Happy Thanksgiving

I know we should be expressing gratitude for family and friends, health, jobs, our successful baseball teams, etc.

But I have a gripe today.

I'm sure Christine will disagree, but I don't mind ceding Thanksgiving to football. It's a perfect mix of cold weather, food and vegging out. But why can't they put any decent games on?

Let's look at today's matchups (bear with me, we'll get to a baseball point):

We open with the slaughter of the 0-11 Lions against the 10-1 Titans. The only thing to root for in this one is such a bad game that the NFL finally decides to ditch the tradition that says the Lions have to host a Thanksgiving game.

Next up is the rebounding Cowboys (7-4) against another turkey, the 2-9 Seahawks. I won't mind if I have to miss this one for dinner.

Finally, perhaps the day's most compelling game, the 7-4 Cardinals look to clinch their first division title since before I was born against the 5-5-1 Philadelphia Eagles. OK, this game isn't good either, but it could be must-watch simply to see where the Eagles soap opera devolves to next.

It could get ugly in the stands today. All week, talk radio has been filled with callers saying they will still go to the game, but will wear Phillies garb. One guy said he's going with a bag over his head with "129 days until Opening Day" written on it. If I predicted such sentiment a year ago, I would have been laughed off the Internet.

OK, back to baseball. With such a crappy football lineup, you would think Comcast would have capitalized and moved up its Miracle on Broad Street series. Don't get me wrong, it's a great idea to replay key games - we'll be watching Matt Stairs homer as we wait for Santa on Christmas Eve - but they could have added so many more games to this promotion. How could they leave out Game 3 of the World Series? Who wouldn't watch that over Titans-Lions today?

Anyhoo, enjoy your turkey, and if you're watching football today because there's nothing else on (except the dog show Christine will watch at noon), go with the Titans, Cowboys and Eagles (just a gut feeling that they'll pull it out).