It's All About How You Prepare
When I was in eleventh grade—coincidentally, the same year the Turkey Bowl began—my history teacher, Mr. Spear—whom I still maintain showed up stoned to school at least once—told me that I would never have as much free time as had in high school. Now that I’ve grown up, I’ve realized just how right he was. I’ve got a fantasy football team to manage and I have to help Sam and Owen manage theirs. I’m in two football pools and have to get my picks in every week. Thursday is trivia night (we won last week!) and don’t even get me started on keeping up with my favorite television shows. I’m also training for a 5K while shuttling my two kids to basketball practice in 4 different basketball leagues.In other words, I’m busy. So busy, apparently, that I didn’t realize until very recently that Thanksgiving has descended upon us yet again. This year it really snuck up on me. I mean, I would swear that just a couple of days ago, it was summer and Thanksgiving was but a dim light on the horizon. Now as I am scrambling to get ready for the big day, I realize that Mr. Spear’s pronouncement was not the advice of a wise sage but a curse. That’s right, I’m blaming my lack of preparation this year on a teacher I had 27 years ago.
But it’s a different story with the kids—they’re ready. Despite my busy schedule, I’ve been able to play a lot of football catch in my side yard—with the kids, of course. I play permanent QB and Sam and Owen alternate on offense, and despite some predictable disagreements and questionable refereeing, there have been some good plays out there. I shouldn’t be surprised, really, because Sam just finished his third year of tackle football, playing on the same team with Jasper Kesin, and Owen acts out every football game he sees on television, in real time—in our living room. And I’ve heard that the Nulty kids have been getting ready for Thursday, too, and I just know that the MacDonald boys have been entertaining their college friends with their own tales of Turkey Bowl glory. I even heard some young Turkey Bowl veterans whispering about secret plays to be used against the grown ups.
I think it’s entirely possible that we may see our first full-blown kids vs. grownups game this year. Hell, we might as well do it now while we have a reasonably good chance of beating them.
(Side note: on the last night football practice before the last game of the season, the coaches on Sam and Jasper’s football team decided to shake things up a bit with a touch football game, parents vs. kids. Including the four coaches, there were a total of six adults playing against a full team of kids, in pads and helmets. The adults won, and I have to say, we were very happy about the outcome. The head coach in particular was positively gleeful about the victory and did nothing to hide it from his son. That competitive nature at least partially explains why he’s the head coach, I guess.)
And if we can’t beat them fair and square on the field, I bet I can come up with a good curse that will haunt them for the rest of their lives, if only to prove that I did learn something in Mr. Spears’ class.
Here’s a video that will help everyone get ready for the big game, Turkey Bowl XXVIII. See you on Thursday at 10:30 a.m.
