Should the Thanksgiving Day Football Games Have Been Rescheduled?

Some schools are getting pushback for moving Thanksgiving Day games.

Thanksgiving Day and high school football has been a Massachusetts tradition since Needham first played Wellesley in 1882. For more than 135 years, boys have been strapping on their shoulder pads—a vast majority of them for the very last time—and playing in front of one of the biggest crowds they'll ever see in high school.

The boys have been dreaming about playing in front of these Thanksgiving Day crowds since they were little Pop Warner players. It's a Thanksgiving Day tradition here in New England. And New Englanders don't adjust well to change.

That's why when school after school started contacting Fun 107 yesterday to announce that their Turkey Day games were going to be moved to tonight, we started hearing rumblings of disapproval.

To be fair, if you are thinking with your head, moving the games makes perfect sense. No one has school tomorrow. The games will be MUCH more comfortable played tonight while temperatures are still in the the 30's. They may sell less hot chocolate at the snack shack, but crowds will be larger, and the players may be a little safer.

If you're thinking with your heart, however, the move might be one with which you disagree. If you're a high school senior playing in your last game you WANT to play on Thanksgiving Day. Even more so if the weather is memorable. Six inches of snow? That would be epic. Temps in the teens? As a kid, it's laughable not to play football because it's a little too cold out and you might be a little uncomfortable.

They were so upset about the decision yesterday in Braintree, that officials were forced to change the game BACK to Thanksgiving!

In the end, this decision is not unlike almost every other decision school administrators face. They're damned if they do, damned if they don't.

The Durfee at New Bedford and Fairhaven at Dartmouth games will go on as originally planned tomorrow.