Footballentine’s Day- Brooklyn Decker explains new holiday and her Panthers fandom

It seems like one of the biggest critiques against holidays is how corporate they have become. Candy companies made Halloween what it is, flower companies did the same with Valentine’s Day. Well the folks at Visa created a new holiday that sports fans everywhere can get behind, Footballentine’s Day.

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It isn’t necessarily a holiday to praise or pamper the football fan, but rather a holiday for those fans to earn some brownie points with loved ones before getting too entranced in the season. As NFL teams take their fans on a roller coaster ride of emotions, fans will eventually strain relationships with friends, family and loved ones.

What Visa is hoping to do with Footballentine’s Day, is to alleviate that strain before it is created. Visa is helping you send 18 roses to loved ones ahead of the season as a “thank you for putting up with me” before the season even starts.

EDIT: The promotion extended through Monday.

Visa has also partnered up with actress and Carolina Panthers super fan Brooklyn Decker to promote Footballentine’s Day and bring it some much needed awareness. Decker took some time out of her busy schedule to sit down and talk with FanSided about Footballentine’s Day.

Mike Dyce: First explain a bit more about Footballentine’s Day.

Brooklyn Decker: So Visa and the NFL have had a partnership for several years now, and this year they wanted to create a national holiday, because well we can do that nowadays. They created this day called Footballentine’s Day, which is this Saturday, September 6.

The whole idea behind it basically is that average football fans tend to get completely sucked into their teams and the season this time of year. So Footballentine’s Day just to thank your family and friends in advance of the support their going to give you throughout the football season.

So you can go online and register at VisaCheckout.com/Flowers. If you go and register there, Visa will say 18 flowers, 18 roses, on your behalf to any of your family members or friends, a spouse or a child or whatever it may be. Just to say thanks in advance, it is kind of hilarious.

MD: Who would you send flowers to for bearing with you during the season?

BD: I would probably send them to my husband. He is a much bigger sports fan then I am, but I feel like… I have a team, I have the Panthers. He doesn’t have a pro team. He’s from Austin, Texas so he doesn’t have a pro team, I am from North Carolina, I have the Carolina Panthers.

I think he would send me 18 roses for fantasy, you know what I mean? He is so obsessed with fantasy, I think he is in three leagues. I think we would each get 18 flowers for one another, but for different reasons.

MD: Do you play fantasy football?

BD: You know I used to, this is my first season in I think six years not having a team.

But I won, I won my league last season. My friends and I had a team and we won our league, which is a very big deal.

MD: How can you win your league and not play again?

BD: Well we weren’t invited back. We were the only females in our league and I feel like that was a very strategic move on the commissioner’s part.

So, yeah, we weren’t invited back to the league this year, which is fine. I’m not bitter about it at all. This is my first year not doing fantasy.

MD: When you did play fantasy football did you follow the players or your team (the Panthers)?

BD: Mainly my team. Frankly, I think fantasy for me was really fun. I like the draft, I like the first couple of weeks, then after that I’m really focused on the Panthers and I kind of lose track of fantasy.

I’m not the best, which is probably why they kicked me out and why it was miraculous that I won last year. So I wasn’t the best fantasy player, I find that my attention span is just too short for it, to be honest.

MD: So you’re a Panthers fan, was last season exciting or disappointing in the way it ended?

BD: I thought it was incredibly exciting, I thought for the first time we had a really strong season. I think we’re very hopeful.

I’m devastated that we lost Steve Smith because he is a long-time Panther and a favorite of Charlotte and the team. But I think this year we have a really strong team. Cam [Newton] is apparently healthy and practicing and ready to play against Tampa.

I think if anything, it bodes well for us this year. It puts us in a really great spot. Of course it is disappointing we didn’t go all the way but we made a really big leap last year.

MD: Elaborate on your thoughts about Steve Smith leaving this year.

BD: It’s upsetting to me. I understand why they did it, I get it. He is close to the end of his career. The loyalty, I would’ve loved if we kept him.

Cam threw him to the most and clearly there was a really good partnership between the two of them. I’m just a big Steve Smith fan. We’ve seen him go, as a Panther fan, through the ups and downs, so to see him leave was pretty upsetting. I think the whole town was upset by it.

I shouldn’t say town, because it is the North Carolina, South Carolina team but seeing as they’re based in Charlotte and I’m from Charlotte, that’s why I say that.

Yeah, it was upsetting.

MD: What are your predictions for the Panthers in 2014?

BD: I think we have a really strong defense, I think maybe even stronger this year. I’m hoping we do better than last year, I think Cam is maturing. I think coming off surgeries and injuries he is hopefully back to normal.

I feel like, I’m hoping that we’re going to be stronger than last year. I think someone predicted us to go 12 and 4. So I don’t know, I’m hoping better than last year.

I’m saying they’re going to the Super Bowl and going to win, but that’s against my better judgement.

MD: Do you get to go to a lot of games?

BD: You know I haven’t been to a game in a few years actually, it has been a very long time. Actually, I rarely them live. I’m usually catching up online or watching streaming. Very rarely am I sitting in front of my TV watching the game unfortunately.

MD: When you do go to the game do you get to enjoy it as a fan or as a celebrity does it become a circus sometimes?

BD: It is never a circus. When I do go I’m absolutely a fan. When I go I’m just any other football fan, which is nice. But yeah I haven’t been in a while, which is embarrassing to admit, maybe this year.

MD: Do you have a story where maybe your fandom of the Panthers created a situation where you’d need to send flowers to apologize?

BD: I’m friends with plenty of Panthers fans so I’ve never gotten into many scuffles. You know what it was, I would say ’05, the Super Bowl.

I threw a fit when we lost, I was devastated. I was a senior in high school, and obviously it was our first time to a Super Bowl, and I was really devastated. I think in that moment I probably could’ve sent Jake Delhomme [the Panthers quarterback in that Super Bowl] 18 roses as an apology for the things that I said about him to myself watching that game.

That is probably the one time that I’d have to send roses.

MD: Do you think Cam Newton is ready to take a team to a Super Bowl?

BD: Oh I think so, absolutely. Absolutely. People were talking about him during that season too. Obviously it was wishful thinking, but I absolutely think so.

I think the injuries are the biggest question mark right now, but he was named captain again. He is clearly a leader in the eyes of [Panthers head coach Ron] Rivera and the team.

We’ll see how the offense takes off this year, but I do, I think he can take them to the Super Bowl.

MD: Last question, why is it important to raise awareness for Footballentine’s Day?

BD: It’s thanking yourself, your family and friends for all their support. Frankly it buys you a little time for screaming a little too loud at the TV next Sunday, or if you might miss a date night cause your watching a game. It is just good to have the 18 roses in your back pocket.