Source: Icon Sportswire / Getty
From Pop Warner to college intramurals and beyond, the love for participating in sports is more than just watch parties and fantasy drafts.
Some dudes are still looking to get a workout in and love the camaraderie (and competitive) aspect of being on teams, which has led to the latest viral moment on social media. After all, who needs HBO’s Hard Knocks when you can watch a bunch of men in 40U football leagues live out their professional athlete dreams?
Apparently, there’s a whole community on TikTok of men around the age of 40 who participate in football leagues and are documenting their season.
The clips made their way to X when user @ElunHatesMe tweeted, “Bra I been watching them 40u football vids all day this the funniest thing ever.”
Suddenly, the floodgates opened, and others began to quote-tweet the post with some of their favorite clips spotted on TikTok.
Even the WAGs (wives and girlfriends) have made an appearance, including one woman doing a day in the life as she brags about her 37U defensive lineman boyfriend, while proudly rocking his jersey. The game does end chaotically, though, as the losing team begins to fight their teammates and ends up getting maced by the police.
Then there’s another clip of a teary-eyed man in a ’90s era bandana —with Marvin Sapp playing in the background— celebrating his team’s third championship in a row.
Other funny clips show players wearing mismatched uniforms, men past their prime getting injured, and others just taking the recreational leagues a bit too seriously with inspirational huddle speeches and media days.
Jokes aside, it is a great way to stay active, make friends and stay close to the sport you love, while hopefully playing a small role in ending the so-called male loneliness epidemic. Still, social media had to get their jokes off.
See some of the funniest moments from the NFL weekend warriors below, as we hope some streaming service picks this up for a reality show.