On Monday, the nation will celebrate the winner, the side that overcame all challenges and opponents, doubters and haters to reach the pinnacle of success.

I’m talking about the college football national champion, Notre Dame or The Ohio State.

Sure, sure. President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office at the U.S. Capitol shortly after noon. There will be a parade and a protest.

But Vice President-elect JD Vance is making jokes about skipping it for the title game in Atlanta. I think he’s joking.

Did I mention Monday is a federal holiday? Lots of us will have the day off to honor the achievements of civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King, Jr. I’m getting an award Wednesday night for my contributions as a journalist, courtesy of the Martin Luther King Jr. Committee of Maryland. Thanks!

We’ll be talking about King’s legacy at the dawn of the second Trump administration. Someone is bound to bring up football, and that might be more pleasant.

Between the college football championship and the NFL playoffs heading juke step to their crescendos, it’s hard to be anywhere in public right now and not have football on a TV, a phone or your lips.

We have reached the football singularity, Maryland. It’s the moment when this sport seems infinite.

Remember when college games were on Saturdays, the pros on Sunday? Simpler times. It has been a lifetime since the NFL expanded to Monday night, then Thursday night and occasionally other days.

We have reached the football singularity, Maryland. It’s the moment when this sport seems infinite.

Now, college games have spread out to Fridays, and who knows what’s next?

Even Carlos Del Toro, the secretary of the Navy, couldn’t resist. During two ship-naming ceremonies Friday in Annapolis, he pointed out that his Naval Academy classmate, retired Vice Adm. Sean Buck, couldn’t get a winning season during much of his four years as superintendent.

The Mids recently beat Army and Air Force to claim the Commander in Chief’s Trophy. And, on top of that, they slipped past the University of Oklahoma in the Armed Forces Bowl.

“I love you Sean, but you didn’t give me the record she did,” Del Toro said to Buck, nodding toward his successor, Vice Adm. Yvette Davids.

Annapolis once was a Washington football town. When the team beat the Buffalo Bills about 33 years ago in Super Bowl XXVI, my wife and I were in Georgetown for the celebration.

Dylan Behler grew up a Washington fan in southern Anne Arundel County, suffering through 24 seasons under Dan Snyder — 10 coaches and 27 quarterbacks — and living through the overdue name change from Redskins to Commanders.

Winning is hard to argue with, and the Baltimore Ravens have been a better team for a long time. Both teams are advancing to the second round of the playoffs, a first for Washington in some time.

“I know it’s a cop-out,” said Behler, who went to the Ravens game Saturday. “I root for them for both.”

Spoken like a true politician. Behler is a candidate for the vacant District 30A seat in the Maryland House. So is Alderman Brooks Schandelmeier.

He sees Annapolis as a Ravens town, too, but suspects it’s more about the dominance of the Baltimore media market than fan preference.

“I’ve always considered them in two different lanes, able to peacefully coexist,” he said.

That is important. The Ravens game against the Steelers was on at his house Saturday, but he didn’t do a lot of cheering when Baltimore won — his wife, Chelsea, is a Pittsburgh fan.

“My wife was a little more interested,” he said “Happy spouse, happy house.”

Gov. Wes Moore is a Ravens fan. When the two teams played in October, he was at M&T Bank Stadium as the team’s honorary captain. The Ravens won.

But he was also at a Commanders-Cowboys game in recent months, and talked about “our team.”

His interest in “Maryland’s other team” — he’s called it that, too — has more to do with Northwest Stadium, the Commanders’ unloved home in Landover.

Moore has been saying for a year that Maryland can compete for the team as it hunts for a new stadium deal. His real interest seems to be in extracting concessions so Maryland isn’t left with an albatross when the team inevitably moves back to D.C.

So far, the Commanders have reportedly agreed to redevelop the site if they leave. The District sweetened the deal by agreeing to shift one of its Air National Guard wings to Maryland control just as Congress cleared the way for the city to redevelop the RFK stadium site.

The bargaining will head into the off-season unresolved, a reminder that stadiums are a different sort of game.

If you aren’t a football fan, you can follow along or step aside. Fans will be fans, no matter what you do.

At least for a while longer.

My friend — his Ohio State jersey and tam o’shanter marking him as The Buckeye in the bar Friday night — will recover after Monday’s championship. I hope it’s from the celebration.

The NFL marches on until Feb. 9, when Super Bowl LIX arrives in a New Orleans mourning the deadly New Year’s Day terror attack on Bourbon Street.

If it’s Baltimore vs. Washington, Maryland may never recover.

Then, pop. The singularity will be gone. We all go on with our other obsessions.

It’s 54 days until the St. Patrick’s Parade returns to Annapolis. March Madness starts in 61.