NFL games on Thanksgiving is a tradition that dates back all the way to the first season of the league’s existence, in 1920.
The NFL had six games on Thanksgiving that first season. Over the years the tradition as we know it took shape: The Detroit Lions hosted their first Thanksgiving game in 1934 as a way for the team to drum up attendance, the Dallas Cowboys happily volunteered to be the host of a second game starting in 1966 and the league added a third rotating game for Thanksgiving night in 2006.
NFL football has become a staple for the holiday. For the three games this season, let’s compare the quality of each of the three games to a dish on the Thanksgiving table:
Turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes: Bears at Lions
For years, there was a steady drumbeat for the Lions to get kicked out of their annual Thanksgiving spot. Detroit was terrible. Why have one of the three (or, for many years, two) games on Thanksgiving ruined by a terrible team.
That has changed in a big way.
This is the main course of the day because you get a chance to see the best team in football. Yes, that’s the Lions. Seriously, the Lions are the best team in the NFL. Once again: The Detroit Lions are the top team in the National Football League. That’s the first time we can say that in our lifetimes, unless you were born before 1957. That’s the last time the Lions won a championship. They are capable of winning a Super Bowl this season. They’ve never been to a Super Bowl in their history.
Will this be a great game? Probably not, but we did see the Packers upset the Lions on Thanksgiving last season. The Bears aren’t a great team but they’re interesting to watch because they have No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams. Williams has had an up-and-down rookie season but he’s still compelling. The Bears can at least give us a good show to start off the day. Hopefully, because if we don’t get a good game to start the day …
That weird side dish your aunt brought: Giants at Cowboys
The NFL releases its schedule in April or May and sometimes they get unlucky with key matchups. Sometimes injuries or just bad play from a team they wanted to highlight in prime time or other standalone game will ruin the matchup unexpectedly.
We all could have predicted Giants at Cowboys wasn’t going to be great.
The NFL really believes we want to watch the Giants in marquee spots all the time, and that’s not the case. That’s how we get stuck with the Giants on Thanksgiving. The Cowboys being bad wasn’t part of the plan. They struggled early and their season cratered. They at least did get a nice win last week against the Washington Commanders.
The Giants haven’t won since Oct. 6 and if they don’t win Thursday, it’s possible they won’t win again before 2025. New York cut quarterback Daniel Jones last week, started Tommy DeVito hoping to recreate DeVito’s fun story of last season, but DeVito struggled badly and the Giants season somehow got even worse.
Simply, it’s a game between two bad teams. And it might not matter, in terms of viewership.
Last season’s Cowboys game on Thanksgiving drew 41.4 million viewers, the third-most viewers in NFL regular season history. And people will watch again this year, even though they shouldn’t. But hey, just because that side dish on the table looks a little weird and you can’t pronounce what it is, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t taste good.
Pumpkin pie: Dolphins at Packers
You’ll want to save room for dessert.
On paper, the 5-6 Miami Dolphins at the 8-3 Green Bay Packers isn’t the greatest matchup. But it should be a good game. The Dolphins got off to a bad start this season due to a Tua Tagovailoa injury and some bad luck in close games once he came back. Miami has won three games in a row, with Tagovailoa playing like a top-five quarterback, and is desperate to keep stacking wins and and get in the AFC playoff bracket. The Dolphins might need an upset win at Green Bay to stay in the race. They’re a team better than their record indicates, they’re desperate, and that makes them dangerous against a good Packers team.
The Packers are one of the best teams in football. They’ve won six of seven games, with the only loss coming to an excellent Lions team. Green Bay is getting better offensively with Jordan Love getting past some early season injuries. The Packers just happen to play in the NFL’s toughest division; they might be the best third-place team you’ll ever see.
It should be a good way to end a day full of family, food and football. Even Giants-Cowboys is better than having no football at all.