The 2015 NFL season ended when the Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50 on February 7, 2016. Not counting training camp and preseason, we don't get to see real NFL football again until September 8, 2016 when the Broncos and Panthers face off again on Thursday Night Football in Denver. In between, football fans are forced to make do by watching other, less interesting sports and trying to distract themselves from the deep craving that dwells within.

Waiting for the NFL season to start is one of the most excruciating things for any given NFL fan to put up with. Although, as fans, there are plenty of not so fun things that we have to put up during the season. For example, there will always be heartbreaking losses, obnoxious divas, and this immortalized terrible pre game speech from Andy Dalton.

Still, it's worth putting up with all of that to see the best players in the world compete in the sport we love watching so much. In fact, there are plenty of things that we would rather put up with than having to go another day waiting for the NFL season to start. Here's our top 10 list of things less excruciating than waiting for the season to begin.

10) Watching Carson Palmer disintegrate in the playoffs

In fairness, let's go ahead and get the fact that I'm already on record as having enjoyed watching Palmer choke in the NFC Championship out of the way. Now, let's remember that it really sucked watching him collapse in the playoffs when he was in Cincinnati. Personally, I enjoyed watching him collapse in Arizona, but I do genuinely feel bad for the Cardinals fans that had to witness it.

After 13 years in the league, he finally managed to win a playoff game with the Cardinals in 2015. But, it had to be hard for Cardinals fans to watch him throw four interceptions against the Panthers in the NFC Championship game. His poor performance helped lead to a 49-15 beatdown for a team that many thought would represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

Now, Bengals fans and Cardinals fans can find some common ground on griping about Palmer's playoff futility. But, I would still take watching that mess over not having any football to watch at all.

9) Listening to Adam Rank try to be an analyst

Rank actually has a pretty good personality for television. In addition, he was the NFL.com expert fantasy league champion for three years straight. He seems to be pretty good at fantasy football, so it makes sense why he's regularly on NFL Network and NFL.com giving his opinions on all things fantasy football.

But, that seems to be where his expertise ends. Remember when he predicted the Bengals to be 4-12 bad in 2016? That's probably one of the dumbest predictions I've heard in awhile. Is a team featuring talent like Dalton, A.J. Green, Tyler Eifert, Giovani Bernard, Vontaze Burfict, Adam Jones, Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap really going to struggle to win four games?

The worst part is, he made such a terrible prediction during the football offseason, when we didn't have anything to distract us from his inane ramblings. Stick to fantasy football, Adam. But, if you must, try analyzing the game itself during the season when there's something to divert our attention.

Still, we'd rather listen to Rank's bad Bengals opinions than wait another day for football.

8) Arguing with a Saints fan about the origin of the Who Dey/Who Dat chants

The 'Who Dey' chant is a cheesy, overtly 80s abomination that doesn't really seem to mean much of anything. But, it's our cheesy, overtly 80s abomination that doesn't really seem to mean much of anything. It's been a staple in the Bengals community since it first emerged in 1981.

The Saints started using an extremely similar 'Who Dat' chant in 1983 and, although it originated from local vaudeville and jazz shows, the two fan bases just can't seem to agree to disagree on which came first. There doesn't seem to be any end in sight for this particular argument, but it's much less obnoxious when we can watch the Bengals compete against the Saints on the field and decide which chant is superior that way.

7) Watching the Reds in 2016

For Cincinnati baseball fans, it has been an absolutely forgettable season from the hometown Reds. In the offseason, they traded so many of their best players in the interest of hitting the reset button and rebuilding a new team that might one day stand a chance of being legitimately competitive.

As of right now, that's just not the case. The Reds are currently buried at the bottom in the NL Central, six games behind the fourth place Brewers. They field a squad that just doesn't seem to have much of a consistent chance at all, making it it that much more excruciating for Cincinnati fans waiting for the Bengals to start playing again. But, the first month of the NFL season overlaps with baseball season. Watching the Bengals win a few games early in the season should be a fantastic counterbalance to watching the Reds limp into the offseason. As bad as the Reds are, it's easier to watch them than to wait for football to begin again.

6) Trying to pick a quarterback for the Browns

24. That's the total number of players the Browns have tried to start at quarterback since they re-entered the league in 1999 (17 years ago). This year, it's looking like a strong possibility that Robert Griffin III could be No. 25 unless Josh McCown holds down the starting job all season or Austin Davis leapfrogs Griffin on the depth chart.

Picking a quarterback for the Browns at this point is pretty much a crap shoot. Management has grown so impatient with the process that they show no loyalty to anyone and trade away decent semi-proven options like Brian Hoyer in the interest of signing projects like Griffin just for the sake of injecting some life into the team.

Still, if you told me that I could have football right now, but the catch was that I was responsible the Browns' quarterback position, I would take that deal in a heartbeat.

5) A Thanksgiving halftime show from Nickelback

I'll admit, I don't mind Nickelback at all. In certain cases, I actually think their songs are catchy and fun to listen to. But, I can also understand why people have such a vehemently negative reaction to their admittedly lazy sounding music.

That's probably why Lions fans went ballistic when told that Nickelback will be their entertainment for their 2011 Thanksgiving Day game. The reaction was so bad that the band actually stopped playing after one song because there were so many people booing that it was actually audible among the rest of the noise. Come to think of it, that might actually give merit to those petitions Lions fans started to remove Nickelback from the show.

So, yeah, I'd take Nickelback doing another halftime show in order to get football back sooner!

4) Trying to pick a side in Super Bowl XLVII

This might not have been as hard for you as it was for me, but I'm sure that most Bengals fans can at least sympathize with my dilemma in the Super Bowl following the 2012 season. The game featured the division rival Baltimore Ravens and the long time bane of the Bengals' championship hopes, the San Francisco 49ers.

Growing up as a Bengals fan in the 90s, all I knew was that we just had to win a super bowl before the 49ers won another one. After beating us in heartbreaking fashion twice, it only seemed fair. Call me a traitor if you want, but I sided with the Ravens in this game. It wasn't easy. I had to take multiple showers after the fact just to wash the rat bird stench off. But, it was still better than watching the 49ers win their sixth championship and it was MUCH better than not watching any football at all.

3) Arguing with a Ravens fan about Joe Flacco

It's just not an argument that you're going to make any progress on. For years, people have been wondering if Joe Flacco is elite, or just a very well managed system quarterback. When he led the Ravens to a Super Bowl victory in 2012, the argument went from a mild conversation to an insane debate.

Because of the Super Bowl victory, a 10-5 record in the playoffs, and only having missed the playoffs in two of his eight seasons, Ravens fans love to sing Flacco's praises and claim that he is as elite as they come. Some might even go as far as to call him the most clutch quarterback of all time.

Obviously, these are erroneous statements that make no sense in the context of his overall career. This is especially noticeable after an extremely lackluster 2015 season in which he put up 14 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and an 83.1 passer rating in 10 games before losing the rest of his season due to injury. For the most part, he coasts by in the regular season behind a consistently well put together Ravens team and then, admittedly, turns the switch on in the playoffs. But, try explaining that to Ravens fans. It's a fool's errand, but somewhat less awful if you can just sit back and watch Flacco add to his 15:19 touchdown to interception ratio against the Bengals.

2) Getting tackled by Vontaze Burfict

Burfict hits hard. You probably didn't need me to tell you that, but it's the truth and a fact that guys like Antonio Brown, Ben Roethlisberger, Le'Veon Bell and Maxx Williams know very well. If you have the unfortunate task of being set up against the dynamic Bengals linebacker, chances are you're going to feel the pain on multiple occasions throughout the game.

But, the excruciating wait for the beginning of football season is so long and draining that taking a hit from Burfict to go ahead and get football season started seems like an easy trade. In fact, he probably can't wait to get back onto the field and start hitting people hard either, so you wouldn't have any trouble convincing him to partake.

1) Being a Bengals fan in the 90s

Growing up as a Bengals fan in the 90s was tough. As a fan who was born in the same year that Mike Brown fired Sam Wyche, traded Boomer Esiason, and drafted David Klingler, I just kind of thought that the Bengals were supposed to be perpetually bad and that's always the way things were going to be. My dad and I had season tickets and went to nearly every home game with the attitude that we were going to cheer our team on regardless of how much of a chance they actually had.

But, at least there was still football to be watched. The Bengals might have been disgustingly awful for a long period of time, but it was better than nothing. Every once in a while a player like Jeff Blake, Carl Pickens, or Corey Dillon would come along and give the fans something to cheer about, distracting them from an otherwise depressing existence. But, even now knowing that they actually can be better than the product that was presented to us in the 'lost decade', it would still be a refreshing change from waiting around for the football season to begin.