Every Thanksgiving, millions of Americans celebrate by watching or playing football. In fact, in 2024 the three Thanksgiving football NFL games received a record 141 million combined viewers. Senior Grayson Miller was one of these viewers. Miller said his family always has football playing in the background during Thanksgiving.

“We usually have (football) on the TV after the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, so my family watches it and definitely gets into the game,” Miller said.

Miller added that he views football as part of the quintessential Thanksgiving experience.

“It’s just the stereotypical Thanksgiving thing to do,” he said. “It’s just ingrained in our society that it’s traditional to turn on the game or play a game of football, and my family just likes football.”

Junior Prithvi Srivatsa said he also enjoys watching football on Thanksgiving, although he said he found the tradition to be a bit of a culture shock when he first immigrated to America.

“It was just a cultural shock to me when I first moved to the U.S. in 2015, and I just really like the sport and watch it almost every year. I kind of got my dad into (thanksgiving football), but it’s mainly a solo tradition for me,” he said.

Evan Nance, Colts fan and math teacher, said his family uses football to bond around the holiday season, both through watching professional and local high school football. 

“Just getting together and watching the games, that’s kind of our (family’s) biggest thing to do,” he said. “We’re big Colts fans, but we also are big high school football fans as well. So, this time of year, it’s always fun to keep track of what high schools are doing well.”

Nance added that he never misses a game on Thanksgiving, even though the Colts typically do not play on Thanksgiving. Nance also said he’s excited for the Lions vs. Packers game, as the Lions have improved this year.

“I don’t miss a game, even when the Lions had all those terrible teams for years and years, you know, it was still, ‘okay, we’re gonna watch the Lions. Let’s see how they’re doing,'” Nance said. “And then usually the evening games would hopefully be a good matchup, but the Lions are pretty good now, so I’m excited to see them play this year at Thanksgiving.”

While some families struggle focusing on both cooking and football, Nance said this is not a problem. Nance said because his mother prefers to take charge in the kitchen, the rest of the family is able to unwind and bond while watching football.

“Well, the nice thing about my situation is my mom is a control freak, so she takes care of all the cooking,” Nance said. “All I have to do is wrestle my family up and get them there, and then I can just relax and do pretty much whatever I want then.”

Nance added that even outside of Thanksgiving, late November is a time where he has cultivated a lot of memories from football. 

“We have some friends that live in Denver. They’re huge Broncos fans, and they invited us out to watch Andrew Luck and Peyton Manning play out there (around this time), so that was a good time,” he said.

Miller also has fond memories of football from around this time. He said his family has a tradition of watching the annual Notre Dame vs. Stanford game, which will take place Nov. 29.

“Because my father went to Stanford and our neighbor went to Notre Dame, whenever the Stanford vs. Notre Dame game is on around this time we would get together and watch that,” Miller said.

Overall, Miller said what he enjoys most about football on Thanksgiving is that it brings people together.

“I think sports brings people together,” Miller said. “Even in times of great division like now when the Colts are on, or whatever local team is on, everyone gets together and roots for that one team, which I think is very powerful.”

Nance said he agreed with Miller. He said football can act as a unifying force during the holidays.

“Most of the people that are in my family all cheer for the same teams, so it’s always nice to get together just to get together,” Nance said. “Then having something to root for as well is always really nice and kind of unifying for the family.”