AceShowbiz - Nelly will enjoy a competitive Thanksgiving celebration on Thursday, November 25 - the rapper and his family always mark the U.S. holiday with an "intense" game of football. The Hip-Hop star makes sure he's at home in St. Louis, Missouri every year to spend the day with his loved ones, who organize the annual sport showdown.

And Nelly shows no mercy when it comes to tackling his relatives. He tells blogger Perez Hilton, "We have a traditional family football game. We play at one of my old middle schools back in St. Louis. It's like all the boys in the family and our friends. It's like a real big flag football game. We've been doing it now for about four years and it gets real intense."

"I play against my little brother and my nephew so they're on the other team and they're always trying to beat their uncle. But we've been winning - out of the four years, we're three and one. I'm pretty sore, the youngsters are laughing at me but it's all good."

And the "Country Grammar" hitmaker always looks forward to Thanksgiving dinner after working up an appetite on the football field: "I taste everything. I'm the best taster. I make sure everything's perfect."