“No, Not Leon” - A Thanksgiving Memory
WMMM #042 - This week, I share a personal story of Thanksgiving with the family.
Jeff Keplar Newsletter November 18, 2023 10 min read
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.
Motivates us to pause and give thanks for all of our blessings
Signals the start of the Holiday Season
Time for Family
An absence of gift-giving pressure
Nothing but Family, Food, and Football
And, the beginning of watching the classic holiday movies
In Dallas, the weather is fantastic - brilliant fall colors bathed in sunshine
Traditions
Traditions, we have many.
Brining the turkey at least two days in advance
Makes the meat extra moist
Came in handy one year when the pop-up thermometer did not pop up
The turkey was placed in the cooking pan upside down, burying the thermometer
Bacon Explosion, aka Baconater
A side dish a little on the excessive side
Fry up one pound of bacon
Make a square of raw bacon by weaving six pieces by six pieces
Take a one-pound cylinder of Jimmy Dean breakfast pork sausage
Flatten it
Sprinkle BBQ rub, freshly chopped chives, finely shredded cheddar cheese
Place the fried bacon, crunched or cut, on top
Roll the square back into a cylinder
Place toothpicks to hold the rolled concoction together
Sprinkle BBQ rub on the outside (on the raw bacon) of the roll
Drizzle barbecue sauce on the top
Smoke over mesquite for 6 hours
Remove and slice into “hockey pucks.”
Place next to the turkey on your dinner plate.
Turkey Trot
3K Walk/Run, 8-mile Race
When we ran, we began our training in September
Bought our annual pair of new running shoes
50,000 of your closest friends show up every year
A dog lovers’ event
The college kids returning from the journey away from home
Plenty of pics and memories
For many of us, the tradition involved traveling to the in-laws for a considerable period of our lives.
The Friday that follows
Aka, “Black Friday”
In the early years, it was our Touch Football Game
Then, with travel to the in-laws, it mimicked the scene from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation movie classic
The scene takes place the morning after everyone from out of town arrives at the Griswold’s
They pile into a couple of cars and head to the mall to go shopping
Clark gets left behind in the attic
Our “girls” went shopping
The “boys” stayed behind to do “manly things.”
Rollie, my father-in-law, would control the agenda
Pile into his GMC Sierra pickup
Harbor Freight - look at tools
Lowe’s and Home Depot - supplies for DIY chores scheduled for Friday afternoon and Saturday
Gotta take advantage of the sons-in-law in town
Cabella’s - look at hunting stuff
Christmas Cards
The perfect time
Gets you in the holiday spirit
Sadly, the effort to get a family picture, make it into a card, write a note on it to your friends, and mail them.
Was just too much
No one was as enthusiastic about doing this as I was
Picture Clark Griswold’s enthusiasm about what his house will look like after stringing his Christmas lights
And, his mother-in-law quipped: “What a terrible waste of resources..”
That was me with the home-made Christmas cards
My dream was only realized five times in 35 years
Dallas Cowboy football on Thanksgiving Day
This tradition is the source of the personal story I share this week.
Take Us Back to that Place and Time
The year: 1993
The place: the in-laws home, Wichita, KS
The Players: Our son Stuart, four years old (turning 5 in ten days); Rollie, my father-in-law and Stu’s grandfather; and Jim, my brother-in-law and Stu’s uncle
The Landscape: The annual Thanksgiving Day NFL games have always been hosted by the Detroit Lions (first game, kickoff at 11:30a CT) and the Dallas Cowboys (kickoff at 3:30p CT.) (The NFL has recently added a third game at night.)
On this Thanksgiving Day in 1993, the Cowboys are the defending Super Bowl Champions, with six future Hall-of-Famers hosting the Miami Dolphins.
The game is being played in the old Texas Stadium in Irving, TX, replaced by the $1.2B AT&T Stadium in Arlington in 2009.
Unlike AT&T Stadium, football was played outdoors in Texas Stadium, no matter the weather.
But weather was rarely a factor in Dallas at Thanksgiving.
It was usually perfect for football, with high temperatures in the low 60s and lows in the mid-40s.
But on November 25, 1993, it was the coldest Thanksgiving in Dallas ever.
The high that day was only 35 degrees, while the low was 23.
Freezing rain and sleet fell all afternoon.
It was the first football game played at Texas Stadium with wintry precipitation.
If you are a 4-year-old boy, this is must-watch television.
You are at your grandparents’ house.
You brought a few things, but most of your cool stuff is back home in Dallas in your bedroom.
Your team is playing in front of a national audience.
In the snow. C’mon.
You are the only boy of your generation in the family.
You will be eventually outnumbered 7 to 1 by your sisters and cousins.
But in 1993, it’s 4 to 1 as Megan, Hannah, and Alex have yet to come into the world, and you are celebrating Thanksgiving with your sister, Katie, and cousins Kristin, Danielle, and Stefanie.
Stu and I get comfortable in front of a TV in the family room.
Rollie is downstairs loading his own shotgun shells.
Jim has curled up in another room with a copy of Buckmasters magazine.
Rollie does not follow football or any sport that isn’t shooting, fishing, or golfing.
Jim is a New England Patriots fan, but that won’t be obvious to anyone until ten years later.
You see, Tom Brady is a 16-year-old sophomore quarterback at Serra High in San Diego at this moment in history.
Brady won’t join the Patriots until 2001, and they won’t start winning Super Bowls until 2002.
We are told that we are targeting dinner time for around 4:30.
Stu and I think this is a perfect plan.
It should be half-time in this game around 4:30, and we can have our turkey dinner without missing much of the game.
4:30 comes and goes.
The girls don’t appear to have any urgency, and the noise level is rising in and around the kitchen.
They are having a good time.
We ask if there is anything we can do, and they answer: “Sure, set the table. Thanks.”
Stu and I finish with the place settings and extra chairs and return to the family room in time for the second-half kickoff.
The game is fun to watch, and the weather makes playing extremely difficult.
It’s one of the games where you often hear an announcer state: “this game feels like it will be won and lost on a single mistake.”
That comment surely fits this game.
It was close and low-scoring.
We pass 5:00p.
Apparently, at or around 5:15p someone from the kitchen announces that dinner is ready.
With the noise level in the kitchen now at a low roar, neither of us hear that and continue watching the football game.
Suddenly, Rollie appears, apparently finished loading his shells, and turns off the TV.
WTF?
He tells us that we were called to dinner, it’s time to eat, and the TV stays off until after dessert.
We miss the rest of the game, including the now-famous improbable ending.
I am stunned but recover.
It’s his house, his rules.
He doesn’t appreciate the love of following a team and watching them play, especially with your son.
He may also be starving because it’s almost 5:30p and he hasn’t eaten since breakfast.
He could also be responding to another family member who mischaracterized the situation.
“It might be many things,” I tell myself.
But Stu is hurt.
He doesn’t understand.
He will enjoy the meal with his family.
But later that evening, we learn the outcome of the game.
With less than 15 seconds left, the Dolphins were in Cowboy territory and lined up for a game-winning 40-something-yard field goal.
The Cowboys blocked the kick and stole victory from inevitable defeat.
That’s how the announcers call it.
But wait.
A Dallas player touched the ball in the field of play after the kick was blocked.
Not only was the ball touched, but the player and ball slid on the snow into the Dallas end-zone.
Possession was awarded to Miami at the 1-yard line with 3 seconds left on the clock.
The Dolphin kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired and won the game 16-14.
The Dallas player who touched the ball was Leon Lett.
Leon Lett has a reputation for making one of the most humiliating mistakes in pro football history.
It happened only nine months earlier in front of a global audience, estimated to be 133 million, in Super Bowl XXVII.
Leon scooped up a fumble and ran it back 60 yards for what should have been a sure touchdown.
But as Leon neared the Buffalo end-zone, he” showboated” by taking the ball in one hand and “showing it” to fans in attendance as he crossed the goal line.
Don Beebe, a Bills wide receiver, had other ideas as he sprinted the length of the field, hoping to catch Leon and prevent the score.
He caught Leon just as he made his “showboat” move and knocked the ball from his hand out the back of the end-zone for a touchback.
Buffalo was awarded possession of the ball at their 20-yard line, Dallas received zero points as a result of the play, and the video footage of Leon’s mistake has found a place in the NFL’s archives and is still replayed 30 years later.
Leon (and the Cowboys) are fortunate that the play had no impact on the game’s outcome.
Dallas won 52-17, and 4-year-old Stu’s team became world champions, something he will never forget for the rest of his life.
That Thanksgiving evening, as we were learning what we had missed while without access to a TV, we saw a highlight (lowlight): “...wait, not so fast, a Dallas player touched the ball…wait, no, it was Leon Lett…no, no, not Leon.”
As 4-year-old Stu matures and becomes 7-year-old Stu, then 9-year-old Stuart, it becomes apparent that what he remembers about our 1993 Thanksgiving isn’t Leon Lett.
Not being able to watch the Cowboys game that day has left a mark.
Stu is scarred for life (okay, I’m being a little melodramatic.)
But he would bring it up when he and his friends would talk Cowboy football or share family Thanksgiving traditions.
I must confess that I have shamelessly used this incident to bring humor and relief to uncomfortable situations.
In the spirit of “boys will be boys,” Stuart occasionally had behavioral missteps during his journey through elementary school.
And on those occasions when I was summoned to the school, the conversation may or may not have gone like this:
Teacher: Your son is a great kid, but he and Albert were caught roughhousing after the whistle blew, ending recess.
Me: I’m very sorry about that. He’s been doing so well overcoming…I mean, he’s been doing well.
Teacher: Overcoming what? Can you share more?
Me: Stuart has deep psychological scars from an incident that took place when he was four years old.
Teacher: Oh no. What happened?
Me: I smile and tell them the story of Thanksgiving Day 1993. I dumb it down a little and merely say that he was forbidden to watch his beloved Cowboys play while visiting his grandparents on Thanksgiving, and we’ve been dealing with that trauma ever since.
Then I add: “I’m still traumatized by it myself.”
The teachers have always laughed and commented on Stu’s love for his sports teams.
Stuart has always had excellent teachers with a sense of humor, and they were all Cowboys fans.
Today, Stuart is a 34-year-old in-house counsel in the financial services industry.
He is married, they have an 11-month-old son and are expecting their second child in April.
He continues to be a loyal Cowboys fan, still wears his #21 Deion Sanders Cowboy jersey from 1995, and watches the annual Turkey game at our house.
This year will be my grandson’s first Thanksgiving.
I wonder what memories he and Stuart will have 30 years from now.
Thank you for reading,
Jeff
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