Vikings players create their own Thanksgiving traditions..

bout 5½ years ago, the Capital Grille steakhouse in Minneapolis served as the backdrop to quarterback Kirk Cousins’ last flirtations with the Vikings before ultimately signing as a coveted free agent in March 2018. Cousins’ family wined and dined with team brass and players including Adam Thielen and Kyle Rudolph before he officially joined the Vikings.

Coincidentally, that’s where Joshua Dobbs, the Vikings’ current starting quarterback, said he plans to have his Thanksgiving Day meal. It’s a tradition since 2017 with his parents, Stephanie and Robert, that will continue to a fourth different NFL city after Dobbs spent Thanksgivings in Pittsburgh, Jacksonville and Cleveland.

So goes the life of an NFL journeyman, where home is where he lays his head.

“We just go find whatever the Capital Grille is, like the one steakhouse open on Thanksgiving, and they’re in every single city in the United States,” Dobbs said Wednesday. “So we have a pretty consistent Thanksgiving ritual that we’ll be excited to do tomorrow as well.”

Thanksgiving traditions vary for NFL players. Some, like safety Harrison Smith, spend 12 seasons in the same place, evolving from a single guy who enjoyed a day off to crafting new traditions as a married man with an 18-month-old daughter.

Most players are transient, forced to connect with relatives and friends from afar. Defensive tackle Harrison Phillips, the Omaha native who played for the Buffalo Bills from 2018-2021, said he’ll connect with distant relatives and friends on Thursday afternoon after the Vikings’ “turkey bowl” practice.

Long snapper Andrew DePaola is now 36 years old with an All-Pro selection to his name. But in a five-year span from 2016 through 2020, he was on five different NFL teams. During those early days, DePaola said he spent holidays with other teammates or enjoyed time to relax on his own. He always connected with family somehow.