Football. One of American’s favorite past times. Whether you’re an avid fan or an all-star quarterback, Pop Warner or NFL, football tends to bring out some unseen emotions that aren’t necessarily seen during any sports season. This being said, there always tends to be some telltale signs when football is right around the corner.

1. All of a sudden everyone becomes “their team’s #1 fan.”

It always seems without fail that once the first weekend of September rolls around, everyone all of sudden has a favorite football team. Whether they rep their jerseys all year round or just seemed to have magically picked a team out of a hat, everyone becomes an expert and super fan. Even the girl down the hall who thought that a touchdown was a three pointer in basketball is all of a sudden an avid Dallas Cowboys fan.

2. Every advertisement seems to tie back to the big game on Sunday.

Each year the hype starts earlier and earlier but one of the first places you’re bound to see the NFL pop-up is in the grocery store. From the boxes of soda stacked in the shape of a goal post or football to Bud Light printing the team logos on their cold, blue cans to the player that’s believed to be the most up and coming on the latest Wheaties box, it seems like you can’t escape the sport. And of course just about every other television commercial somehow manages to tie back to someone throwing the pigskin around.

3. Carrie Underwood starts signing a new tune.

For all us country fans, we are used to hearing Carrie sing about her faith, a boy, or just life in general. But once August and September start to roll around, Carrie seems to start singing a different tune surrounded by a bunch of large men in pads. We can always count of hearing the sweet sound of Carrie’s voice telling us how we can’t wait for Sunday night.

4. Fantasy Football

Whether you and your friends share the love for the same team or you find yourself on opposite sides of the football field on Sundays, one thing you may find yourself agreeing on is who to put on your fantasy football team. Your weekends consist of you and your opponents huddled around computing live stats to fantasy points in hopes of coming out on top.

5. Sunday plans aren’t even a discussion anymore.

For the next few months your Sunday, and possibly even the occasional Thursday nights have built in plans for you. You and anybody who knows you knows, they can find you huddled around a TV with plenty of nachos, beer or any other kind of junk you could think of screaming at a TV with the hopes that your team will hear you.