Stephen Tsai: A break is needed after a stressful NFL season

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We love the NFL.

We love our favorite teams, our favorite players.

We love Lamar Jackson on the move, Josh Allen in a groove, Tony Romo on the telecast, the Kelce brothers on the podcast …

And even if we love to hate them, as the PSY 100 professor explained, the opposite of love is not hate but apathy. And few are apathetic about the NFL.

We also love to bet on NFL games. Over/under, against the spread, length of Reba McEntire’s rendition of the national anthem, whether Justin Bieber will appear at halftime …

And the NFL loves us back, providing a bonus ending with 14 minutes, 57 seconds of extra play in the the Super Bowl.

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If you backed the Chiefs, you were happy. If you rooted for the 49ers, the officiating was juiced, and that’s the best sort of consolation. “We didn’t lose, the game was taken from us.”

And that should be that. The last NFL game? It was fun, but we’ll touch base again after the NBA Finals.

That’s how it felt through a few years ago, when the Pro Bowl was played a week after the Super Bowl. It was one last chance for fans to get pro football out of their system. Pro Bowlers from the Super Bowl would arrive in town on a Tuesday, pose for photographer Pipi Wakayama’s group shot, then show up for the game before putting the NFL’s season to bed.

But then the Pro Bowl was moved to the Sunday between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. After much carping that the Pro Bowl’s lack of hard hits resembled a flag-football game, the event was re-branded as the Pro Bowl Games featuring … a flag-football game. That also was supposed to mean the NFL would go on hiatus after the Super Bowl.

But this is the NFL, an uku-billion-dollar industry that keeps you hooked until the start of training camp. The NFL Scouting Combine. Pro days. Free-agency period. The NFL Draft. Kevin Costner’s “Draft Day” re-viewing. Draft pools. Undrafted free agents. Mini camps. OTAs. Voluntary workouts. All of which are tolerable — maybe welcomed — because something needs to be discussed on talk shows and in beer-and-wings bars.

But next month, the United Football League makes its debut. The hype begins this week with the announcement of a UFL rule book, website, football design and online merch shop. The merger of two failed spring leagues — XFL and UFL — is intended to fill the gap in the NFL’s offseason. But is a pro football league in the spring necessary? Not all gaps need to be filled. Just ask Michael Strahan and Madonna.

The UFL won’t come close to matching the NFL’s reach. None of the eight franchises are in the Mountain or Pacific time zones. There is a team based in Washington, D.C., but the rest are in the South, Southwest and Midwest.

The debut is on March 30, the same weekend as the NCAA basketball tournament’s Elite Eight round. With the NFL Draft in late April, none of last season’s top college players will play for the UFL this year.

Even bettors might not have widespread interest, not even folks who get the shakes when they can’t get a line on a Division II game.

But whether the UFL offers exciting entertainment, the point is, sometimes there just needs to be a break. We love the McRib sandwiches and Harry &David pears, but the demands for them are heightened because of their seasonal availability.

Some things are worth the wait … and the break.