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NFL on Thanksgiving Day: Food & Football [Preview]

Football is as much a part of Thanksgiving as turkey and awkward family moments. Unfortunately, the two teams required by the 28^th Amendment to host games on Thanksgiving, the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys, haven’t provided too many memorable match-ups in recent history. But this Thanksgiving, five out of the six teams in action are in the playoff mix, and at least two of the games should be very entertaining.

Photo by guyfromlargo, CC BY-NC 2.0

Let’s take a look at what’s on tap.

Unusual Events: Emma Crawford Festival & Coffin Races

The annual Emma Crawford Festival and Coffin Races in Manitou Springs is certainly one of the oddest celebrations in the country. Held each October in Manitou Springs, Colorado (a small town of about 5,000 outside Colorado Springs), this one-day event honors the passing of the town’s most famous former resident, Emma Crawford.

Emma Crawford was a young woman who came from South Royalston, Massachusetts to Manitou Springs for fresh Rocky Mountain air to help her battle tuberculosis. At age 28, Emma passed away in December 1891 and requested to be buried atop Red Mountain, which overlooks the town. Her body remained in that location until 1912, when the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company did some work on Red Mountain and moved her coffin to the south slope. Unfortunately, rains and other turbulent weather loosened the soil and rocks, resulting in Emma’s coffin sliding down the mountain and onto the main thoroughfare of Manitou Springs.

Photo by Andra DuRee Martin.

Playing Outside the Box: Moneyball

It’s been nearly a decade since the 2002 season, the year that author Michael Lewis wrote about Oakland Athletics’ General Manger Billy Beane and his strategy to find overlooked and undervalued players to fill voids in the A’s low-payroll roster.

The concepts in Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game have become a lightning rod of controversy over the years, setting up a somewhat fictitious battle over the best way to build a ball club, between the traditional method of scouting and more recent statistics-driven analysis.

Round two of this spirited debate has surfaced with the release of the movie version of Moneyball, which focuses on the evolution of Beane’s theories and his motivation for putting them to use.

The Oakland A's playing host to the Toronto Blue Jays on August 20th, 2011. Photo by Joey Pangilinan.

Unusual Events #2: North American Wife Carrying Championship

Yes. You read that title correctly. This means that a. there is a sport called wife carrying and b. it is so popular that North America gets its own championship. True and true. The North American Wife Carrying Championship takes place every fall at idyllic Sunday River Resort in Newry, Maine. This year’s festivities take place on October 8th, with the winner of this event going on to the World Championships in Finland. From there, they will compete for the prize of the wife’s weight in beer. Also true.

Rocco Andreozzi from Bethel, Maine, and Kim Wasco from Farmington, Maine, winning the final heat of the the 11th Annual North American Wife Carrying Championship, which took place on October 9 at Sunday River Ski Resort located in Newry, Maine. Photo courtesy of Sunday River Ski Resort.