The Day Backyard Football Died

With Thanksgiving fast-approaching, plans are frantically getting put together. Who's house are we going to? What do I have to bring?

The better question to ask, and the one that dominates the minds of most males (particularly young males) is, Who's team am I on?

For some reason unbeknownst to me, and presumably the rest of the sporting public, Backyard Football played by those over the age of 14 only occurs on Thanksgiving Day. The lingering question, and one I'd bet you just introspectively asked, is why? I know, I know, it doesn't make sense to me either. In fact, it actually makes me mad.

I want to play Backyard Football. Why doesn't it happen? We use to have so much fun. We all did. We've all played. How can 10 random 13 year-olds gather in a field, organize a game and play football for hours, but anyone older than 17 can't?

My best guess: General apathy.

We get older, we get lazy. It suddenly becomes very uncool to run around playing football on a random Wednesday. There are better things to do. When you get to be older some things are more important. Girls, cars and responsibilities always get in the way. As you get older some things get to be more fun than playing football in your neighbors yard. You can go to bars, drive around all night and even go bowling. But, if you ask me, I would prefer a day of Backyard Football to any of the previous three - even in combination.

Turkey Bowl's are a great time. Why not recreate it throughout the year? Abiding by our current social views of pleasure, if something is good mass produce it, distribute it and make a profit off of it. And while that analogy might have fallen short, you get my drift. Backyard Football is fun. Even if you're older. If some is great, more is greater.

Play Backyard Football. Play on Thanksgiving. Play on any day. Get out the old pigskin and kick it old school. No offensive lines. No coaches. No play clocks. No holding penalties. No referees and most importantly, no adults, even if you're legally old enough to be one.