After 6 long months of waiting, NFL football is finally back. This means a return to the nail-biting finishes, tailgating, fantasy football, and so much more that makes NFL football the amazing sport that it is today. This brings great joy to all football fans that have been waiting since February 13th for football to start back up again. Join me as we go through an overview of the first weeks of the NFL, some highlights of the offseason, and thoughts on these events from students in this very school, iUPrep. 

  As with all offseasons, there have been blockbuster trades & resignings. Some highlights of this era include star packers wide receiver, Davante Adams, being traded to the Las Vegas Raiders, and Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the seahawks, Russell Wilson, going to the Denver Broncos.  Also, as sports fans from around the globe may have heard, the NFL GOAT, Tom Brady, announced his retirement and return from retirement all in the span of 40 days! This stunned pretty much everyone in the community, including myself! In fact, my brother and I even wrote a whole article dedicated to this legend that you can read here: Tom Brady Retires. Now with the GOAT back like he had never left (he actually didn’t) let’s move on to the games!

Week 1 was a great return to the NFL, from the Buffalo Bills absolutely smoking the reigning Super Bowl Champs, the LA Rams, to the Steelers pulling off a miracle extra point block to tie their game against the Bengals with 6 seconds left on the clock, it was everything that football fans could have asked for. In fact, when asking Sports Section Editor, Danny Hall, his thoughts on the best game to watch of week 1, he had to go with the game where his favorite team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, came back to win against the Bengals as time expired in overtime. Earlier in that game, the Bengals had scored a touchdown with 6 seconds left on the clock, tying the game 20-20. All they needed was an extra point to win the game, but Steelers Safety and 2-time pro-bowler, Minkah Fitzpatrick, wasn’t about to let that happen. After timing the snap to perfection and shedding the blocker in front of him, Minkah was able to do the unthinkable, and save the game for the Steelers! With Minkah also securing a Pick-6 in the same game and another interception in Week 2, Danny and I definitely agreed that he is our current frontrunner pick for defensive player of the year.

 Moving on to week 2, it was week 1 amplified by 100. Some highlights include the Bills blowing out the Titans 41-7, and the Dolphins, Cardinals, and Jets all pulling off insane comebacks in their respective games. I believe that a lot of this is due to my interview with Danny Hall on the Saturday before the games. When asked which underdog team he thought was going to thrive this season, Danny responded, “The Miami Dolphins, as the whole team is looking awesome with the increased chemistry due to the signing of Tyreek Hill.” If you do not know this already, Tyreek Hill is perhaps the fastest player in the NFL and was traded to the Dolphins this offseason. What Danny said must have just hit Dolphins quarterback, Tua Tugavalioa, with 12:13 left in the fourth quarter as from down 35-14 against the Baltimore Ravens, the Dolphins were somehow able to come back. They did this on the shoulders of Tua and Tyreek Hill,  scoring 4 touchdowns in the remainder of the game, and winning it 42-38! This was an absolutely insane game from start to finish so I definitely recommend watching the highlights that were a product of this top-tier matchup. This game also happened to be iHoot’s photo/social editor, Curtis Bamber’s favorite game along with the Jet’s onside kick and last-minute comeback against the Browns to win the game 31-30.

Now to future predictions, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, with two straight blowouts, seem to be the current super bowl favorites with Josh Allen being the current frontrunner for the MVP. However, as demonstrated by these first few weeks, in the NFL, anything can happen, so for now we will have to wait and see what the rest of the regular season has in store for us.