I love football.

I probably should qualify that — it’s American football I’m infatuated with. The only time I watched the other “football” was when my kids played from the time they were little through high school. I didn’t understand it then, which meant I blamed the referees for lots of calls that were legit.

But I am a definite American football fanatic and I’m pretty knowledgeable about the rules.

It started back when I was little. Every Thanksgiving, we would drive 320 miles to Ohio to visit my mom’s sister and husband, Aunt Bessie and Uncle Art in Lorain, Ohio. Uncle Art was a big fan of the Detroit Lions.

None of the rest of my family were football fans but since I loved Uncle Art so much and I didn’t get to see him too often, I would cuddle up to him during the games. He taught me what each player’s responsibilities were, what the rules were, about the different plays and what the referee signals meant. And I learned some interesting swear words.

At Kelso High School, as a member of the “Lassies” (the female-only booster club whose members earned the right to wear the official gold sweater that had a big blue megaphone and the letter “K” on the front). I would attend all home football games, most home boys basketball games, and a few home wrestling matches. But I never developed the enthusiasm for the other sports like I had for football and that has continued to this day.

During the fall/early winter, Mike and I will often record several college football games on Saturday, two or three pro games on Sunday plus Thursday Night and Monday Night Football. Since the games are recorded and we can fast forward through time outs, half time and commercials, it takes between an hour and a half to two hours to watch a game.

Super Bowl LIX was played Feb. 9. I didn’t really care who won the game. The before-game hype had me hopeful it was going to be a close game, lots of points scored, exciting defense and basically a good format for watching some amazing players in action.

But that didn’t happen.

The Philadelphia Eagles dominated the entire game. And the Kansas City Chiefs looked like they didn’t even belong at that championship game.

Also the Super Bowl is the only game of the season that we watch from start to finish. We didn’t watch the three and a half hour pre-game but we didn’t fast forward through the commercials like we usually do. I mean if a company is paying $8 million for a 30-second ad to promote its product, they should be amazing. Right?

I guess I’m still stuck in the past though — remembering commercials of decades ago — like Doritos, Budweiser, Coke, Nike, ETrade babies, Volkswagen, Snickers and Pepsi — commercials that: 1. Make me think about buying their product; 2. Make me laugh or cry; and maybe most important to me; 3. Understand what they are selling.

This year there were a couple of ads that met my three requirements:

• An alien trying to steal a guy’s Doritos

• The Budweiser pony keg

• The Duracell one where Tom Brady’s batteries had to be replaced

• Best Foods mayo commercial reliving the scene from When Harry Met Sally

• And probably my favorite, Harrison Ford in the Jeep ad

So many of the others, I didn’t have a clue what they were selling or when they did reveal the sponsor, I’d never heard of the company. And there was one that just had a bunch of dots dancing all over the screen that gave me a headache and the one with a fleshy cowboy head that made me nauseous.

Anyway, back to the original idea for writing this column.

The NFL season is over until late spring and I’m very sad. No sports radio talk shows to listen to on my way to and from work. No “Colin Cowherd” or “Around the NFL” podcasts to listen to when I walk. No weekend TV to look forward to.

The first regular season NFL game is Sept. 4, and believe me I’m counting the days down on my work calendar.