I had a startling revelation when I woke up on Monday morning: I realized I did not watch one second of NFL action on Sunday.

I didn’t watch any of the 1 p.m. games. I didn’t watch the 4 p.m. contest. I didn’t watch Sunday Night Football’s epic clash between the Cowboys and Eagles.

I’m a Steelers fan, and since they played on Thursday night, one might assume that this was why I didn’t watch any games on Sunday, but that wasn’t it. It’s not like I’m someone who traditionally only cares about the Steelers and doesn’t pay much attention to the rest of the NFL. No, I love football. I enjoy watching football that doesn’t involve Pittsburgh’s favorite team. One also may assume I was just down in the dumps because Pittsburgh lost its TNF game to the 2-10 Patriots.

But I don’t think that was it, either.

Instead of watching the NFL’s slate of games on Sunday, I cleaned my apartment, particularly my bathroom. After that, I decided to watch Gran Torino, a movie starring the great Clint Eastwood that I can’t believe I waited 15 years to see. I then went to the gym, visited my mom, and came home and watched some tribute shows about the late, great Norman Lear.

Why didn’t I watch any NFL action? It wasn’t intentional. I wasn’t boycotting the league like so many childishly did in 2016, 2017, 2018 and, again, in 2020 (you know who you are).

If I had to pick a reason, maybe it’s oversaturation. I mean, let’s face it, the NFL is just around all the time. In addition to its Sunday slate of games, which can all be seen in some capacity if you have the right television package, MNF has now been expanded to two games (btw, I didn’t watch any MNF action, either). The NFL just played a game the Friday after Thanksgiving for the first time ever. Thursday Night Football has been a constant for a while. The league has traditionally played games on Saturdays in December after the college football regular season ends. That’s a lot of football.

Throw in the offseason, and how the NFL manages to stay in the sports spotlight the entire time, and the league has become as readily accessible as the air we breathe.

But shouldn’t that be a good thing? I don’t know, I tend to believe that absence makes the heart grow fonder. The start of the NFL season used to seem special. Now, it just feels like yet another chapter in a story that never seems to end.

If something is always available to us, we may eventually take for granted that it will be there all the time. If something is always around, we may feel less inclined to go out of our way to see it.

I mean, it’s always going to be there, right? Where’s the urgency? I’ll just catch the next game. And if I don’t watch that game, I’ll tune in for the game after that. You mean I missed them all? Oh well, there will be another game on in a day or so.

This is something that the NFL should think about. I’m someone who considers myself to be a football junkie, or at least I did until recently. I’m nowhere near as enchanted by the game of football as I was even a few years ago. I don’t think it has anything to do with a dip in the quality of play. I feel like the league is still giving its fans a good product. Are the penalties and rules a bit much? Maybe, but they’ve been saying that since I was a kid.

It’s not the increasing player salaries or the increase in ticket prices.

I don’t find today’s athletes to be less relatable than they were years ago. If anything, I can relate to them more thanks to social media.

Then again, maybe social media plays a role. The players are on there all the time. The teams are on there all the time. The fans are on there all the time. Social media is flooded with NFL content. Our television sets are flooded with NFL action. Who doesn’t have an NFL-themed podcast these days?

There’s just so much NFL available to us all the gosh darn time.

Oversaturation is probably going to happen to the NFL eventually. Who’s to say it hasn’t already started?

Sunday was the kind of NFL day I never thought I’d experience.