Let me take you back to October 27, 2024:

I was a week away from running the New York City Marathon.

A couple of weeks earlier I was with my friend Kevin in Chicago watching him run the Marathon and enjoying a fun weekend in a great city.

I was feeling good, I was on a Chicago high, it didn’t matter the Jets were headed down the tubes yet again and had lost a terrible game earlier in the afternoon.

I turned on the end of the Commanders-Bears game with the Bears seconds away from a win and declared, “You know what? I love Chicago, the Bears have an exciting young quarterback and a winning record, maybe I’ll be a Bears fan!”

Within literal minutes the Commanders threw up a Hail Mary that a Washington receiver came down with, and Washington won the game. The Commanders improved to 6-2, launching themselves into a dream season that continues this weekend in the NFC Championship Game.

The Bears fell to 4-3. They would limp their way through the rest of the season, finishing 5-12.

But no worries. Rooting for the Bears was a long-term plan.

See, the Jets have been bad for my whole life. So I have taken a fancy to other teams throughout my life - the Houston Oilers were a fun team to watch with Warren Moon, so I rooted for them. (And watched them blow a huge lead in historic fashion in 1993, in a playoff game against the Buffalo Bills that they led 35-3.) I also rooted for the Green Bay Packers for a while because I liked the yellow.

And the past couple of years I really enjoyed watching and rooting for the Detroit Lions.

So it was OK that the Bears were terrible. It was OK that the Jets were terrible.

I had the Lions’ playoff run to watch come January, and maybe they could even make the Super Bowl interesting for me.

Usually the only thing I get excited about with the Super Bowl is having a matchup of teams that have never met in the Super Bowl before.

This year, with my Lions almost certain to make their first appearance in the Super Bowl, it would clinch not just a team I was rooting for in the big game - but a guaranteed new matchup!

Well, as you probably know by now, last Saturday night the Lions got trounced by Washington, and they continue to be a franchise that has never made it to the Super Bowl. (Even the Jets have won one.)

So we’re back to rooting for matchups.

The NFC Championship Game is first on Sunday - if the Eagles win, we root for the Bills. The Eagles and Chiefs played each other in the Super Bowl just two years ago. If the Commanders win, we root for the Chiefs. (The second of Buffalo’s 4 straight Super Bowl losses - in 1992 - was to Washington.)

And, as always, we hope for better luck next year.

(And in a fun twist the Jets just hired the Lions’ defensive coordinator - and former Jets player - Aaron Glenn to be their new head coach. I would get excited about that but when it comes to the Jets [and now the Lions] I know better.)