NFL Thanksgiving Day Football Games – A Tasty Tradition

The  Thanksgiving Holiday weekend is the biggest family celebration of the year in America. A big part of the celebration is NFL Thanksgiving Day football and it carries a rich and storied tradition with it.

Though NFL Thanksgiving Day football can trace it’s roots back to 1920, it’s immense popularity wasn’t fully realized until the NFL/AFL merger in 1970. Every year since, the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions have hosted a home game on Thanksgiving Thursday.

Detroit Lions Fans Are Always Thankful For Football On Thanksgiving Day

The tradition of Thanksgiving football first came to Detroit after local radio executive George A. Richards purchased the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans and moved the team to Michigan in 1934. Back then the Detroit Tigers baseball team was basically the only game in town and the Richards wanted a way to generate some press coverage and fan interest for his new franchise.

The team would play out of the University of Detroit Stadium and that first Thanksgiving game was sold out (26.000 tickets) two weeks prior to the contest. The Lions would lose that first game 19-16 to the then World Champion Chicago Bears but the promotion was huge success. Just one year later the Lions would win the 1935 NFL Championship. Their Thanksgiving Day game in 1935 was a key to the Championship as the Lions defeated the Bears 14-2 to clinch the NFL West Championship.

From 1939 through the 1944 season the Thanksgiving Day tradition was put on hold but, since 1945, the Lions have played on the annual holiday every year without interruption.

The Dallas Cowboys Come To The Thanksgiving Day Party

In the early 1960s the growth of television and the broadcasting of football games helped the NFL surge in popularity. The NFL went in search of a second team to host a Thanksgiving Day game but were flatly rejected by every team in the league except the Dallas Cowboys. Most teams thought that a Thursday game would be disruptive to the players schedules (with playoffs so near) and cited that as their reason for passing on the idea.

What every other team saw as a disadvantage Cowboys legendary General Manager Tex Scharm saw as golden opportunity for the Dallas franchise and immediately signed on. The Cowboys annual Thanksgiving tradition started on November 24, 1966 with a game at the historic Cotton Bowl Stadium against the Cleveland Browns. Down 14-13 at halftime, the Cowboys rallied on offense and shutout the Browns in the second half en-route to a 24-14 victory.

Somewhat ironically, that win would help pave the way to a record breaking 20 consecutive winning seasons for the Cowboys from 1966-1985.

The rest of the league soon found out that passing on the Thanksgiving Day game was a mistake. Teams started complaining to the league that the Cowboys had an unfair advantage by being able to play in the game every year. What the other teams once saw as a disadvantage to their teams they now cited as an advantage to the Cowboys saying they benefited from the 10 days rest following the game.

The league agreed and scheduled the 1975 and 1977 games in St. Louis with the Cardinals playing host. Those two games did not draw anywhere near the fan support the Cowboys had been drawing and (at the urging of CBS Sports) the league made Dallas the second permanent home of the Thanksgiving Day games.

NFL football games and Thanksgiving Day is as natural a fit as turkey and stuffing. The “Turkey Day” tradition lives on strong today in both Detroit and Dallas.