What’s on your Thanksgiving menu?
Not asking about what’s going on the dining room table, but what’s getting tuned in on your TV.
Or what’s happening out in the yard, down at the park, or at the local high school stadium.
Glory for the boys at Calvary, Evangel, Loyola and Parkway, who get to practice Thursday morning tuning up for Friday night state quarterfinal games.
Only the best prep teams are still pulling on the helmets this week.
Most of us, including those players and coaches, will be settling into sofas and easy chairs, or lounging on the living room floor, watching ball during, or more likely after, a big Turkey Day feast.
If we’re restricting the topic to strictly Thursday competition, the football TV offerings are like eating Thanksgiving dinner at your Yankee relatives’ table. Not a lot of choices.
Where we used to have Aggies and Longhorns tangling on Thanksgiving night, the Egg Bowl, and other rivalry games, college football has yielded Turkey Day to the NFL.
The Navy at Memphis game matches two good, not great, teams who are rivals only in conference affiliation. It’s the only college contest listed on Thursday’s TV slate.
The NFL has been playing Thanksgiving games for 105 years. You know Detroit (visited by Green Bay) kicks it off, followed by Dallas at home against East Texan Patrick Mahomes and the KC Chiefs. The night game is the presumed return of Joe Burrow to lead the Bengals against the Ravens – LSU’s 2019 Heisman Trophy winner lit up Baltimore twice last year but might be rusty after missing 11 weeks with turf toe.
Lions games were forever snoozers, until former Saints’ offensive line coach Dan Campbell took charge in the Motor City. For years, Detroit’s game provided time to head outside, choose sides and whether touch or tackle, try to avoid Mrs. Adkins’ big oak tree when running pass routes.
Some people, adults mostly, had traditional games. In Natchitoches, when the Cowboys’ quarterbacks were a fading Danny White and a not-very-good Steve Pelluer 40 years ago, the Turkey Bowl took place in the morning at Turpin Stadium, with future community leaders trying to avoid getting hurt while inevitably being reminded they were football has-beens.
In 1988, the Demons were loading the buses, bound for the airport and their playoff game at Boise State. They couldn’t leave until their coach, Sam Goodwin, finished playing in the Turkey Bowl. Priorities.
Sam won on Thanksgiving and again Saturday against the Broncos.
Those were the days.
This weekend, the Egg Bowl – a.k.a. “Lane’s Rebel Swan Song” in the hearts of LSU fans – is Friday, along with the first Texas-Texas A&M contest since 2011. Georgia and Georgia Tech collide, and our local Fox Sports star, Tim Brando, will have the call for Arizona-Arizona State.
Saturday has a couple spicy state rivalries – the Bayou Classic in New Orleans, where Grambling should stuff Southern but the big battle is the halftime show, and the ULM-ULL clash, which used to be Northeast vs. USL.
There’s Ohio State-Michigan. The Iron Bowl. USC-UCLA, Florida-Florida State, Kentucky-Louisville, Clemson-South Carolina, and Mizzou-Arkansas.
No turkeys there.
Expect LSU to trot out the Wildcat formation against Oklahoma. The Sooners lead the country in sacks, says Ron Higgins, and the Tigers’ inept and injury-riddled offensive line is an imminent threat to the health of Michael Van Buren.
Regardless, LSU fans have high hopes for Saturday. None of them will remember what happens in Norman, if over in Oxford, the Lane Train sets course for Baton Rouge.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com