Special Events 101

Turkey and Football: American Favorites

Football is a great American tradition, but it’s also become a staple of many families’ holiday seasons, almost synonymous with the Thanksgiving holiday. If you ask an American what they plan to do for Thanksgiving, they’re likely to mention turkey and football—playing in the backyard, watching after the meal, or both.

Just as the beginning of football season becomes a staple of the back-to-school excitement, watching the game is part of the thrill of the Thanksgiving holiday. Even though we’re all watching different games as we gather on different days in different regions, the sentiment is the same—gathering with family members and friends we love for a special day and gathering together as fans to root for our team on their special day. Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and celebration—and nothing could go better with a good game of football.

Ohio State and Michigan State Fans spend the whole year trash talking each other and getting pumped up in preparation for the big game the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The rivalry can get pretty serious, but even diehard fans aren’t beyond using the game as a way to help others—Michigan State University and Ohio State University host a blood drive in conjunction with The American Red Cross every year called the “Blood Battle” where Michigan students face off with Buckeyes to see which campus can donate the most blood to the Red Cross blood bank.

So, whether it’s bringing families together to watch the big game or inspiring loyal students to donate blood, Thanksgiving is a great time of year for football to remind us of the most important things in life. Not a fan of the game? That’s okay… just enjoy the mashed potatoes and bask in the team spirit that everyone else carries around this time of year… but be careful, fan fever is awfully contagious!

Why does Cleveland stay loyal to the Browns? That’s a question for the ages, but the simple answer might be that they remember the way the Browns used to play and continue to hope for a triumphant return of the Browns in a stunning winning streak like the team enjoyed back in the middle of the 1900’s. It would seem a long lost history, but to Browns fans, it’s worth clinging to. Apparently.

Cleveland loves the Browns so much that in the late 90’s the city shut down other publicly financed programs in the arts in order to fund the building of an entirely new stadium, now known as the Cleveland Browns Stadium, with an expanded “Dawg Pound” section (the bleachers where the most rabid—pardon the pun—fans cheer for their team, not matter how pitiful the performance is) and a claim that the new stadium would grow the city’s economy and send the team skyrocketing to success.

Which never happened, but that’s okay.

This season, the team has enjoyed only three wins out of their nine games, but the fans keep coming. Why? Because Cleveland is fiercely loyal to their team. If anything saves the Browns, it will be the fan power propelling them toward just a few more touchdowns per game.

There’s a video that’s been circulating that really drive home the entire relationship Clevelanders have with their team. In this clip, Clevelander Mike Polk delivers the most viral sports-comedy monologue of the season.

Do you agree? Is the Browns Stadium a “factory of sadness?”