WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- Bright and early on every Thanksgiving Day, you'll find a group of guys playing a game of football at Kirby Park in Wilkes-Barre.
"I've been playing my whole life," Tomas Cabrera of Hanover Township said. "I know a lot of these guys from growing up. We've all been playing together for years."
The game started years ago, with a group of about five friends. The guys have been meeting on Thanksgiving day to play football for the last two decades. Now they're passing the tradition on to their kids.
"I'm 41," Vince Mercadante of Plains Township said. "So, more than 25 years ago we started playing down here and we're all, like, probably over 40 but now some of our kids are here. It's a good time."
Temperatures were in the teen's as the guys played. They didn't seem to mind.
"No," Cabrera said. "The weather doesn't bother us. Once you're moving around, you're good."
As the years have gone on, some of the original players, like Mercadante, say the game gives them a chance to catch up with old friends.
"When we were kids, we could do whatever we wanted," Mercadante said. "Now we have kids, we don't get to see each other. We don't see each other all year until this day. Give thanks for that, huh?"
All the activity on the football field gets the guys hungry for their Thanksgiving meal.
"That's the secret behind it," Cabrera said. "You come out here, burn a lot of energy. Our mothers, our wives, are home cooking and we go home and we enjoy the dinner."