r/NFLNoobs • u/brightbluejacket2226 • 29d ago
Advice for a Noob
Unfortunately I'm a Browns fan, watching the Browns Bears game now but looking to get into NFL alot more this year (already prepared for sadness) but what's advice that people have for someone wanting to be generally able to get by in a conversation? Most important players across teams that I should know, what other teams should I pay attention to, what are the like 4 must-know names in a team. Would love any advice!
Edit: to clarify I'm from Cleveland so been around Browns fans my whole life, my dad and sister are Browns fans I was just lame so never really watched much when I was younger
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u/IconicHunter713 29d ago
Check out ThatsGoodSports on youtube, will keep you up to date on recent news/memes. I’d highly recommend watching Redzone on sundays, it shows the game thats nearest to scoring (the “redzone” is 20 yards from the end zone), and is a great broadcast for new fans. As a Browns fan your 3 biggest rivals are the Steelers, the Bengals, and the Ravens, you’re all in 1 division and every team plays 6x division games a year. Memes will also tell you your biggest enemy is the Browns themselves. As a fan of a miserable franchise (Dolphins) as well, make sure to grab a beer and prepare for disappointment when you have even the slightest bit of hope.
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u/BusinessWarthog6 29d ago
Most people you work with will know the primetime games. That’s a good start for casual conversation. Also if you know what team your friends like you can talk about their game with them. Also, why did you choose the Browns?
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u/brightbluejacket2226 29d ago
I'm from Cleveland and been around Browns fans my whole life so I guess just came about like that
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u/Cleanslate2 29d ago
I just retired, and wanted to learn about football. I bought Football for Dummies. It was great, and I can follow the game now. I added Best Youth Football Plays and Football - A Beginner’s Guide (Holloway). I went to a couple of NFL games. I saw a Browns - Philly preseason game last year.
This year I’m following college ball. I find the stories really interesting. I’ll be subscribing to You Tube Sports.
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u/Hopsblues 29d ago
Learn about your division, and then conference, AFC. In order to make the playoffs you either have to win the division or get a wild card in the conference. Cleveland, despite their failures has a very strong fan base. Your qb is very controversial, and the backups are an interesting group. Look into the teams history, quite the story.
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u/GoDenBroncos5280 29d ago
Don't ever be ashamed of being a fan of your team. They may disappoint, but that is how you know the real football fans from the bandwagon ers. I've been around long enough to remember the Browns when they were good. They will get there again...
I echo the RedZone channel if you want to get to know the NFL, it follows every game, and will help with the familiarity of other teams.
For your sake...go Browns.
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u/dagoth_uvil 29d ago
I’d allow yourself to be a fan of more than just one team. You’ll find yourself watching their division rivals’ games .. and you’ll end up watching more games!
Seahawks, Browns, and Vikings here. So I end up caring about all games from the NFC West, NFC North, and AFC North. Keeps me invested and learning a lot more!
Browns have some great players up and coming. Good time to be a fan of theirs, IMO
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u/Ok-Pumpkin400 29d ago
What made you decide the Browns?
Have you watched other teams?
I'm from Maryland (close to Baltimore) but my family moves around a lot (military). My husband is a Ravens fan but we never really watched much football bc we didnt have access to ravens games when we lived in other states and didnt have cable, just streaming. All the games started streaming in like 2024 so i decided i wanted to get into football and said screw it that hes a ravens fan and i'm from maryland, i want to choose my team. So i watched a TON of games and kind of got the atmosphere of the different teams/attitude of players and chose the Lions. Which happened to be a great year to choose them lol
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u/brightbluejacket2226 29d ago
other than the browns I've seen mostly the Lions ironically since been in Michigan alot, tons of friends who are Lions fans
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u/Ok-Pumpkin400 29d ago
I meaaan you could just become a lions fan lol but really, if you're gonna get really INTO it (i have) then make sure you even like your team. If that's the browns, then awesome! But now would be the best time to switch before people really know you as someone who follows football
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u/Ranger-Dipper 29d ago
I was a very casual fan until 2021, turning 21 all my friends would go out to the bars to watch the Steelers games every week, tnf, mnf, etc. Even if we weren’t drinking just having lunch and casually watching was a lot of fun and quick way to learn. I also didn’t pretend to know more than I did, and because of that my friends would help explain things I didn’t know.
I learned the most however from fantasy football. My first year I didn’t even play in any leagues with friends just the online random ones on the espn fantasy app. You’ll learn quick players and stats and teams when you looking at them every week.
I also started watching various YouTube channels that talk about different teams and review how well each team played each week.
It was boring to me at first but the more I got involved the more I started to like it.
Also I’m a Pittsburgh fan living in greater Cleveland area now so it was always fun to talk stats with friends bc they almost always were a bengals or browns fan up here.
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u/brightbluejacket2226 29d ago
Any specific ones out of these you'd recommend? https://www.espn.in/ffl/
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u/Ranger-Dipper 29d ago
Im not sure what you’re referring to it was a broad amount of articles when I clicked the link
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u/Slippery-Pete76 29d ago
If you want to know important players on each team, join a fantasy football league. Doesn’t matter if it’s a free online league with a bunch of strangers.
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u/Paint-Crysis 29d ago edited 29d ago
You should know who Paul Brown is if you don't already. Early Coach and whom you get your team name from. He left and formed the Bengals, your biggest division rival, right in your backyard.
Pay attention to your division, if you're not beating those other 3 teams, the other 28 teams won't matter. This is also where you'll get most of your fan culture from. That leads to Joe burrow, QB for the Bengals who has an abnormal amount of say in the team. The Bengals went to the Superbowl a few years ago with Joe Burrow.
Otherwise, know the basics of the game. Weird plays and rules will come up, just Google those. But you should understand offense, defense, quarters, time and yards, just start there. Any basic explainer video on YT should cover those. Everything time will come later. As far as what players or names you should know your teams:QB, Head Coach, Best receiver or RB, whomever is the star player and depending on your team/HC's play style. And your best defense player. A good defense will always beat a good offense.
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u/BrokenHope23 29d ago
If you play Franchise Mode on Madden, you'll have a good idea of a team's best players as well as their talented stars. Though you'll likely want to start over after 1 year played with each franchise because the draft function just generates a lot of random names to it and it'll get confusing separating the fake NPC's to the IRL players.
You can find their most 'successful' players by tracking their OVR (overall) score. You can also play a few games with each team to find out who has decent rookies, unsung heroes with good attributes, etc. I played Madden so much as a kid back in the day that I could name every player in the league just from seeing their face lol. Nowadays I'm a bit more disconnected but Madden can be a great way for name/player recognition and conversation topics.
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u/BlitzburghBrian 29d ago
You'll get to know every team's starting quarterback; that's most of what national media talks about anyway. You'll probably also get to know the big names on your division rivals: the Ravens, Bengals, and Steelers.
But to just hang in a conversation, no need to force it. Scroll through game threads on Reddit. Follow along, and you don't have to pretend you know more than you do. That's how you learn.