Happy Thanksgiving to all you sports fans out there. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone else, but Thanksgiving is a great day to love sports, and we all know why.
Football.
Yes, this is not just a day to give thanks, but a day to watch football during the day on a day that never otherwise has football games.
It makes the turkey and cranberry sauce taste even better when you can eat leftovers while watching a guy get tackled in the back field by a 300-pound lineman.
Wait, is tackling still legal in the NFL?
Either way, it’s great. I love loving sports. It enhances my life, and sometimes I wonder what I would do with my free time if I wasn’t into sports.
I would probably be craftier, and take more time to bake stuff. I know I would browse online more, so for that reason alone, my husband is glad that I like sports.
For this year, I made a list of all the reasons why I am thankful for sports:
* Because Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights are better with football
* My husband and I have more to talk about rather than just “How was your day?”
* My dad has been able to teach me all about the game of baseball, which is what got me started on my career path
* Baseball is awesome
* Watching a team rally — in any sport — is always entertaining
* Barry Bonds
* Trash talking about the Falcons, Tony Romo, Alex Rodriguez, referees, Tom Brady, the Alabama football team, and Les Miles,0 will never get old
* Wayne Gretzky
* LSU
* New Orleans Saints
* New Orleans Pelicans
* The Pelicans’ scary new mascot is not a reason to like sports
*?David Beckham
* My job
* Part of my college was paid for because I played a sport
* Chicks dig the long ball
* Michael Jordan
* My kids can throw a baseball with their mom, not just their dad. And can kick a soccer ball with me as long as I haven’t sprained my ankle playing pick-up basketball
* It brings people together
So, thank you, sports, for all you do in our lives.
And thanks for the football games we are going to watch today with our pumpkin pie.
(Chrissy Smith is Sports Editor of the Slidell Independent, and a former college athlete. She can be reached at chrissycsmith@gmail.com.)