Plymouth is the very real base of Thanksgiving. Ignore anyone claiming that the first Thanksgiving was in Virginia, which is what they call inconvenient truth
They were the first. We were the first that mattered.
Plymouth is as/more important to Thanksgiving than turkey, pumpkin pie or even football. Football is where we're headed, after this video.
Thanksgiving football has her roots in Massachusetts, with some rivalries going back to the 1800s. We have rivalries that were three decades old by the time someone said, "Arizona should be a state."
A lot has happened since that fateful day in Arizona, such as the development of TV and especially ESPN. ESPN does 24/7/365 sports coverage, and one of those 365 is Thanksgiving.
We have an all-sports TV network which broadcasts on Thanksgiving, a state with the oldest rivalries in the biggest TV sport and the town where Thanksgiving truly began. That town even has two high schools, and they play each other on Thanksgiving.
I should add that there seem to be several ESPNs, as well as a gang of other networks (FOX, NBC, etc...) with all-sports broadcasting.
There is definitely room for the national broadcast of the Plymouth Thanksgiving game.
There are better quality high school football games played in Texas and Florida. Plymouth doesn't produce NFL stars, their stadiums have a cookie-cutter look to them and the best teams in the area are from Duxbury, Scituate and Cohasset.
All of these problems can be solved, and some come pre-solved. There isn't a person alive who would free-associate "Thanksgiving" and "Denton, Texas." Aside from some stubborn Chamber of Commerce people in Virginia, there most likely isn't a person alive who wouldn't free-associate Plymouth with Thanksgiving.
The lower quality football problem would be offset by the parity between Plymouth North and Plymouth South. If the game is compelling, a viewer could ignore the fact that a Florida team would beat both Plymouth teams combined by 75 points.
Shoot, I've been covering sports for 20 years, and have been a fan since I was a toddler. Once you remove the high stakes aspect of a Super Bowl or a World Cup final, the most compelling game that I ever saw- in terms of drama, excitement, near misses and effort- was a 2 OT Duxbury High School girls soccer game in 1986.
Ok, maybe Hagler/Hearns has it beat, but you can see where I'm headed.
Mix all of this together, and it makes sense to televise the Plymouth Thanksgiving game nationally.
Thanksgiving doesn't really have TV power, other than the Macy's parade (which is really a Christmas parade, with the Object being the transport of Santa to Macy's) and that Charlie Brown special where Snoopy serves everyone toast and popcorn. There is no Rudolph or Easter Bunny dominating the telly, especially at 10 in the morning.
If they televise the Plymouth game, and if it became a traditional broadcast event over time, they'd knock off at least some of that problem.
You'd have several traditions mashed into one event. Small town football on Thanksgiving morning, waged in the town that started it all.
There are flaws, but they could be corrected with a bit of imagination.
The stadium would need to be upgraded, perhaps to resemble the Mayflower. That would be a fine way to spend the ESPN money. I would argue for building a new stadium on the Plimoth Plantation grounds.
The bands would need to up their game, although I would stop short of performing Alice's Restaurant.
The schools would need mascot rebranding, with one being the Pilgrims and the other being the most PC version of "Indians" they could come up with.
The cheerleaders should be dressed like this.
Every time they cut to or back from a commercial, the viewer could be treated to a quick video of the local autumnal visuals, like Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower, a cranberry bog, fall foliage, Plimoth Plantation, wild turkeys, Clark's Island, a local farm harvest, the Plymouth Thanksgiving parade or a Wampanoag sunrise celebration.
Boom! We have us a 10 AM Turkey day party, and a new American tradition. If the right people were running Plymouth and ESPN, we'd already be 20 years into this.
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