Football: NFL
Why Detroit and Dallas always have a home game on Thanksgiving
Every year in the NFL, the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys play a home game on Thanksgiving. This is behind the long tradition.
The fourth Thursday in November in the USA is dedicated to a special day: Thanksgiving. Families from all over the country come together to celebrate the festival – and ensure there is plenty of activity at airports, train stations and streets. Decades ago, the NFL adjusted to the most important family holiday and changed the game day. Instead of the usual one Thursday game, the football league is showing three games. The beneficiaries are the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys, who, thanks to clever marketing, always have a home game on Thanksgiving.
In Detroit in particular, people recognized the signs of the times early on. The NFL has had traditional Thanksgiving games since 1922, but it would be twelve years before a resourceful businessman saw the potential behind the national holiday. After the Portsmouth Spartans moved to Detroit, the football players who now played under the Lions celebrated great success, but there was no crowd.
Back then, 12,000 spectators watched the Lions’ home games, and owner George Richards hoped for more support with a game on Thanksgiving – and he was right. On November 29, 1934, 25,000 spectators saw the 16:19 defeat against the Chicago Bears – the same team that the Lions also play against on Thursday (from 6:30 p.m. on RTL Nitro and DAZN).
Since then, only interrupted by the Second World War, the Lions have always played a home game on Thanksgiving – but with limited success: the team from the north of the USA won 37 of their 84 home games.
NFL on Thanksgiving: A marketing ploy becomes a tradition
But hopes of improving the balance sheet are not entirely unfounded. The Lions have won nine games in a row and are, along with the Kansas City Chiefs, the best team in the NFL with ten wins and one defeat. It will also be the 20th time the Lions and Bears have met on Thanksgiving.
The tradition of the Dallas Cowboys and Thanksgiving starts much later. In 1966, because he wanted more national attention, general manager Tex Schramm arranged for the Cowboys to play a home game on the national holiday. And that was worth it too: 80,000 spectators came to the Cotton Bowl, the Cowboys’ home stadium at the time. Because the team from Texas became one of the best in the league in the following years, the popularity of the Cowboys increased to such an extent that they are now nicknamed “America’s Team”. And the Texans’ record is also quite good, they have won 33 of 56 games on Thanksgiving so far. They can expand on this record against the New York Giants on Thursday evening (10:30 p.m. live on RTL Nitro and DAZN).
Football enthusiasm: The game takes a deep look into America’s soul
In the NFL, football isn’t just played, it’s celebrated. When the home team, like the Kansas City Chiefs, takes the field, fireworks, cheerleaders and mascots are simply part of the game. Especially in the professional league, everyone is trying not to bring the current political turmoil into the stadiums. At Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, the crowd is considered particularly diverse. Roger Goodell, the head of the NFL, has called for people to vote. That is important in a democracy. However, he did not recommend a party, which many celebrities in the USA usually do
© Chase Castor / star
So that other teams could also play a home game on Thanksgiving, the NFL added a third Thursday game to the schedule for the first time in 2006. The Green Bay Packers and the Miami Dolphins will meet on Friday night (live on DAZN from 2:20 a.m.). It will be the Packers’ first Thanksgiving home game in 101 years. The Jacksonville Jaguars – a member of the NFL since 1995 – are the only team that has never been allowed to play on Thanksgiving.
The Black Friday Game is new in the NFL. In 2023, a game was played on Friday for the first time; this year the Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders will meet (from 9 p.m., DAZN). The game will be broadcast in the USA by Amazon, which secured the rights to broadcast the Thursday games for one billion dollars in 2022. Because the three games are sold separately on Thanksgiving, the streaming provider came away empty-handed for the national holiday.
Transparency note: The star is part of RTL Deutschland.
Source: Stern
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
