HANDS OFF THANKSGIVING DAY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAME TRADITIONS in NEW JERSEY

148 New Jersey high school football teams played during the 2010 Thanksgiving Day/holiday period.

These 74 games represent approximately 25% of school districts statewide in 19 counties with tens of thousands attending consisting of student-athletes, cheerleaders, marching band performers, students, alumni, families and local residents who gather together on this national holiday.

Certain teams have established annual rivalries since 1906!

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association,
("NJSIAA"), is strongly considering plans for adoption of legislation to expand its state football tournament playoff schedule to crown a single champion in each of the four public Groups (I, II, III, IV).

These plans would require scheduling additional calendar periods allowing more teams to be bracketed.

To accomplish this near term goal (2013) certain conversations, discussions, schemes and proposals have included the elimination, unilaterally, of any and all existing Thanksgiving Day or holiday football games.

What's the explanation for terminating these games and traditions?

Thanksgiving Day games occupy a strategic calendar period that could be used to schedule state playoff games.

For some Thanksgiving Day games and traditions are "old-school", passe and meaningless. Thanksgiving Day games are an obstacle to those who seek to "modernize" and monetize interscholastic athletics.

But at what cost?

Thanksgiving Day high school football for many schools and communities is a prized cultural asset, providing an identity and a beloved element of the local quality of life.

Traditions should not and can not be trampled, dismantled or legislated into extinction by outsiders who have neither the respect, appreciation or sensitivity for these 148 distinct communities.

Thanksgiving Day high school football should not fall victim to the greed, administrative arrogance and egos of those who need to expand playoff calendar brackets.