Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

The Brohm Family Thanksgiving football games involved MVP awards, film study and a punctured lung

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Jeff Brohm is the epitome of a football guy. All you have to do is run a Google search of his name and watch that 15 second clip of his XFL speech to know that.

His intensity, passion and emotion started at a young age, and it started with backyard football games on Thanksgiving Day.

Every year, the Brohm Family would gather together for Turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and, of course, football. But none were satisfied with watching games on Thanksgiving Day. Instead, they had their very own Turkey Bowl.

And from Brohm’s description, it might challenge Michigan-Ohio State for the most heated game in football.

“We had a lot of fun with it,” Brohm said during his weekly press conference. “We have videos of all the games. Really the last true game, unfortunately, my dad went out with some punctured lungs and had to go to the hospital. I don’t think he and my uncle talked for a couple months, maybe even a half year.

“It calmed down a little bit from there.”

So, just to recap: all of the Turkey Bowl games were recorded for film study, there was an MVP and an LVP award and Brohm’s father was taken to the hospital with a punctured lung.

It sounds like the XFL might’ve actually been construed in the Brohm’s backyard.

Brohm will probably be taking it easy this year, with Purdue in the hunt for the postseason and needing a win over Indiana on Saturday to punch a second straight trip to a bowl game.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB