Football ‘legends’ meet up for Turkey Bowl

Friends compete in annual ‘Turkey Bowl’ showdown

McQuaid Turkey Bowl

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) – The NFL on Thanksgiving might be the tradition most people know of, but over at McQuaid Jesuit High School, there’s a much bigger game.

The second annual Turkey Bowl took place, despite some rainy and cold weather. And it didn’t stop those participating from putting up some big numbers.

“We were slinging it all over the field, those other guys had no chance,” said Griffin Wiegel, who helped capture the winning trophy.

“We’re a little washed up at this point, maybe I’ll speak for myself. Catching the ball, running around, little contact we don’t get every day, and the competition is awesome,” said Scott Cottier.

Some players showed more skill than others, but it didn’t stop anyone from having a good time on Thursday morning.“Some of us aren’t the most striking athletes like myself, but the nice thing is we get to come out here, do an hour and a half of cardio and make eating later look justified,” said Dave Fornuto.

It’s only the second year of this Turkey Bowl tradition, but they’re hoping it can continue until they actually physically – can’t play.

“That’s a recurring thing. I probably shouldn’t have worn white today knowing that I had something down there. Turf didn’t help, I tried a little slide celebration before the game even started, but I feel good and I feel ready for next year,” said Zach Pettrone, who might need to ice his knee.

“If they would’ve unlocked the fence we probably would’ve had more people. We had to hop the fence today. We aren’t trespassing we got permission to be here but totally maybe next year we’ll bring some more supporters,” said Fornuto.

And yeah – shoutout to McQuaid for allowing them to use the field for this very important game.

There was a winner – albeit our friends in Secaucus later said it shouldn’t have counted. But despite the bad call, it was still a good call, playing the game.

“The best thing about what we’ve kind of built here is we’re all kind of just down to do it. You just say we’re gonna do this and everyone’s automatically excited. It doesn’t take any convincing. It’s literally 35 degrees and rain and we’re all having the best time ever,” said Tim Fournier.

Rain or shine, nothing will stop the biggest game you’ve never heard of, until now.