November 25th Update

Brothers John (on the left) and Jim (in the middle) and their father on the field before their Thanksgiving Night match-up

Recap of Thanksgiving day NFL Games

For years the standard crop of NFL games has been an early game with the pathetic Lions followed by a late game with the Cowboys that has generally been exciting but can be hit or miss as well. This year however, there were not only two, but three games with compelling storylines. In order:

• The resurgent Lions played the defending Super Bowl champion Packers in a matchup of teams whose record was a combined 17-3. But despite starting off well, the Lions suffered 3 turnovers and were distracted by the amateurish meltdown and subsequent ejection of their best defender, Ndamukong Suh, losing 27-15 (it was 27-8 until the final 15 seconds) as Aaron Rodgers threw for 2 TD's again as he (incredibly) has every game this season.
• The Cowboys played the Miami Dolphins in a game that looked awful 3 weeks ago when the Cowboys were struggling at 3-4 and the Dolphins were winless. But each had won 3 straight coming into this game and the Cowboys were tied for first in the NFC East. The Cowboys didn't wow anyone over with their style of play but in the end managed to position kicker Dan Bailey for a chip shot FG to win 20-19 in the final seconds
• It's only appropriate that the first ever matchup between brothers as head coaches in the NFL happened on a day when so many family members were also with one another. And just like so many families may face off in some sort of uncomfortable competition, the coaches of the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers did so on TV in front of millions. The Ravens set a franchise record sacking 49ers quarterback Alex Smith 9 times en route to a 16-6 victory.

NBA Players Announce 4-Game Charity Tournament

• NBA Stars, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony announced Wednesday a series of four games starting December 1st in Akron Ohio. The tour, that will end on December 10^th in East Rutherford, NJ will be combined with big charity events prior to each matchup.
• James is from Akron and will act as host for the first game. The second game, on Dec 4^th will be in New Orleans, the NBA home of Chris Paul. The third game will be in Chicago on Dec 7^th, the home town of Chris Paul. The fourth game will be the in East Rutherford, NJ. This suburb of New York is the NBA home of Carmelo Anthony.
• This tour, which will raise a lot of money and awareness for each of the star’s charitable causes, is seen by some of the more skeptical viewers of the NBA as a PR stunt to gain public support for the players in their battle against the NBA in their labor negotiations.