Are you there, blog? It’s me, Phil Case.

For weeks, I’ve been trying to decide what the topic of my inaugural blog should be. Should it be something topical? Humorous? Personal? All of the above?

Then it dawned on me. The NFL season is officially under way. Nothing creates more national excitement in the world of sports than the beginning of six unadulterated months of America’s favorite pastime.

Being a Detroit Lions fan, though, it is hard to muster the same zeal as the typical football enthusiast. The second or third week of the season usually reminds me that the playoffs are already out of the question and the 17-week period, known to most as the regular season, is really just an excruciatingly long down time before the draft.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the Lions. I spend a ridiculous amount of time reading the blogs of Detroit beat reporters and tracking the progress of developing college talent who will soon don the Honolulu blue and silver. But I think it’s important to convey to you just how painful it is to support this particular franchise.

When most people profess their allegiance to a team in a bar, they are met with verbal taunts, competitive debates, and playful ridicule. When I tell people I’m a Lions fan, I get condolences, confused looks, and, if I’m lucky, a free drink (another “pity on the rocks,” please).

I feel as if I am becoming more of a sports ascetic than a fanatic. I have endured so many painful things in the last 15 years, it is hard to know where to begin. I remember the golden years of the Barry Sanders era coming to an appropriate end in the playoffs when their backup quarterback, Frank Reich, spiked the ball to stop the clock despite the fact that it was fourth down.

I remember when they hired Matt Millen, who would soon be known as the worst general manager in NFL history. I remember when he drafted Joey “Blue Skies” Harrington, whose only real chance to succeed in professional sports would be a concerted effort on his part to lobby the NFL to legalize the bounce pass.

I remember when Millen hired Rod Marinelli to be the new Lions’ head coach although he had never even been a head coach at the high school level. I remember when all of his rhetoric about “staying low” and “pad levels” resulted in the Lions’ laughably-historic 0-16 season.

And yet, I keep watching. My resolute austerity in the realm of sports has rendered me detached and numb to the cruelties of the game that would send more novice fans of the unfortunate into bouts of passionate depression.

Injured franchise quarterback? Sure, let’s see what our new backup has to offer. Recovered onside kick followed by four straight incompletions to end the game? I’m just glad it was close. A touchdown catch is a process that requires two separate acts? Well, that one actually still stings a little bit.

The point is that I keep watching because Murphy’s Law will eventually succumb to the Law of Averages. And when the Lions do return to respectability, or even mediocrity, it will be that much sweeter.