“Turkey Bowl” Football and on year 26 they were trying, but Nobody was hanging with Mr. Cooper today:Defensive battle and no MIA’s/DOA’s

If you had to give out the MVP from today’s Year 26 “Turkey Bowl” game at the Guilford College campus, the MVP, would become the MVC, the “Most Valuable Cooper”…..Scott Cooper that is and he had one heck of a game today at Guilford…

I had challenged the (9-1) Guilford College Quakers football team of 2015 to a game today, but they did not show and I guess they didn’t get the memo…

But, on we went with our Guilford rep Mike Merkel on the scene at 9:55am so we could check in and make our game official with the ODAC, the CIAA, the CIA, the FBI and all of the other regulatory agencies…

Without the excellent assistance of Mike Merkel, we have no game today and on this Thanksgiving Day we all say Thanks to Mike…

Time for that 10am kickoff after we got all of our players organized and this was the best crowd we have ever assembled with the football game being a 9-on-9 play before you dine, life-on- the-line showcase…

Nobody from the News and Record, the Jamestown News, the Northwest Observer, the USA Today, the Pleasant Garden Post or the Guilford Gazette showed to cover our game and no WFMY TV 2, FOX 8, WXII TV 12 or TWC TV 14 found us over there on New Garden Road and from what I could tell, ESPN was on assignment, while Busta Brown and Wyled Coyote were sleeping in this morning….

With all our media outlets out there having breakfast with their families or getting a few extra winks of rest, I decided to take it upon myself and write up the account of our game again this year and to make this a very special 2015 exclusive for GreensboroSports.com….

Well first of all who was there????? Well for those that were expecting Bill Kopald, MayKay Beeler, Rod Davis, Bob Poole, Dusty Dunn, Gary “Boomer” Voncannon, Fred Blackman, Frank Deal, Johnny Phelps, Laura Songster, LeeAnne Petty, Steven Colbert or even Carly Simon and James Taylor, they were not there and also missing were notables such as Joe Buck, Jack Buck and Buck Owens and while trying to elevate ma lack of humor, no lack of respect for those above that we mentioned, that are no longer with us…

I did a sports talk on Thanksgiving Day for 15 years, so laying this out in a heart-felt delivery is no stretch for me….But I can bet that all who were in attendance today will be feeling it tomorrow and they will be wishing that they did more stretching before they hit that Quaker Field at Guilford College today for the “2015 Turkey Bowl”…

Now back to Quaker Tundra and this field is no rice patty or rice crispy and this is not a Field of Oats, but some, like I told you a minute two ago, they were feeling their oats today…

The lineups brought to by Dr. Talley and the Guilford Animal Hospital, my old 24-hour Emergency Clinic from days gone by, and we had:

Team Landry/Noll/Vermeil/Garrett….Scott Cooper, the games MVP/MVC…He looked like Swan, Stallworth, Lipps and Cunningham running up that field for TD’s today…Plus they had Enad Haddad, who took on a Dez Bryant, Don Meredith, Troy Aikman and Lee Roy Jordan/Jethro Pugh/Randy White persona this morning and he was right there, plus Matt who came in with Bernie Kosar-type numbers(on his jersey) and Max who was also bringing back memories of Leroy Kelly, Leroy Hoard, Ernest Byner and the Rutigliano family…You had their big Steeler nose guard/center Mike Webster coming back home to the Carolinas with the two Buckey Twin(Don and Dave) from Pennsylvania and the kid in red, who said he was glad he got out of bed this morning…They stopped somewhere along the way to Guilford Field and picked up Wilbert Montgomery of 2015 and former the Eagle had his running shoes on today….He was wearing the Eagles #20 and not sure if that was Wilbert’s old number or not, but close enough for our files….

Team Lombardi/Cowher/Shanahan/Rivera was not a bad nine either with Grayson Holland, Scott Holland, Kevin Colvin, Chuck Foreman, his son Jamir, Chuck’s brother from California, Doug Brown, Joey Kirkman and Andy D.

Half of the challenge from this game is trying to remember all of the names of the players and who their favorite teams are….

As the report was telling you, we dug in and were ready to begin at 10….

It was a tight game all day long and with 9 men on each side and a total of 18 players on the field it was sort of crowded out there and the ball had a way of finding the ground or the opposition’s hands early in this one…

Dropped passes, interceptions and loose balls, this game was not real pretty, but we had what you go looking for when you only have one BIG GAME a year, a real close battle….

The teams traded scores and Team Lombardi/Rivera went up 2-1, but Team Landry/Garrett tied this game up at 2-2 right before halftime and in real time, that was right around 11:10am…

Team Landry/Garrett controlled the second half as they began to stretch the field and go deep to Scott Cooper and he did not disappoint his loyal following from Chapel Hill and he took his team to the “Top of the Hill” and the 2015 “Turkey Bowl” title….

Cooper kept on going long and he found his way into the end zone at least two or three times on this Thanksgiving Thursday…

Time Warner Cable could be in line to broadcast next year’s game LIVE if we can get all of the details worked out and if CBS does not jump in and offer us more TURKEY…..

The final score of today’s game was 4-3, as in 4 touchdowns to 3 touchdowns and the Landry/Garrett team wins out over the Lombardi/Rivera crew….

But there is much more to say about this game and much more to be thankful for on this November 26, 2015….

Great to be able and walk away healthy after the game was over….Great to see kids like Grayson Holland and Jamir growing up right before our very eyes….In a few years, we will be left to be leading the cheers, as those young players with Grayson, Jamir, Max, the Twins and the kid in Red run on to glory….

Great to see Scott Holland out there and on the field with us today…First game for Scott and he was moving around out there like Mike Tolbert today…Even though Grayson was wearing his #59 Panthers jersey today, he had his Kwann Short pass rush working…Kevin Colvin was jumping around like “Mean” Joe Greene on that defensive line today…

Great to get that new group out there with us with Matt, Max, Steeler Man, Eagles Man, The Twins and the kid in Red…

Great to see Enad Haddad on the football field and he and Mr. Cooper hooked up on several key plays today, plus this is starting to become a tradition for many of our players like Scott, Enad, Grayson, Chuck, Jamir, Doug, Joey, Kevin and others that are now showing up every year…

Great to get back out this year, after missing last year due to rain and the re-sodded wet field at Guilford…

Great to look back to the early roots over at Claxton School and our game back in the day with the Mormons and teammates like Bud, Brother Lindsay, the girl who got her nose broke when I sent a loose forearm upside her head and many more memories from over on Pinedale Road, at Claxton School….Kevin Colvin, Doug Brown and Joey Kirkman were with us during the “Claxton School Era”…Me and Colvin go back to the beginning, 26 years ago….

This has become the most talked about and traditional Thanksgiving Day Football Game in Greensboro, thanks to this web site…

I may do a lot of talking and writing, but I play in this game every year and for that I am thankful….It would be one thing to go out and just move around and still do some of that to get this, so I can still move and write up the post-game account, but I still find myself contributing to the team’s cause and I am thankful for that….Three interceptions today and not a great day’s work, but not a bad morning’s work….

Great to take a football game and make it an event….To me and many others that is the mission…Keep on playing and keep on talking sports and for that I am thankful…

Looking forward to having played today and still being able to get out of bed in the morning and for that I will be thankful….

Hoping to be back out there for “Turkey Bowl” 27 next year/season and for that I will be thankful….

If we could only play or practice football every day, I think we could get better at this and get the hang of this late-life football…To me, that is what makes you get better/improve, you have to do this on a regular basis and by having this game only one day a year and making our playing time 10am-12 NOON, for just one day only, chances are Canton, Ohio will not be calling us any time soon, but we can be Thankful, we are all on our way to the “Turkey Bowl” Hall of Fame….

Line up all of those men we saw out there today and they are true Hall-of-Famers…

Football is a sport that takes time and to get better you have to take your time and keep working at it and today I am Thankful for the chance to do it again tomorrow and the next day and for sure I am already looking forward to Thanksgiving Day 2016….

We thank the Good Lord up above for his blessings and care on this special Thanksgiving Day…..

*****Sure would have loved to win that game today, but there is always 2016, I hope…*****

2 thoughts on ““Turkey Bowl” Football and on year 26 they were trying, but Nobody was hanging with Mr. Cooper today:Defensive battle and no MIA’s/DOA’s

  1. Just another thought…

    There’s a lot to be said for Yards after the Tag…They don’t mean much, but it sure feels good to finish the play after the tag….You know the dream-like running and all those moves…

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