This season, the Premier League's US Instagram account, @PLinUSA, has been highlighting the passionate, diverse PL fandom from coast to coast in the series Premier League passion in the US: Fans' stories.
Meet Noah, a Dallas doctor whose love for Southampton has helped him through a tough year on the job.
Noah
"We're working 80+ hours a week. It's just gruelling days and a lot of 24-hour shifts.
"When I do get off and get home, there is a need to really decompress, to forget about all the chaos that you've seen. It's nice to know that I can turn on the TV and watch my favorite soccer team, a world away, doing what they do best and providing optimism and energy and excitement for people around the world.
"I really came to love Southampton during their years outside the top flight. In their first year back in the Premier League, I was just loving watching this scrappy club that had embedded itself with youth, and I loved that their focus was not on buying the best players, but cultivating the best players.
"I’m an OBGYN resident, so I deliver babies, do gynecological care and surgery. It always comes with good and bad stories. You can easily take that home with you. COVID has only made that even worse. Having Southampton and the Premier League, it's just nice to have something to really draw your mind away sometimes.
"I have a lot of long, 24-hour shifts where you're sitting in labor delivery - you're working pretty hard. But there's mild downtime where you're just waiting for the baby, and it's nice to turn on the Premier League to catch up on the highlights of the game and tinker with my fantasy team while I'm not on clinical duties.
"I've got a Southampton pullover and two different track jackets, and pretty much every day I'm wearing one of them. I’ve got to support my club.
"Whenever I go into a room, moms and dads, they'll ask about it, and I love to talk about Southampton and why I love them.
"The other day, I had a patient who was born in Birmingham and her husband was a big Manchester United fan. We got a little rivalry going in the room throughout the labor course, and we both joked that I was worried about the environment their baby was going to be in, being raised a Man Utd fan.
"It ultimately does give me something to look forward to and something to draw you outside of the gruelling nature of medicine and work in this time of COVID."
