Kids Playing Thanksgiving Football Coloring Page PDF

Kids Playing Thanksgiving Football: History & Fun Facts

The Thanksgiving Football Tradition

Organized football games were already being played on Thanksgiving Day in American colleges by the 1870s, decades before the holiday became linked with modern professional football broadcasts. The Detroit Lions began hosting a Thanksgiving Day game in 1934 specifically to draw attention to their struggling franchise, and the tradition proved popular enough that it has continued in Detroit almost every year since, later joined by a second annual game hosted by the Dallas Cowboys starting in 1966.

From Televised Games to Backyard Play

While professional games play on television, many American families use the same afternoon for an informal backyard or park football game among relatives of all ages, often played with simplified or touch-only rules rather than full tackling. This casual version requires no special equipment beyond a football and enough open space, which is part of why it became such an easy Thanksgiving Day tradition to pass between generations.

Throwing and Catching Mechanics

A proper forward pass, like the throw shown in this scene, depends on gripping the football's laces with the fingers spread and releasing it with a spiral spin that keeps the ball stable in flight, a skill that takes practice even for casual players. Catching a football safely means watching the ball all the way into the hands rather than trapping it against the chest too early, a detail young players usually only master after repeated backyard practice sessions like the one pictured here.

Turkey Bowl Games and Family Rivalries

Many extended families give their annual backyard game its own nickname, most commonly some version of a "Turkey Bowl," and keep informal score records or bragging rights from year to year, turning a casual match into a small standing rivalry between cousins, siblings, or generations. Some neighborhoods and family groups have kept the same Turkey Bowl matchup running for decades, with rules, team names, and traditions that get more elaborate the longer the game continues.

Fresh Air Before the Big Meal

A backyard game before or after the Thanksgiving meal also serves a practical purpose beyond tradition: it gets kids and adults outside and moving during a holiday built around a large midday or afternoon meal, when many households would otherwise spend the whole day indoors. Falling leaves scattered across the yard in this scene are a reminder that most Thanksgiving football happens during a narrow window of late-autumn weather, cool enough for active play but before winter weather typically arrives across most of the country. A quick outdoor game also gives kids a chance to burn off energy before sitting still for a long holiday meal.

Football's Growth as an American Sport

American football developed from earlier rugby and soccer-style games played on East Coast college campuses in the 1800s, gradually adopting its own rules around the forward pass, downs, and scoring that separated it from its European cousins. By the time the sport had spread into professional leagues and neighborhood games alike in the twentieth century, it had already become closely tied to autumn itself, since the American football season runs from late summer through the following winter, squarely overlapping the Thanksgiving holiday.