick Mahomes’ State Farm commercials.

It’s NFL football season. For football fans, September through February are the best few months of the year. The 2023 NFL football season officially began on Sept. 7, with a Thursday Night Football game between the Detroit Lions and the Kansas City Chiefs. It was an upset, with the Lions defeating the Chiefs, the 2023 Super Bowl Champions.

New seasons bring changes, and there are a few being made to the NFL this year. Five teams hired new head coaches, and three teams are debuting new rookie quarterbacks, including Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, and Anthony Richardson. There have also been trades, such as quarterback Aaron Rodgers leaving the Green Bay Packers to sign with the New York Jets. Tom Brady also retired (for real this time), and Baker Mayfield will take his place as the Buccaneers’ new starting quarterback.

Along with team changes, new rules are being enforced for the NFL. Tripping is now considered a personal foul and will result in a 15-yard penalty. Failed fourth-down conversions will now automatically undergo a booth review, and head coaches may not challenge a failed fourth-down conversion. There is a new instant replay reversal rule where when a replay review inside of the two-minute warning is reversed, the play clock will reset to 40 seconds as opposed to the 25 seconds from previous seasons.

Even with these team and rule changes, fans are still prepared to be glued to their TV’s until February. 

“The rules are definitely going to make a difference to the game, but I don’t think anything negative will come from it,” said sophomore Olivia Swank. 

Even with these new rules, fans have high expectations for the upcoming season. “I think the Packers are going to take the super bowl this year,” said sophomore Caden Bell.

Now that week one of the season has concluded, it’s safe to say this year the NFL is going to be wild. 

“I’m so excited about this upcoming season,” said Swank. 

Week one brought lots of upsets, such as the Dallas Cowboys beating the New York Giants 40-0, and the Packers’ new quarterback Jordan Love having the game of a lifetime, defeating the Bears 38-20.

On Monday Night Football, Aaron Rodgers made his quarterback debut for the New York Jets, where he suffered an ankle injury only four plays into the game, resulting in him missing the remainder of the game. However, this did not affect the Jets, as they took down the Bills 22-16 in overtime with a punt return for a touchdown. 

As for the rest of the season, it looks like fans are in for some good football across the board, but who we’ll see in the Super Bowl, time will only tell. Games, interviews, commentary, and everything NFL stream on NFL channels, RedZone, FOX channels, Paramount+, ESPN channels, NBC channels, CBS, ABC, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Universo, and the NFL app.