It’s amazing what a difference a few feet can make.

You cross the state line from Massachusetts into New Hampshire on Thanksgiving Eve or Day, and you leave behind a plethora of Turkey Bowls, and enter a world where there are. … none.

Welcome to the state that in terms of high school football has a can of spam or tuna instead of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, etc.

Hey, we’re not whining here. It’s nice after a long fall sports season to unwind and relax on Thanksgiving Eve, just like it was nice to finally relax on Thanksgiving Day when the Nashua High School North-South Turkey Bowl was moved to the Wednesday night before the holiday.

Have you missed that game the last two years? We won’t go back and forth with the debate in this space; we’ve done it over and over and over this past fall and even last fall. The decision to cancel the games both years was absolutely the right one. The virus numbers in this state are suddenly out of control.

But let’s face it, Thanksgiving Football in New Hampshire appears to be on its deathbed. The Manchester game was cancelled again as well, although Central and Memorial played during the week leading up to the Division I and II finals, since COVID cancelled their regular season game earlier this fall. Good for them.

Then St. Thomas of Dover — whose former legendary coach, Rod Wotton, passed away this week at age 82 — and Bishop Brady were supposed to play “The Bishop’s Bowl” on Thanksgiving Eve in Manchester and that was cancelled. A statement from the Diocese of Manchester said that “both teams, after deep playoff runs, have several players that are unable to play” and that would leave rosters short and create unsafe conditions. Funny, the lack of a deep playoff run is what could ultimately whack the Nashua game.

The bottom line is those who want Thansgiving football in New Hampshire are becoming a minority. Even in Massachusetts, the games, while there are many, don’t have the same significance as they used to be the final step in determining a Super Bowl berth. Now those are all set and some of those teams, if they do have to play a game, will play the jayvees if they play at all so as to avoid injury. The other games, though, are still a big deal for many.

So there you have it. We got Nashua native Ted Phillips’ Bears vs. Greg Landry’s Detroit Lions as an appetizer, then the Cowboys vs. Vegas – two games decided by game-ending field goals. And for dessert last night were able to scout out the Buffalo Bills as they play the Patriots a week from this Monday. They finally looked like the Bills in a blowout of the Saints.

Nothing wrong with all that. But if you reeeeallly missed Thanksgiving high school football, you can tune in to Nashua ETV all weekend with replays of the North-South Turkey Bowls over 16 years if you can stand yours truly’s voice here and there (shameless plug).

Hey, that’s all we’ve got, and the thinking here is that may be the limit for our Turkey tradition for quite a while.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.