Before my three children came on the scene and brought a mountain-sized pile of toys with them, my Christmas Day afternoons would be spent desperately trying to find something to watch on the television. It usually turned into a choice between or doing the washing up.
While I have always enjoyed the antics of Dorothy, the Tin Man and Toto, the washing up was usually the clear winner.
Our friends in America will have no such worries after their big celebratory Thanksgiving Day lunch on Thursday. Stuffed full of turkey and all the trimmings, they will be able to slump on the sofa and watch more than nine hours of live NFL action as the Detroit Lions take on the Green Bay Packers, the Dallas Cowboys welcome the Oakland Raiders and the New York Giants visit the Denver Broncos.
And while the Lions are not exactly among the NFL's elite clubs at the moment - they have just two wins to their name - they did play a major role in a tradition that has become a massive part of the special day in the United States.
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When he watched the week 11 action unfold on Sunday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell must have been a happy man.
, international interest continues to grow, and even games featuring bad teams like the are turning into high-scoring thrillers.
Exciting games, breathtaking examples of athletic ability and a wide open race to the Super Bowl continue to make the NFL one of the most compelling sports leagues in the world.
But there is one thorny issue that won't go away and it is something the league - led by Goodell - is tackling head on.
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With seven weeks of the 2009 NFL regular season remaining, we are reaching the stage where teams that are struggling begin to think that enough is enough and start to kick their head coaches out of the door.
The , who was decidedly awful while leading the Buffalo Bills to three wins in their first nine games.
I've never really understood the benefit of getting rid of a head coach in mid-season, particularly when you go with an interim replacement who is basically keeping the seat warm for a bigger name to take charge in the off-season.
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I was in Green Bay over the weekend with ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 5 live sports extra - as part of the first ever British commentary team to broadcast live from the US - to witness the hometown at Lambeau Field.
And from the moment I arrived in the , I knew I was in a special place rich in American football history.
When I landed in Chicago on Saturday night it felt like a normal American city with lots of different things going on and people coming and going for a variety of reasons.
But as soon as I boarded the plane for the short hop north, there was only one reason to be heading into the place they call Titletown USA (courtesy of the team's 12 NFL championships): the .
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I'm off to Green Bay this weekend as
On a personal note, to be part of the first British broadcasting team to cover a live regular season game in the United States on the radio in the UK is a real thrill. It is going to be an absolute blast and as someone who is still relatively new to broadcasting, I feel very privileged to be involved.
I won't turn this into a 'Neil looks forward to his busman's holiday' column but I will just say I am very excited. Green Bay is a special place and a city that is pretty unique in world sport. For a start, it is tiny. It is more of a town than a city with a population of just 100,000. In UK terms, that would see Green Bay dwarfed by the likes of Slough and Stockport. And being an industrial city, it is not much to look at.
The Packers, who have played in the NFL since the inaugural 1920 season and won 12 league championships, are pretty unique themselves. They are the only publicly-owned team in American sport. The fans own the team. but on a much grander scale.
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Look out, rest of the NFL - here come the defending champions.
Seven months after they , the Pittsburgh Steelers made a slow start to the 2009 season, dropping two of their first three against Chicago and Cincinnati. Then they quietly moved back into the playoff picture with wins over San Diego, Detroit and Cleveland.
But what they have done over the past two games - in defeating the Minnesota Vikings and Denver Broncos - means the Steelers are no longer going to sneak up on the rest of the league.
They are rightly back in the mix as genuine Super Bowl contenders.
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Earlier this season I wrote a blog about how Reggie Bush was little more than a luxury bit-part player for the New Orleans Saints. It was an easy article to write because I don't really know Reggie that well (although I did spend some time with him when he was in the UK in 2008) and while I can appreciate his athletic skills, he is not someone I tune in to watch every weekend.
This week, my editor asked me to look at the declining form of San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson. And this is a much tougher article to write because it focuses on one of my favourite players and favourite people in the NFL.
Tomlinson stands for everything that is good about the NFL. He has been a tremendous athlete over the years, is a wonderful role model and is a down-to-earth, all-round nice guy.
I spent quite a bit of time with him during the summer of 2008 when he was in the UK and again when the
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I don't think we'll ever truly know if Brett Favre was forced into his But it is clear that when Favre announced he would return to the playing field later that same year he was no longer wanted by the Packers.
General manager Ted Thompson made it clear that Aaron Rodgers was his quarterback and it was time to begin a new era at Lambeau Field after 16 seasons under Favre's control.
Favre went on to play for the New York Jets in 2008 before retiring again this past off-season. Of course, we have since discovered the itch to play in the NFL remained and Favre joined the Minnesota Vikings in August.
. I think those fans who once cheered for Favre will appreciate him again down the line when his career is finally over, but he had to
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Hello, I'm Neil Reynolds. I commentate and write about the NFL. I've followed the NFL since 1983 and covered the league as a journalist and broadcaster since 1991. I also played for 10 years in the British American Football League.
