For some people, myself included, Thanksgiving wouldn’t be the same without football, but when did Football on Thanksgiving become a thing?
Football on Thanksgiving started in college, made its way into amateur leagues, and eventually became popular enough to reach the professional level.
The first-ever Thanksgiving game was back in 1876, with a match-up between Yale and Princeton. The Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA) hosted the game in Hoboken, New Jersey, with Yale winning the match 2-0. At the time, football was more like rugby than modern-day football. Eventually, in the 1880s, Thanksgiving games became a social event with thousands of people attending.
The first ever NFL Thanksgiving game was in 1934 when the Detroit Lions hosted the Chicago Bears. Initially, the Lions owner, George A. Richards, scheduled the games to compete with the Detroit Tigers because they were the more popular team then, but it became so popular they made it a tradition. Since then, the Lions have played on Thanksgiving every year since 1934, with the only exception being during World War II.
Dallas began hosting Thanksgiving games in 1966 when GM Tex Schramm signed up to play on the holiday to gain more publicity. In 1975 and 1977, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle chose the Cardinals over the Cowboys to host the Thanksgiving game. The Cardinals were nicknamed the “Cardiac Cards” because they went 7-1 in games that were decided in the last minute of play. The Cardinals lost the holiday matchup in both years and were blown out in 1977 by the Dolphins 55-14. After the Thanksgiving project with the Cardinals failed, the league and the Cowboys agreed to resume hosting the game in Dallas. Since 2006, a third NFL game has been played on Thanksgiving, and unlike the two games earlier in the day, the third game doesn’t have a set host for the matchup.
In November of 2022, the NFL announced that the Thanksgiving games would be branded as the “John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration” to honor the memory of the Hall of Fame Head Coach. John Madden started the “Turkey Leg Award” in 1989 when he awarded it to the game’s most valuable player. The “Turkey Leg Award” is quite literally a cooked turkey leg that the MVP eats during the post-game interview of the game. The first player to receive the award was Reggie White, and some other notable recipients are Emmitt Smith (5), Tony Romo (4), Josh Allen, Drew Brees, and Brett Favre (3).
2024 Thanksgiving Schedule
(4-7) Chicago Bears at (10-1) Detroit Lions: 11:00 am CT
(2-9) New York Giants at (4-7) Dallas Cowboys: 3:30 pm CT
(5-6) Miami Dolphins at (8-3) Green Bay Packers: 7:20 pm CT