Can you smell it? Can you feel it?

Long sessions of sitting on the couch, tracking players you don’t even root for because of fantasy or financial obligations, allowing the team you do root for to ruin your emotional availability for the week — it’s all back.

With a new NFL season comes the chance to turn off our brains for a few hours on Sundays as the world collapses into brimstone and ashes around us. It’s a very welcome distraction in these utterly insane times. I’m fine. You’re fine. We’re all fine. The pigskin beckons to us all.

This season has had a sense of normalcy to it so far after last year’s debacle of a season that featured games being played on Wednesday, top players getting sick with COVID-19, and Tom Brady winning yet another Super Bowl.

For the first time since 2019, there was a preseason. Fewer players have missed time due to COVID-19 protocols. For a fleeting moment, the football gets to be the focus again.

And boy, there are a ton of reasons to tune into the NFL this year.