Deflated

This football kind of represents how I was feeling in the early hours of this morning, If you bear with me I'll explain...

Even though I've lived in the UK all my life, in the last 3-4 years I've started following American Football. I find it much more entertaining and strategic than the football we're used to here. I'm also a bit of a geek for the stats!

As with all sports the first thing you must do is select your team - I chose the Atlanta Falcons based purely on the fact that the following year we were going to America for our Honeymoon and Atlanta was the airport we flew into!

I even got myself a jersey of the, now, star quarterback (QB) Matt Ryan. I didn't realise at the time I got it that he had only just left college and hadn't even played in a single professional game. Also, unknown to me the previous season had seen our, then, QB sent to jail and our head coach quit. I should really have done my research but I wasn't one to change allegiances that easily.

Fast forward 3 seasons of loyal following to last night. The Falcons were playing the Green Bay Packers in Atlanta in the playoffs. Due to the time difference the game started at 1:15am in the UK. I was all set up in the living room with my cup of tea and game time food to keep me going for the next 3 hours.

I won't go into the details of the game but in the end the Packers beat the Falcons 48-21. As the Americans may call it - a beat down! I had such high hopes as we'd won 13 of 16 games in the regular season and was all set for us going all the way to the Superbowl in 3 weeks time.

With 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter I had come to the conclusion that we weren't going to win the game and headed to bed, (and this is where the tenuous link with the football comes in), feeling a bit deflated but still loyal to my team!