Full and thankful for it

It’s a good thing Thanksgiving only comes once a year.  Not for turkey-related reasons either.  I know we are all thankful a couple of days later when the tryptophan has worn off, but let’s face it… we love to eat the bird.  We romanticize and conceptualize ways to prepare that bird, but really it’s all about the supporting cast.   The extras.  The things that go with it.

Right now you’re saying stuffing.  You’re whispering mashed potatoes and gravy.  Yams.  Carrots, green beans and corn casserole.  Those warm buttered rolls and cornbread.  You love to top it all off with pumpkin, cherry or pecan pies.  But that’s not the side dish I’m having trouble with curbing.  It’s football, my friends.

Aaahh… the pig.  That glorious pig.  Not ham (although I love a good ham.)  That brown, torpedo shaped air-filled ball that has become a national symbol since it’s inception of an actual game piece made of a real pork belly.  The pigskin.  The football.  The very object that the entire game was named after that has now imbedded itself as official grounds for divorce… and that’s the women leaving the men.  Heck, with high-def television and in-depth interviews on these players the women have gotten in on the act – and who could blame them?  That is how big the pig has become.

I can recall this a little more clearly now that Thanksgiving weekend is several days behind.   I know, as we all do, that the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys play home games on Thanksgiving Day as a tradition.  Side note:  I’m for both of those teams losing that.  Detroit is a perennial loser and Dallas fans… well, they simply don’t deserve to have their dinner ruined any longer.  The night game, which has been added in recent years, if for no other reason than gluttony, was an embarrassment for the media’s favorite team… the overrated New York Jets.  Please do not let Tom Brady and the Patriots play on Thanksgiving anymore.  Brady plays too good in these games and he hates turkey legs. 

That’s just day one though folks!  The best football on the landscape began Friday with the CFA.  Sneaky good college contests from morning until night.  Nothing beats

Arkansas trying to muster a comeback on LSU and Utah getting a coach fired with a high scoring victory against fellow PAC 12 newby Colorado.  Throw in four or five visits to the kitchen for microwaved turkey and stuffing and you have officially entered the glutton bowl.  Do they have that?

Saturday morning I was facing the doghouse… not in it, but facing it.  Despite my bloated midsection, I was instructed to put Christmas lights on the house.  This would definitely mess up my game plan, but like any good offensive coordinator, I made early morning adjustments.   That allowed me to get it on the end of Michigan/Ohio State and move on to Utah State, BYU, South Carolina, Stanford and eventually Notre Dame versus USC.  At this point, if football was a drug I would be dead or in rehab with little chance to recuperate.

Sunday of course was the NFL.  Day four.  Hello, my name is Kenny and I’m a footballholic.  Once my fantasy teams were set, I was ready to watch the action unfold.  No Jets, no Cowboys, only Broncos and 49’ers… but those games turned out to be pretty decent.  I’m not even sure if it would have made a difference.  You see, anything in a helmet would have worked.  As a matter of fact, the Canadian Football League crowned it’s champion in the 100^th playing of the Grey Cup on this very day.  I didn’t watch, but by damn, I was aware of it.  Take that hockey fans!

Okay, so now I’m full.  Everyone says that at the dinner table when the food has been aplenty and the company has been heartwarming.  Family, friends and of course that goofy bird are what Thanksgiving is all about.  But after I come to… Monday morning, and it’s time to return to work and normal life… I can’t help but be thankful for many, many things.  My wife.  My kids.  My home and even all the bills that strangle me daily… I am thankful for football.  How else could I possibly spend four days away from the routine?  Thanksgiving 2012 has passed.  I am full and thankful for it.