Every family has their own Thanksgiving traditions, be it a large feast on a long table filled with enough turkey and stuffing to sustain a small village for days, an early morning game of football or a casual gathering around the TV to watch your family’s favorite team duke it out with this year’s rival. But one universal theme rings true for every household: Thanksgiving is about spending time with family.
Many students who leave home in late August to move onto a college campus don’t reunite with their families again until Thanksgiving break, considering how expensive travel can be and how busy the average college student’s schedule is. Yet, due to scheduling conflicts, football players and members of their accompanying marching bands aren’t given the same opportunity to travel home for Thanksgiving and feast with their families because they are forced to play on the holiday.
Of course, nothing says “family bonding” quite like wearing matching jerseys and watching your school or your parents’ alma mater destroy a regional rival, particularly if it’s a shared fandom. But while everyone else gets the privilege to root for their teams from the comfort of their living rooms with their families as they guzzle down apple pie and sweet potato casserole, the players have to spend the holiday separated from their families, or families of the players and their marching bands have to end family traditions, rearrange plans and, if they can afford to, travel to the location of the game. It’s inhumane that these young adults, sometimes as young as 18, aren’t offered the same opportunities to take a break and catch up with loved ones because their peers want to watch the games from home on Thanksgiving for entertainment purposes.
My brother has been a member of the University of Central Florida’s Marching Knights for the past two years, and for the past two years, my family hasn’t been able to celebrate Thanksgiving with our extended family members ― family members whom I usually only get to see on Thanksgiving. Instead, we have to pack our bags every year and create a makeshift Thanksgiving meal from a cramped hotel room once the game is over. Comparatively speaking, my family has it pretty easy. Orlando is a short three-hour drive away from home, but, unfortunately for others, including my brother’s roommate, a Marching Knight from Chicago whom we adopt every Thanksgiving, the trip to campus isn’t always affordable or easily accessible.
Granted, professional football players are also forced to play on Thanksgiving, but at least they are paid to do so. College football players and their supporting bands receive no financial compensation for sacrificing their holiday.
So this Thanksgiving, when you all are sitting at the table with your family, listing all of the things that you are grateful for, don’t forget to mention family and tradition, in reference to those who don’t have the same opportunity to spend the holiday with their families or have to give up traditions for the sake of everyone else’s desire for entertainment.
