NFL Fans Suffer from Bye Week Blues

Without a doubt the longest stretch in the NFL season for a fan is the bye week.

The six days leading up to it crawl by as you read stories of players resting and taking a few days off.

The headlines on ESPN hype up the big matchups of the week and break down the upcoming games with no mention of your team.

Hearing of vacation destinations for bye week players makes me more nervous then interested in the off week (maybe because I'm a Bengals fan...but still).

Once Sunday arrives, your whole routine is thrown off. Who wants to watch the pregame shows when the team you root for will not even be mentioned? The Lions and Rams will get more coverage for this one week.

Once the games start, an odd feeling of indifference strikes. Most Sundays are filled with hype and a large dose of emotion. On bye week you are relegated to rooting for fantasy players and teams playing divisional foes.

By the end of the day nothing has changed much in the grand scheme of things. Maybe you gained or lost a half-game.

Then the highlights begin to roll in. There is no opportunity to see what the "expert" analysts think of your team's game. (One of the great feelings a fan has is when his or her team wins and you can watch the highlights and talking heads gush over them on ESPN, NBC, FOX, and CBS.)

No predictions about the upcoming games or updates on injuries. Nothing at all when it's bye week.

After it's all said and done, the bye is still not over. Now the team is subjected to minimal mention at the beginning of the week because they haven't played in a while. Rarely does a big story occur during a bye.

Dan Snyder and the Redskins had the perfect bye week because it allowed people to forget about their awful season for a week. The media pressure went down a notch (from boiling to simmering).

But for a team like the Cincinnati Bengals, the bye was ill-timed. Off a 45-10 pasting of the Chicago Bears, the momentum was strong for QB Carson Palmer and the offense. The team was relatively healthy and seemed extremely focused. Taking a week off doesn't do anything for this team.

Odd stat of the day: Marvin Lewis is 1-4-1 with the Bengals after a bye. Not sure how to interpret that one. Do the players get too much time off? Does Lewis fail to keep the squad focused on the task at hand? Or is the stat a complete coincidence? I wish I had the answer.

So while byes can be quite beneficial for teams that are banged-up or trying to release some of the steam from the pressure cooker, it doesn't always help every team—and it makes fans suffer through two painfully long weeks.

Sunday can't come soon enough.