For the first time in many years, there will be no Thanksgiving Day football game between New Providence and Governor Livingston High School. 

The Thanksgiving Game between the Pioneers and the Highlanders has been going on since 2002. But twenty years later, it has been decided that the game should be moved to the front of the season,  as opposed to the end of the 2022-2023 regular season.

There were multiple reasons as to why the game was moved.

NPHS football coach Parlavecchio explained his two most important reasons:  “Moving it to the first game of the year gives us an opportunity to play for something a little more meaningful. We’re still playing for that trophy, but you’re also playing now for power points and playoff seeding.”

Power points are a relatively new way to help rank teams in the NJSIAA playoffs. On a very basic level, power points are based on how a team performs, and how the teams they play perform. Playing Governor Livingston at the beginning of the season gives the New Providence football team more power points, which can help boost their playoff seeding, while playing them on Thanksgiving had no real effect on either team.

But that’s not the only reason.

Coach Parlavecchio said: “Our season ended two weeks ago, and we would still have two weeks left to go to play on Thanksgiving. I think that it’s unfair to ask the players to stay engaged for four weeks”.

Although four weeks of practice for the football team would be grueling, it would give the team certainty –  a defined end of the season. Now and in the future, teams and especially seniors will not know when their last practice or game of the season will be.

“It’s good and bad.  The end of the season just to be over so soon is bad, but also the time between the end of the regular season or the end of the playoffs to the Thanksgiving Game always [stinks],” said senior captain Jack Donahue.

Junior Ben Gullo said: “There are pros and cons to there being no Thanksgiving Game. The pros would be to focus more on the playoffs, get more prepared. The negatives would be that it’s a tradition that we’re going to miss this year. I feel like a lot of families look forward to going to it on Thanksgiving Day.”

There are certainly many things to consider about the changes made to the Thanksgiving game, but ultimately the rivalry is still going strong and  New Providence still plays Governor Livingston every year a week before Labor Day.