Today’s a day when Americans everywhere will gather at home with family and a few close friends, maybe with a fire at the hearth, with an abundance of good food on the table.

Many will say a prayer.

And then there will be football.

Thanksgiving? Phffft!

It’s Super Bowl Sunday.

This is America’s unofficial holiday. Roads will be clear and stores will be empty – save for a few last-second errand-runners – as we gather as one people to observe a national tradition: watching the big game on TV.

(Okay, maybe we’re two peoples, some in Baltimore and some in San Francisco, both sides bombarding the heavens with supplications for a made or missed field goal.)

And there must be food. Lots and lots of food, especially if it’s bad for us.

“Meatballs, pigs in a blanket and little smokies in barbecue sauce,” says Chapel Hill football coach Issac Marsh. “We keep it just family at home.”

Finger food is the sine qua non of Super Bowl watching. But some area coaches step it up a notch.

“We’re foodies. We love to cook,” says Carrboro’s Jason Tudryn. “We always try to incorporate signature foods from the cities of the teams playing in the game.”

Eschewing Rice-a-Roni (“the San Francisco treat”) Tudryn is thinking more about Monterey, Napa and Sonoma delicacies today, getting advice from a sister who lives in San Francisco. Crab cakes are an easy call for Baltimore’s contribution to the Chez Tudryn menu.

East Chapel Hill’s Jon Sherman, who took over the Wildcat football program in November, also likes to cook. Being a man, he prefers red meat cooked over flames.

“Steak, maybe some hotdogs, chips ... but we like to grill something,” says Sherman, who plans on heading to Fayetteville for a quasi-annual reunion with family and his former Methodist University football teammates.

East Chapel Hill basketball coach Ray Hartsfield heads the other way: strictly indoors with just his family.

“No fanfare. I don’t do parties,” Hartsfield said. “I’ll get some wings and a favorite adult beverage, stay at home and just enjoy the game.”

The menu for Northwood football coach Bill Hall’s family Super Bowl includes wings that he grills – no frying – in two sets. Mrs. Coach Kim-Marie Hall doesn’t go for the fiery hot wings, so he does a mild version and a get-the-Tums version.

The secret to good hot wings, Halls says, is three-fold.

“I hit them three times with the sauce,” he says. “I marinate them in sauce, then give them a coating on the grill, and then give ‘em more sauce when they’re done.”

W.E. Warnock