Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends, food, and football. The NFL makes sure to give us three games every year on that 4th Thursday of November. And every year there are two teams that play no matter what: the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys. Both franchises have had their fair share of ups and downs since each team’s entry into the NFL, but why exactly is it these two teams that play on Thanksgiving? What did they do to deserve the holiday spotlight?
First, we’ll figure out why the NFL even plays on Thanksgiving, then we’ll get into how the Lions and Cowboys became the mainstay tradition of the holiday. It’s a little more straight forward than you might think.
Why does the NFL play on Thanksgiving?
The answer is pretty simple, it’s a day people have off work. It was the college scene that started playing on Thanksgiving, all the way back in 1876. It started with The University of Michigan playing the Chicago Maroons and continued for decades after by every football organization that existed. With the inception of the NFL in 1920, the yearly tradition of Thanksgiving football began. Thanksgiving Day NFL football has happened yearly since 1920, with a four-year hiatus during WW2, which means we’re going on 75 consecutive years of football on Turkey Day.
If you’re curious about how many times each team has played on Thanksgiving here is the list:
| NFL Team | Times Played |
| Detroit Lions | 79 |
| Dallas Cowboys | 51 |
| Green Bay Packers | 36 |
| Chicago Bears | 33 |
| Arizona Cardinals | 23 |
| New York Giants | 15 |
| Washington Redskins | 11 |
| Denver Broncos | 11 |
| Kansas City Chiefs | 9 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 8 |
| Minnesota Vikings | 8 |
| Buffalo Bills | 8 |
| Oakland Raiders | 7 |
| Philadelphia Eagles | 7 |
| Miami Dolphins | 7 |
| Tennessee Titans/Houston Oilers | 6 |
| San Francisco 49ers | 5 |
| New England Patriots | 5 |
| New York Jets | 5 |
| Los Angeles Chargers | 5 |
| Seattle Seahawks | 4 |
| Los Angeles Rams | 4 |
| Indianapolis Colts | 4 |
| Cleveland Browns | 3 |
| Atlanta Falcons | 3 |
| Baltimore Ravens | 2 |
| New Orleans Saints | 2 |
| Carolina Panthers | 1 |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 1 |
| Houston Texans | 1 |
| Cincinnati Bengals | 1 |
| Jacksonville Jaguars | 0 |
As seen on the list the Lions and the Cowboys have played many more times than any other team, with the Lions playing their 80th Thanksgiving game this year. The question that I’ve asked myself over the years is why do they get that honor. It’s not like they’re a historically good franchise. The Cowboys makes more sense, considering they’re “America’s Team” and have had some actual success throughout the history of their franchise, but how did it come to be?
Detroit Lions
The Lions have played on Thanksgiving since 1934, their first year in the NFL. Then, Owner, George Richards wanted to gain some traction with the Detroit fans in the Lions’ first year since relocating from Portsmouth, Ohio. His thought, let’s play on Thanksgiving. It worked too. They sold out their home stadium, seating 26,000, for the first time that season against the champion Chicago Bears. It was such a good marketing ploy that it’s been a tradition ever since.
Even when the Lions are bad they still get that national spotlight when families across America are watching. So there’s your answer as to why the Lions play on Thanksgiving. Tradition.
Will it continue? Your answer is as good as mine, but taking into account the Lions are 37-40-2 on Thanksgiving and have only won 6 of the last 20, maybe it’ll be over soon. My guess is that it is unlikely to happen because the NFL can use it as the Lions’ one guaranteed primetime game during the year, which maybe is a good thing for the Lions.
This year the Lions face off against the Houston Texans.
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys didn’t play their first Thanksgiving day until 32 years after the Lions, but as the Lions, they used it as a marketing ploy to muster excitement from the fans. Cowboys GM, Tex Schramm, had to beg the NFL to give them the nationally televised slot, and boy did it pay off. They sold just over 80,000 tickets and maybe birthed the term “America’s team”? Who knows for sure where that nickname comes from, but playing on Thanksgiving isn’t a bad origin.
There were two years in which the Cowboys didn’t play on Turkey Day, 1975 and 1977. NFL Commissioner, Pete Rozelle, decided to go with the St. Louis Cardinals to help out the struggling franchise but failed miserably. In an ironic twist, it was then the NFL begging the Cowboys to play on Thanksgiving. Schramm said they would do it, but only if it became permanent. And so, the Cowboys have played every year since.
The Cowboys are 31-20-1 on Thanksgiving, which is much better than the Lions. There’s no way they lose the right to this game any time soon, after all, they are America’s Team.
The Cowboys will take on the Washington Football Team this Thanksgiving.
