Thanksgiving Football: Tradition In Need of Update

By Benjy Lipsman in Miscellaneous on Nov 24, 2010 4:20PM

Almost as much a part of the Thanksgiving holiday as turkey, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie, football has traditionally acted as the great entertainer for men while the women slaved away on the feast. While this holiday division of labor has changed some over the past couple decades, the tradition of the NFL on TV on Turkey Day remains even as John Madden and his six-legged turkducken have permanently parked the Madden Cruiser.

But why Dallas and Detroit? For as long as we can remember, and perhaps back to the days if the Pilgrims, the Cowboys and Lions have each hosted Thanksgiving games as part of their schedule. Actually, back in the day, our local teams got in on the action. The Bears and Chicago Cardinals (remember when they played here?) faced off on the holiday from 1922 until 1933, after which they began playing other opponents. The Bears became Detroit's regular opponent in the earliest days of their annually hosted game -- the Lions have hosted a game since 1934, except for 1939 and '40 (no Thanksgiving games were played during WWII). Dallas began hosting their annual Thanksgiving game in 1966.

The two NFC teams host rotating opponents, and one NFC and one AFC team get to spend their holiday away from home. This year, the Lions host the New England Patriots while the Cowboys face the New Orleans Saints. While the opponents are top notch this year, including both a team with the best record and the defending Super Bowl champ, the hosts' play leaves little doubt who will win tomorrow.

Given the state of those two teams, we have to hope that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is rethinking this monopoly on holiday football. Well, actually it's not a complete monopoly anymore, as the NFL Network has added a third game to the slate for those who get the cable channel. But for those with just basic cable or no cable at all, they won't be seeing The Jets and Bengals play.

There apparently has been some talk of stripping Detroit of their annual Thanksgiving Day game, as the team has been neither successful nor popular in a long time. Dallas' stake on the day seems safer, but in the fairness of the change let's just scrap the current set up and create some new standards for choosing opponents. We'd like to see each of the previous years' Super Bowl teams play. Perhaps we pair those teams with their biggest divisional foe. Or maybe one game gets rotated among the charter NFC franchises while one rotates among the original AFL teams. Rumors suggests that if any change is made, it's likely Detroit will cede it's hosting duties to the New England Patriots. Sure, they're popular and successful now, but at least when they fall back to Earth when Tom Brady retires they'll still have a geographic justification for playing on Thanksgiving.