Thanksgiving might be the most underrated holiday of the year. How can anyone go wrong with turkey, mashed potatoes, family and football?

As I was sitting in the living room, watching Brett Favre rip apart the Lions defense and waiting for the turkey to come out of the oven, I began to think about what I was thankful for. Of course the first things that came to mind were family and friends. But I also realized how big sports have been in my life. Sometimes everyone needs a distraction and something to be passionate about, and for me that thing is sports.

So, with this being the last Creightonian of the semester, I wish everyone happy holidays and present the things in sports that I am most thankful for.

I am thankful that I am not a Notre Dame or Nebraska football fan (though I think Notre Dame just became BCS bowl-eligible with their win against Stanford last week).

I am thankful for the most stable athletic department in the country. Before Creighton hired Bob Hanson as men’s golf coach this summer, the Bluejays had been the only division I school in the nation with the same head coaches in all its sports each of the past four years.

I am thankful for Pierce Hibma in Des Moines. The men’s basketball senior has a career average of about three points per game, but the last two years he has gone off while visiting Drake. He has a combined 23 points on 7-8 shooting from behind the three-point line in those two match-ups. It’s safe to say he has the Bulldogs “Hibmatized.”

I am thankful for my projector that displays a 102-inch television onto my wall in picture-perfect high definition. Not only is my TV huge, but when the Chiefs give up another 14-play, 85-yard drive, I can throw anything I want at it while only risking a smudge on the wall.

Speaking of the Chiefs, I am thankful for bye weeks in the NFL. I am also thankful for off days in baseball. These are some of my happiest days because I do not have to put myself through the torture that is Chiefs football or Cubs baseball.

I am thankful that Jimmie Johnson won the NASCAR championship. Why? Because it means that NASCAR is over and ESPN can stop talking about a “sport” where they drive in circles repeatedly for an extremely long period of time.

Speaking of ESPN, I am thankful for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, ESPN Classic, ESPN U, ESPN 360, ESPN.com and ESPN Eight, the Ocho. I can now choose to watch the national cup stacking championships instead of unimportant things like the local news or presidential debates. Along those same lines, I am also thankful for sports-talk radio.

I am thankful for DVR. On the rare occasions when there is nothing of interest on any of the ESPN channels, I can now repeatedly watch Bluejay P’Allen Stinnett posterize Nebraska seven-footer Shang Ping.

I am thankful for Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson. They might be annoying to teammates and fans, but as a journalist they are just entertaining.

I am thankful for pajama pants. I can show support for my team with official Chiefs, Cubs and Creighton pajama pants, while at the same time staying warm and ultra-comfortable.

I am, however, most thankful for my parents, who gave me my first basketball.