For Nate Stupar, every game is like the Super Bowl, like a championship brawl distilled down to a key punt return stop here, a kickoff coverage lane maintained in the right way there.
Not just because the now Atlanta Falcons linebacker and one-time Oakland Raider, Philadelphia Eagle, San Francisco 49er and Jacksonville Jaguar has bounced through five NFL organizations, carried from franchise to franchise by the want to make it, by the need to make it, but because to approach each game, each practice otherwise would be to cheapen the experience, would take away the reckless fun and hard-charging passion of each snap, each play he considers himself fortunate to even take part in as an NFL player.
Stupar, forced to fight and scratch and claw just to earn a space for himself, make a name for himself in the league to this point has now found something of a home in Atlanta with Dan Quinn's Falcons after four NFL seasons, three spent, in part, on various active rosters.
It's a home he knows won't be his forever, but it's one he won't give up without a fight.
"For me, I go week-to-week," Stupar told HNGN recently. "I'm working for each paycheck. I know my spot is never guaranteed. Being with five teams you learn real quick that, 'hey, this can be taken away from you at any moment.' Each day I go out and try to get better and enjoy my time out there, be myself and be Nathan out there and just fly around and have fun."
Stupar may have entered the NFL to little fanfare, but he brought with him football bloodlines that would make even well-known pigskin dynasties like the Mannings and the Matthews' take notice. But coming from a football family didn't increase the pressure he felt to make it in the league - Stupar had already placed that on himself. Still, there's no denying the intrigue that comes with being a prospective NFLer who calls Jeff Hostetler, the former Giants, Raiders and Redskins quarterback who won two Super Bowl championships during his playing career, uncle.
"I got some advice from him and everything and he's excited that I'm doing real well and making a name for myself," Stupar said of Hostetler. "It's nice, my whole family is football, football."
Stupar isn't kidding. Both uncles played at Penn State - Stupar's alma mater - Hostetler started out in Happy Valley, but ultimately transferred to West Virginia where, surprise, surprise, his starting left tackle was another of Stupar's uncles. Stupar's older brother, Jonathan, was a tight end for the Buffalo Bills in the late 2000's.
"It's just ingrained in our family," Stupar says of the impact of the game on his State College, PA-based tribe.
The change from one coaching staff to another, especially for a player for whom little has been assured in the NFL, would concern most.
Not Stupar.
He believed the play he put on tape last year when he collected 10 tackles via special teams, the way he attacked this offseason, that he'd made sure new head coach Dan Quinn wanted him, needed him around, as the former Seattle defensive coordinator looks to turn a good Falcons team into a great one.
"Coach Smith was a great coach, great person and Dan Quinn coming in bringing the energy, the authentic swagger is definitely something that we need and needed and it's been fun watching how he's been building this from the ground up and he's been doing a great job. Last year I thought I played extremely well on special teams and I was blessed enough that they watched tape and signed me back and blessed enough for making the team. Praying that I continue to do that and make an impact on 'teams.'"
Now, set to kickoff the 2015 season against Kelly and the Eagles, Stupar seems unfazed by the revolutionary - or revolutionarily basic - approach Kelly takes to offense, building tempo, creating mesh points in the run and pass game, seeking to exploit any and every tiny opportunity afforded by the defensive alignment.
Instead, he believes it's the Falcons focus on their own game that will allow them to emerge victorious from their early season battle against a Philly team many are now calling Super Bowl contenders.
"We're not doing anything. It's always been about us. We've always practiced hard, fast and physical. That's something that we continue to do day in and day out so, once game time comes it's just like practice. We're not trying to make anything up, we're going out there and being us, going out there and being physical, fast and having fun."
As is suited for a man who views every game like a Super Bowl, Stupar's approach to a given season isn't to focus on the ultimate goal of a Lombardi Trophy. Instead, Stupar and his Falcons teammates keep their eyes and hearts on the here and now. On what is directly in front of them. On a minute, play-to-play basis, where technique - hand, eye placement, footwork, reading keys - is paramount. On the only thing he, and the rest of his Falcons teammates, can really control. Things that will, hopefully, allow them to, as the late, great Vince Lombardi once said, achieve excellence as they chase perfection.
"We just go to play each game, each week and every game is like a Super Bowl," said Stupar. "Every game is just as important as the next. We're not waiting for any big game or anything, we're just going out there being us and taking care of us and it'll all take care of itself."
