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The Snap October 7, 2018

People around CFL share Thanksgiving traditions

The Canadian Press photo

The Thanksgiving long weekend typically has a couple pillars for anybody celebrating: Quality time spent together with family and a boatload of food.

Regardless of which side of the border they are on, people around the Canadian Football League enjoy the holiday as much as anybody.

For Toronto Argos running back James Wilder Jr., the in-season celebrations are small but important.

“We love to come together and work in the kitchen, cooking together with holiday music blasting to keep it very traditional,” said Wilder, a Tampa, Fla. native. “Me, the wife and the kids we say a big prayer and sit around talk about what we are most thankful for.

“We finish off with a great pie of some sort and (then) the eating hangover kicks in (and) we all pass out,” continued the power back. “Being a football player it’s usually just my wife and children since it’s during the season.”

Stampeders offensive lineman Derek Dennis and his clan connect for a giant feast, in which everybody has a role to play.

“We assign a certain dish to (a) family member to prepare, and get everyone together at whoever’s house we designate as the place of feast,” outlined Dennis, a 336-lb. tank out of Queens, N.Y. “(We) place all the food on a big table and just chow down together and grow as a family.

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“My mother is normally designated to make dessert, so she’ll make like 10 different kinds of cake for everyone,” continued Dennis. “We normally have about 30-50 people at Thanksgiving dinner.”

CFL on TSN analyst Matt Dunigan — a Canadian Football Hall-of-Fame member (2006) — and his family are also big on the dessert angle.

“For me, it’s all about the pumpkin,” laughed Dunigan. “Pumpkin pies, and if they’re not available — it never won’t be, if I’m in charge — then pecan pie.

“Staples. I could cut right to the chase and start with the pies, myself. For me, it’s about these things: Faith, family, football and pie.”

The overall theme of family is what dominates all three men’s respective Thanksgiving experiences.

“It’s a time to give thanks, count your blessing and your health,” continued Dunigan. “We’re very family-oriented, a group of people that often eat together, (and) Thanksgiving’s more of the same.”

BC Lions special teams coordinator Jeff Reinebold, one of the league’s best follows on social media, sent an aloha out to his Canadian followers on Thanksgiving weekend.