NBC Side Dish Bowl promotes Thanksgiving football

The NBC Side Dish Bowl is promoting Thanksgiving football while settling an ages-old debate.

The NBC Side Dish Bowl is promoting the tradition of Thanksgiving football and attempting to settle the ages-old debate at the same time: which Turkey Day side dish is best?

Team Cranberry Sauces, Team Green Bean Casserole, Team Potatoes, Team Pumpkin Pie and Team Stuffing are duking it out for the top honors of Thanksgiving.

Each team has their own logos and full uniform set, complete with helmets and gloves.

Fans on Twitter can vote for their favorite team by using the hashtag #TeamCranberry, #TeamGBCasserole, #TeamTaters, #TeamPumpkinPie or #TeamStuffing.

FoodSided learned of the NBC Side Dish Bowl through Variety, which points out its similarity to the Bud Bowl commercials during the Super Bowls of 1989 to 1997.

Representatives of each team will appear on The Today Show, and Lyndsay Signor, vice president of consumer engagement at NBC Sports, mentioned to Variety that it’s possible the winning team will be revealed during the special Sunday Night Football broadcast on Thanksgiving night between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons.

The late game tends to be an afterthought following the early game with the Detroit Lions and then the Dallas Cowboys in the afternoon, and most of NBC’s viewers are focused on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in the morning and then the National Dog Show presented by Purina at noon (which our FanSided Network sister site Dog O’Day has all covered).

“There’s sort of this understood battle about side dishes,” Signor told Variety. The promotion is designed “to get into the conversation during the day to help differentiate our game that night.”

This is a really clever idea, and the level of detail that went into this project is amazing.

The team logos were unveiled on the Sunday Night Football Twitter page (@SNFonNBC).

The Green Bean Casseroles have the best logo of the bunch, reminiscent of the NHL’s and the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League.

The colors, primarily a dark green and light gold, work well as a uniform, and the actual dish itself is fine, though unexceptional.

The Cranberry Sauces are quite controversial as a food (which is strange, since it’s delicious), and the logo isn’t all that (a can flying through the air as a football substitute), but a base maroon with black and neon pink trim somehow works as a uniform.

Team Stuffing’s uniform is maroon and brown camo, and their logo is very reminiscent of Marvel’s The Thing from the Fantastic Four. As a food, stuffing should be punted into the trash as quickly and discreetly as possible.

Team Pumpkin Pie’s logo is a fierce Jack O’Lantern pie slice, which works really well because of the Halloween connection, and sports logos are ideally slightly frightening as an intimidation tactic.

The team colors are orange and tan, which makes sense, and the pants stripe is wavy like a crust, which is a cool touch. As a dessert, pumpkin pie isn’t the best (pecan, apple, cherry and chocolate are all better), but it’s fine.

The Potatoes’ logo is a literal baked potato, which feels like a play from the Cleveland Browns school of graphic design. Their uniforms are white with gold, and their helmet is spectacular: the stripe is a triangular wedge of white, with most of the shell a nice gold and then a diagonal silver wedge of aluminum foil in the back.

Potatoes are amazing in anything, which is why I voted for Team Taters, as they slightly beat out the Cranberry Sauces.

For more coverage on the Saints, see our sister site Who Dat Dish, and for more on the Falcons, check out our sister site Blogging Dirty.

Who do you think should win the NBC Side Dish Bowl? What do you think of this promotion?