Thanksgiving may be a day for reflecting on all that we are thankful for, but it's also a day for self-indulgence. It's a day for eating turkey and watching football. Aiming to capitalize on our longstanding love for game birds and sports, Wild Turkey Bourbon has combined the two to give us what they claim to be the world's first football-picking turkey.
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Jimmy Junior joined former NFL player Vinny Testaverde to give his predictions for the 2012 slate of Thanksgiving NFL games. For each matchup, the turkey was placed in a cage containing a helmet for each team with a plate of food placed on top of it. Jimmy Junior made his picks based on which helmet's food he chose to eat.
WATCH VIDEO ABOVEAccording to Wild Turkey, Jimmy Junior, who is named after master distiller Jimmy Russell, showed a talent for choosing football winners at an early age, picking the Saints over the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV in 2010.
This isn't the first time an animal prognosticator has been used to predict the outcome of sporting events. The late Paul the Octopus had a celebrated run choosing winners during the 2010 World Cup.
Junior chose the favored Patriots to beat the Jets as well as the Cowboys over the Redskins. This turkey's boldest prediction came for the first game of the Thanksgiving schedule as he chose the Lions to upset the Texans.
Despite the Texans losing just one game all season, Testaverde is warning fans to take Jimmy Junior's picks seriously.
"I've been around football for a long time and I've never seen anything like Jimmy Junior in my life," said Testaverde, presumably before cashing a check from Wild Turkey. "If I was a fan in Houston, Washington and New York, I'd be very nervous right now."