Not a Footnote: For Yale and Harvard Law Editors, THIS Is the Game

There’s more than one Yale-Harvard football game this weekend and for some law students, the important one isn’t at the Yale Bowl.

It’s a few miles away at a New Haven park, where the editors of the Yale Law Journal and the Harvard Law Review will meet up for their annual flag football game. The tradition goes back as least as early as the 1950s, when editors from both schools used to plan the game by mail, according to one account. The rivalry is friendly, but students still want to win.

“As law students, we certainly do not claim the mantle of being the most athletic group, but I think it’s fair to say that we are universally competitive,” team co-captain and managing editor Matthew Callahan ’26 said.

The Yale Law Journal team comes to the game as reigning champions after a 49–28 win in Cambridge in 2024. Back on their home turf this fall, the editors have been getting ready. Co-captain Michael Nachman ’26, the journal’s features and book reviews editor, says the team has been fine-tuning its strategies, designing plays, and scrimmaging. 

Players will find out if their practice paid off when they take to the field at Scantlebury Park in new jerseys emblazoned with the number 135 — the current Yale Law Journal volume number, of course. Whatever happens, players said, the break from journal articles keeps editors on both teams sharp.

“Having a chance to get out of the library, see the sun, and enjoy a bit of good-natured fun ultimately makes for better editing,” Editor-in-Chief Jeremy N. Thomas ’26 said. “As for the rivalry, you know what they say: iron sharpens iron.”