Last year 30.3 million people watched the Dallas Cowboys face the Washington Football Team on Thanksgiving Day. The history of NFL games on Thanksgiving goes all the way back to 1902. What has become a great tradition in football started out as just a gimmick so that the Detroit Lions could get people to come to their games.
Throughout the first 18 years of the NFL, many teams played on Thanksgiving and many of those teams either don’t exist anymore or have changed their name. For example, the Chicago Cardinals are now the Green Bay Packers. A break in scheduling Thanksgiving games took place due to World War ll. After the war was over, the games began again with the Detroit Lions having a game every year up until 1963.
The next big milestone in this history happened in 1966, when the Dallas Cowboys took over hosting Thanksgiving games. From then on, Dallas and Detroit played each year on Thanksgiving. Since both of these teams are in the National Football Conference, they would schedule either Dallas or Detroit to play an American Football Conference team, so that the AFC could showcase one of their teams.
Since the early 2000s, players have worn throwback uniforms for Thanksgiving and it might happen this year. In 2006, the NFL added a third game to the mix for Thanksgiving night. This game has no fixed opponents or conferences.
Some of these games have been memorable ones. In 1980, the game went into overtime which was the first time this happened in a Thanksgiving game. Plus, on the opening kickoff of OT, the Chicago Bears running back returned the kick for a 95-yard game-winning touchdown, giving the Bears the win over the Detroit Lions.
Another memorable game happened in 2012. In this game, the New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez created the infamous “butt fumble” which happened when he ran into one of his offensive lineman’s buttocks. The ball was then recovered by the New England Patriots and returned for a touchdown.
“Watching the Lions play on Thanksgiving with my whole family is a yearly tradition. We make a ton of food before the game and then all watch it together,” said Joe Discher, a Detroit Lions fan.
The Lions’ record on Thanksgiving is 37-41-2. There is still hope that they can win this year and bring that record closer together. On the other hand, the Dallas Cowboys are sitting at 30-21-1 for their franchise record on Thanksgiving.
“Hopefully the Lions win this year. Detroit fans are aching to finally have a winning team,” said Discher.
The three games on Thanksgiving this year are the Chicago Bears vs. the Detroit Lions at 12:30 p.m., the Las Vegas Raiders vs. the Dallas Cowboys at 4:30 p.m., and to finish off the night, the Buffalo Bills vs. the New Orleans Saints at 8:20 p.m.
Nick Tomas
Intern