I spent Thanksgiving with my father in Las Vegas. We had our “dinner” at 1 in the afternoon, which I initially thought to be way too early of a starting time. In effect, however, it dovetailed perfectly with the NFL schedule allowing us to see most, if not all of the three games.
The Lions were blown out in the early game but they did us the favour of jumping out to a big lead. True, they gave us false hope of an improbable upset over Bill Belichick and the hated Patriots, but hey, they kept it close until the 4th quarter thereby giving us more joy than we had a right to expect from this ill begotten team.
We were finished with “dinner” by 2:30 which allowed us to repair to the living room for the Dallas-New Orleans contest. By the time we got to it the score was 17-0 Saints leading us to believe we were in for a long afternoon. Not that either of us are Dallas fans — far from it — we just craved a competitive matchup while we digested our food.
Lo and behold the game turned around and Dallas actually went in front 27-23 late in the 4th and had the ball to boot. When Roy Williams caught a breakaway pass late in the period it looked as if they would ice the game, but all of a sudden a defender, Malcolm Jenkins, snatched the ball away from for the turnover. The Saints then drove 89 yards for the go-ahead score. The game was not over, though, and Dallas actually got into position for a tieing 59 yard field goal. The kick had the distance but went wide left. Ballgame.
The announcers couldn’t get over the brilliance of Jenkin’s takeaway. To these amateur eyes, however, it looked like Williams could have covered the ball up more than he did. He has to know that even if he doesn’t score, as long as he keeps possetion, the game is probably over. At worst it would have ended up tied going into overtime, allowing for more Thanksgiving day football!
Full disclosure: We didn’t watch most of the Jets game. The Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster film, Seven Days in May came on TCM and once we flipped to it during a break in the Jets game we couldn’t turn away. It’s a tense, political thriller that seems just as relevant to today as it did in the cold war ’60s.
So there you have it. I heartedly recommend the early Thanksgiving dinner. It is the sports fan’s best friend.
The World According to Keitho 