Has the New Playoff System Watered Down Massachusetts Thanksgiving Football?
The final week of November means a few things in Massachusetts: nightmarish traffic, Wednesday night reunions, cranberries, and turkey trots.
It also means the state’s longstanding tradition of Thursday morning high school football.
Thanksgiving football in Massachusetts is a tradition like no other. Across the state, hundreds of young athletes put on their uniforms and take to the field – some for the final time – to play for bragging rights against longtime adversaries.
Other states do indulge in Turkey Day pigskin — some Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania schools hold games — but there are few places in the country where high school football on Thanksgiving is bigger than in the Bay State.
Many of the Thanksgiving football rivalries here involve schools who have logged more than a century of meetings: Boston English and Boston Latin, who first played in 1887, have squared off 127 times. Needham-Wellesley, who first played in 1882, and Malden-Medford, who first met in 1889, have played each other 126 times. And New Bedford and Durfee, who first played on Thanksgiving in 1910, have faced each other a total of 122 times (including non-Thanksgiving matchups), just to name a few (you can check out the Turkey Day records of your town and their rival in this BostonGlobe.com interactive).
Some meetings have been classic nail-biters, such as in 2005, when Needham tied Wellesley, 7-7, with just 3:50 to play in the 118th game, only to have Wellesley march down the field and score the game-winning touchdown with a mere 16 ticks left on the clock.
Some have showcased future pro football stars. When Malden beat Medford in 2003, it was senior Breno Giacomini who had four sacks on defense in Malden’s 7-0 win. Fast-forward to this past February, when that same kid from Malden was hoisting the Lombardi Trophy with his teammates as a starting offensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.
Seahawks tackle Breno Giacomini, formely of Malden, celebrated a touchdown in the Super Bowl with Seattle wide receiver Doug Baldwin.
A few games have represented historic wins: Durfee defeated New Bedford in 2000 for the first time since 1983, while in the process recording their first ever Big Three Conference win in 22 tries. The victory also clinched Durfee’s first MIAA Super Bowl berth, which they would go on to lose to BC High.
Others used the game to cap off a disappointing season on a high note, as in 2007 and 2008, when Boston Latin earned their first – and last – win of each year in their final game against archrival Boston English in Thanksgiving Day victories. It was Latin’s 10th and 11th wins a row against English, a streak they continue until just last season, when English won for the first time since 1997.
The tradition of Turkey Day football in Massachusetts, however, changed last year with the introduction of a new football playoff format, where the regular season is concluded in October, instead of on the fourth Thursday of November.
Some games, formerly hotly contested matchups with playoff implications, have become more exhibition than before. One case was in last year’s games, when Plymouth North and Plymouth South faced off in their 20th Thanksgiving game. North had already been eliminated from the playoffs – by South in the Div. 3 Southeast Finals – so this was their last game of the season, while their opponents were gearing up for their Div. 3 Super Bowl matchup with Tewksbury.
The team that South fielded in the game was their junior varsity squad, while North had their first-teamers out for their final contest of the year and, for the seniors, the final high school football game of their lives.
North easily won the game 39-8, improving their Thanksgiving record against South to 15-5.
“We know what they’re going through,’’ North coach Kevin Cobban told the Globe’s Stephen Sellner after the game. “We know they have bigger fish to fry in a week and a half and we’ll be there rooting them on. We wish them the best.
“I was trying to make every senior have a memorable moment…Catch a pass, score a touchdown, just spread it out and that’s what we did. We can only control us. I take care of these guys.’’
Some teams, however, choose to play the game as they always have in respect of the rivalry. When longtime rivals Mansfield and Foxboro, who had met in 82 Thanksgiving contests, took the field in 2013, Foxboro was playing their season finale after missing the playoffs. Mansfield, on the other hand, had just steamrolled Waltham in the Div. 2 state semifinals and was preparing to face St. John’s of Shrewsbury in the state title game.
“We told our guys if you don’t want to play you can sit it out,’’ Mansfield coach Mike Redding told the Globe’s Michael Scandura after the game. “Everyone wanted to play. This is a big deal for us to play Foxboro.’’
Mansfield beat Foxboro, 14-7, in their annual Thanksgiving game last year.
The decision looked like it would costly for Mansfield’s state title quest, as star wide receiver Brendan Hill injured his knee on the fifth play of the game, and running back Miguel Villar-Perez left after a shoulder injury in the first quarter.
“Those injuries could happen in practice,’’ Redding said. “They could happen in an accident on the way to school. You can’t live your life in a bubble. You have to play hard. We’ve been fortunate all year. We haven’t had many injuries. Today we had a couple.’’
Hill, who suffered a partial tear to his MCL, was forced to sit out of the state championship, while Villar-Perez was able to suit up. Mansfield took down St. John’s, 28-14, in the game, overcoming five turnovers in the first half and scoring 21 straight points after halftime.
Looking back at the first year of the new playoff structure, some believed it has negatively affected the Thanksgiving rivalries, including Holliston coach Todd Kiley. His team played rival Westwood three times in 2013 after playing them in the regular season, in the Div. 4 South semifinals, and on Thanksgiving.
“I’d say there was definitely less of a crowd there on Turkey Day,’’ he told the Globe in January. “I think the Holliston-Westwood rivalry is a spoiled rivalry because [under the old format], the game meant something 90 percent of the time. In my 11 years coaching, I can maybe think of one or two games where it didn’t mean anything…I’d be lying if I said it didn’t take away from the rivalry.’’
The new playoff format – that crowned six MIAA Super Bowl champions, instead of the 19 regional ones from previous years – was agreed to as a two-year trial plan, so the MIAA Football Committee will meet after this season and determine whether or not to keep the playoff system.
So now we head into another round of Thanksgiving games, where 12 teams across the Commonwealth will know that they will play for a state championship just over a week later. Most schools, however, will see their seasons come to a close Thursday morning, one last chance to strap on their helmets and step onto the gridiron with their teammates for the final time this year.
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