{"id":6864,"date":"2021-11-17T09:48:17","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T14:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=6864"},"modified":"2025-08-22T19:05:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T23:05:47","slug":"the-thanksgiving-day-football-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2021\/11\/17\/the-thanksgiving-day-football-game\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thanksgiving Day Football Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

How a backyard football game became an <\/b><\/p>\n

unbreakable tradition<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Football on Thanksgiving is not a novel idea. The NFL has held games on Thanksgiving since 1934. Seeing the Cowboys and Lions play on Thanksgiving is just another thing that makes the holiday. Like the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade, football is engrained into the day itself. For two brothers from rural West Buxton, Maine, football on Thanksgiving is a little bit more than that. Luke Boyd (19) and Jake Boyd (17) have been playing against each other in a game of touch football since 2014. Every year, the same two teams play against each other. Luke is the captain of the Patriots; Jake, the leader of the Broncos. Why those two teams? The answer is simple: those were the only two jerseys the brothers owned. In 2014 for the first game, Luke donned a Tom Brady jersey, while Jake threw on a Tim Tebow Broncos jersey. Seven years later and those team names have stuck.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Luke makes a fingertip catch over his little brother in the second quarter of the 2015 game (Photo by: Emily Boyd)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Luke and Jake have always held Thanksgiving with cousins from far away. This provided a perfect opportunity to have some fun with family they rarely got to see. For the first game in 2014, the weather did not cooperate. It was 19 degrees at kickoff, with 20 mile per hour gusts. They shoveled and snow blew the field the morning of the game. At the time, Luke was only 12, and Jake just 10. Never would they dream that they\u2019d be preparing to play again in 2021 with the same giddy feeling they had as young kids.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jake (left) makes an amazing catch in the 2020 game, as Luke (right) prepares to tackle his brother. (Photo by: Emily Boyd)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt only happens once a year. No matter how old you get, you can get excited for things,\u201d Luke said. \u201cThe anticipation of the game is always exciting.\u201d For one day a year, they can feel like professional athletes, playing in front of their large family and extended friends. Their siblings and cousins help video record and edit to post the full game on YouTube each year. They also spray paint the field to look just like an NFL field. PVC-pipe goal posts and official end-zone pylons are just a few of the staples that the players see every year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The brothers and their relatives held the first two games in Presque Isle. After the game was canceled in 2016, it was moved down to southern Maine, and they painted a much bigger field in Buxton for the 2017 contest. Teams expanded from just a 2 on 2 game in 2015, to 5 on 5 in 2017. Jake Boyd\u2019s Broncos won the first two contests in 2014 and 2015 by scores of 41-13 and 18-9. But since that move to West Buxton, Luke\u2019s Patriots have won ever since. Most recently in 2020, the Patriots won by a very close score of 51-44. Although it may seem lighthearted in nature on the surface, the heart and desire that comes with competition always comes out in the players. Heartbreaking losses can also stick with the players as they have to wait a whole year before they get a chance to redeem themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201c2019 was by far the hardest game I lost,\u201d Jake said. In that particular game, his team fell just a few plays short of mounting a huge comeback and capturing its first win since 2015. \u201cWinning the game definitely matters,\u201d Luke said, but doesn\u2019t credit beating his brother as any sort of extra motivation. \u201cTo be truthfully honest, no, as a brother it\u2019s hard to see them lose. You always want them to win if you\u2019re not.\u201d Jake may have a little bit different opinion, however, \u201cBeating my brother after all these years, that would be poetic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

All players posing for a post-game picture in 2020 (Photo by: Emily Boyd)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sibling rivalry is rampant as Luke and Jake also have another older brother, Zach, who plays for the Patriots. Also, two other brothers, Mitchell and John Havu, have played against each other for the last four years of the contest. The game gets more and more competitive and intense with each passing year. \u201cI enjoy the competition and wish everyone the best. But it\u2019s pretty hard to beat me,\u201d Luke said tongue-in-cheek, as he\u2019s carrying a 4-game winning streak into the 2021 contest. Luke has three MVPs to his name, which accounts for half of all the games that have been played. Jake speculated as to why his brother has had great success in recent years: \u201cLuke definitely knows where to put the ball, and he has a good control over his team.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Beyond the actual football aspect of the game, there is a lot more that is important about it. Luke explained what playing football on Thanksgiving means to him, saying the game really never fully leaves his mind. \u201cIt\u2019s a tradition I think about all year, a great day of memories with close friends and family.\u201d The friends and family aspect of the \u201cThanksgiving Day Football Game,\u201d as it is officially called, draws a parallel to what the holiday truly means overall. \u201cMy mom makes killer apple pie, and I love how everyone spends quality time with those they care about, a chance to slow down and remember what\u2019s important,\u201d Luke said. Jake also chimed in on what\u2019s really important. \u201cIt\u2019s a time to get together in a common ground and make some memories,\u201d Jake said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cEvery year we all agree on one thing. The game must go on. The holiday would feel empty without it,\u201d Jake said. From its humble beginnings in 2014, to what it has grown to be in 2021, the \u201cThanksgiving Day Football Game\u201d<\/span> is a tradition that doesn\u2019t seem to have an end in sight for these brothers.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How a backyard football game became an unbreakable tradition \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Football on Thanksgiving is not a novel idea. The NFL has held games on Thanksgiving since 1934. Seeing the Cowboys and Lions play on Thanksgiving is just another thing that makes the holiday. Like the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade, football is engrained into the day itself. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8229,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6864\/revisions\/8229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}