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Todd Archer
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Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer
- Todd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003. He joined ESPN in 2010.
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Eric Woodyard
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Eric Woodyard
ESPN
- Eric Woodyard covers the Detroit Lions for ESPN. He joined ESPN in September 2019 as an NBA reporter dedicated to the Midwest region before switching to his current role in April 2021. The Flint, Mich. native is a graduate of Western Michigan University and has authored/co-authored three books: Ā«Wasted,Ā» Ā«Ethan’s Talent SearchĀ» and Ā«All In: The Kelvin Torbert StoryĀ». He is a proud parent of one son, Ethan.
Thanksgiving Day to sports fans is as much about football as it is about the traditional turkey dinner. From high school football in the morning to watching the afternoon game on TV as dinner starts, this tradition is as old as time. Well, almost as old as time.
The Detroit Lions have played at home on Thanksgiving every year since 1934 — except when games were paused from 1939 to 1944 during World War II. The annual holiday tradition expanded to add a home game for the Dallas Cowboys in the 1960s. In 2006, the NFL added a third game with no specific host team to the prime-time window.
The 2025 Thanksgiving Day schedule:
Each of these games has a halftime performance. Jack White will perform in Detroit, Post Malone will take the stage in Arlington, Texas, and Lil Jon will perform in Baltimore.
So why do the Lions and Cowboys always play at home on Thanksgiving? What does the day look like for the coaches, players, families and fans who put their holiday celebrations on pause to take part? And how many thousands of pounds of food is served at the stadium? We asked NFL Nation reporters Todd Archer and Eric Woodyard to explain the history.
We have also laid out the Thanksgiving stats and numbers you should know, and even took a journey back in time to explore the biggest and best moments on the turkey day stage. (Note: This story was originally posted in November 2021 and has been updated for 2025.)
Jump to a section:
Thanksgiving records | By the numbers
Best moments in Thanksgiving history
How the Thanksgiving tradition began
The Lions were first up to host games every year: In 1934, Lions owner G.A. Richards scheduled a holiday matchup between the Lions and the Bears. Earlier that year Richards had purchased the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans football team and moved it to the Motor City, renaming it the Detroit Lions. The defending back-to-back world champion Bears beat the Lions 19-16 in front of 26,000 at the University of Detroit Stadium on Nov. 29, 1934.
Now, nine decades later, Thanksgiving football has become a staple in Detroit, with the Lions going 37-45-2 in the annual holiday classic. — Woodyard
Thirty-two years later, the Cowboys joined as a home team: The Cowboys first played on Thanksgiving in 1966, beating the Cleveland Browns 26-14 at the Cotton Bowl. General manager Tex Schramm wanted more national publicity for the Cowboys — this was before they were known as America’s Team — and thought the holiday game made perfect sense. The NFL was a bit worried, however, and guaranteed the Cowboys a certain amount of gate revenue. A crowd of 80,259 showed up and a tradition was born. The Cowboys have played on every Thanksgiving Day since — except in 1975 and 1977.
Tyler Smith grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, so he knew all about the Thanksgiving tradition when he was drafted by the Cowboys in the first round in 2022.
Though he might have seen Tony Romo throw five touchdown passes against the Buccaneers in 2006 and Dak Prescott beat Washington in 2018 with Amari Cooper catching two touchdowns on 180 yards, it was Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh’s stomping on Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith in 2011 that he remembers most.
Ā«All of America was like, Wow, did he really just do that?'Ā» Smith said. Ā«I’ve never seen anybody do that before.Ā»
Now that he is playing on Thanksgiving, he called it an honor.
Ā«It’s a privilege for me each and every opportunity, I think, just to be able to play on Thanksgiving, to be able to have my people gather around, just enjoy the day and see me get to live out my dreams,Ā» Smith said. Ā«That’s really big for me.Ā»
Growing up, Smith would head to see family in Shreveport, Louisiana, for the holiday. The games were on TV whether he was at his great aunt’s house or an uncle’s house. There would be more than 20 people in the house, most of them watching football.
These days, Smith has dinner after the game.
Ā«That’s kind of been my routine,Ā» Smith said. Ā«For my game days, I like to be alone [the night before]. I don’t like to have that many people around me, so definitely no Thanksgiving festivities before the game, but afterwards, after we handle our business and do what we need to do, definitely get together with family.Ā»
His mother will cook a ham and cabbage greens.
Ā«Stuff that she knows I like,Ā» Smith said.
What does he bring?
Ā«My appetite,Ā» Smith said. — Archer
Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown is gearing up to play in his fifth NFL Thanksgiving game with the team, though to him the experience is not so unusual because he would always have at least a practice on the holiday in high school.
Still, playing on Thanksgiving in the NFL is a big tradition — and one he has embraced.
Ā«We always play on Thanksgiving, but I think it’s kind of nice because if you have a game on Sunday, you’ve got to practice on Thursdays, which kind of runs until 5 o’clock, but if you have a game, we have a game at 12:30, we play and then after that we’re free and we can hang out with family the rest of the day. You don’t have to worry about getting up the next day, so I like the tradition,Ā» St. Brown told ESPN.
Ā«It’s fun, and everyone’s tuned in on Thanksgiving. Everyone is watching football. I remember as a kid watching Thanksgiving football because you’re out eating with friends and then you just throw football on.Ā» — Woodyard
How do players celebrate Thanksgiving?
Celebrations generally don’t happen until the next day, when Lions players can celebrate with their families. Lomas Brown, former Lions Pro Bowl OT (1985-95), says he Ā«couldn’t wait until after the game was over, man.Ā»
Ā«Because look, it wasn’t just that Thursday night, at least for me, I went on an eating binge Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I would put on weight over the holiday because a brother would throw down because you didn’t have no more responsibility after that game until next week. So, it was almost like another little open week, and that’s the way we kind of looked at it, too.Ā» — Woodyard
For the Cowboys, most players with families will also celebrate on Friday. With a late-afternoon kickoff, most of the time players will not get back to their homes until later in the evening, far too late for such a heavy meal. — Archer
Teams give back to community
The Cowboys open the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign kickoff at halftime of every Thanksgiving game. Since 1997, nearly $3 billion has been raised and aiding the Salvation Army is a long-standing priority for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Jerry, along with his daughter Charlotte, have led multiple initiatives year-round with the Salvation Army, from raising money with the 50/50 raffle at games to holiday initiatives that benefit local communities.
In most years, Cowboys players will visit a Salvation Army shelter in Dallas or Fort Worth and feed early Thanksgiving Day meals to those in need, although that practice was put on hold in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic before being restarted in 2022.
In the past, players often were joined by their wives and children. Former tight end Jason Witten had his two sons and two daughters participated in handing out meals during his career with the Cowboys.
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Ā«I just try to tell [my kids], ‘Look, you’re going to have an opportunity to give back to people that are less fortunate,'Ā» Witten said a few years ago. Ā«They do it with a happy heart. I think they like seeing those fans and being able to hand out that food.Ā» — Archer
The Lions also give back to the community during Thanksgiving week, distributing 2,500 meal kits with whole turkeys at six different locations throughout Metro Detroit.
Each kit contains approximately 26 pounds of food (turkey, vegetables, stuffing, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, gravy, etc.) and will be distributed to about 56,000 people. Players and other volunteers helped assemble the kits. — Woodyard
What are some season-ticket holder traditions?
There is a tailgating group of more than 100 die-hard Lions fans who will gather bright and early at 10 a.m., in the parking lot of the Detroit Vineyards located at 1000 Gratiot Ave. Usually, they cook about four turkeys and each sign up to bring a side dish. The dishes are named based on the team the Lions are facing — for example, Bears Stew and Mac-And-Not-Packer-Cheese.
This year, it’ll be $20 to enter and that will include a full Thanksgiving dinner along with beverages, parking and the set up fee.
Megan Stefanski, a lifelong Lions fan and longtime season-ticket holder, helps organize the festivities. She makes a five-hour drive from Goetzville, Michigan — located in the Upper Peninsula — to Detroit.
Mark Ā«PilgrimĀ» Mullins has been a season-ticket holder since 1991 and dresses up yearly as a pilgrim for each Thanksgiving Day game with his daughter, Mandie, accompanying him also in costume.
Ā«We’re known in Detroit as the pilgrims,Ā» he said in 2021. Ā«Matter of fact, I’ve got souvenirs from all my friends this year because it’s my 30th anniversary of actually dressing as the pilgrim.Ā» Each year, he has added to his costume, since the Pontiac Silverdome days and now at Ford Field. He also attends the tailgates with Stefanski.
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At Ford Field in Detroit, the stadium’s culinary hospitality team will get the day started at 3 a.m. ET to ensure everything is ready to go ahead of the 12:30 p.m. kickoff. For fans in the stadium, previous years featured turkey legs, loaded sweet potatoes and bourbon-spiked cider available to purchase. And more extensive Thanksgiving meals are served to suite members. — Woodyard
Here’s a breakdown of food by the pound, according to Levy Restaurants in 2023:
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4,100 pounds of turkey
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1,800 turkey legs
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3,200 pounds of mashed potatoes
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110 gallons of gravy
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2,200 pounds of stuffing
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55 gallons of cranberry sauce
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720 pounds of green beans
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500 pounds of corn on the cob
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3,700 slices of pie
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4,000 bloody marys
Thanksgiving by the numbers
1: Number of teams to never play on Thanksgiving Day: Jacksonville Jaguars
4: Winless teams on Thanksgiving: Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Jaguars
6: Most passing touchdowns in a single Thanksgiving game, held by Bob Griese (1977) and Peyton Manning (2004).
6: Thanksgiving Day shutouts since the merger in 1970. There has not been a shutout since the Cowboys shut out the Miami Dolphins in 1999.
8.5: Most career sacks on Thanksgiving, held by former Lions DE Ezekiel Ansah.
11: Most career Thanksgiving receiving touchdowns, held by former Lions WR Calvin Johnson.
18: Most career touchdown passes on Thanksgiving, held by former Cowboys QB Tony Romo and former Lions QB Matthew Stafford.
895: Most career receiving yards on Thanksgiving, held by former Cowboys TE Jason Witten.
1,178: Most career rushing yards on Thanksgiving, held by former Cowboys RB Emmitt Smith. Smith also has the most career rushing touchdowns on Thanksgiving with 13.
3,000: Most career passing yards on Thanksgiving, held by Stafford in 10 career Thanksgiving games.
Thanksgiving’s best moments
1974:
Backup QB Clint Longley took over for a concussed Roger Staubach with the Cowboys trailing Washington 16-3. Longley rallied Dallas by capping off the comeback with a 50-yard touchdown pass to Drew Pearson with 28 seconds left to edge Washington 24-23.
@ChicagoBears tied the game on the final play of regulation.
Then on the first play of overtime…
(Nov. 27, 1980 – Thanksgiving) #DETvsCHI pic.twitter.com/kta4Aq5uDA
ā NFL Throwback (@nflthrowback) November 11, 2018
1982:
New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor returned a 97-yard pick-six in a 13-6 win over the Lions.
He collapsed the pocket all day.
Then, in the fourth quarter, he scored the game’s only touchdown.
It’s hard for a defensive player to leave as big of an imprint on a game as Lawrence Taylor did in this Thanksgiving clash with the Lions.
(Nov. 25, 1982) @Giants @LT_56 pic.twitter.com/G3Jswhynxm
ā NFL Throwback (@nflthrowback) November 23, 2018
1993:
Cowboys defensive tackle Leon Lett inexplicably tried to recover a blocked game-winning field goal attempt. The ball was booted forward by Lett and recovered by the Dolphins at the 2-yard line. Miami connected on its next field goal attempt and won 16-14.
@BarrySanders rushed for 167 yards and three touchdowns against the Bears on Thanksgiving! š¦ (Nov. 27, 1997)#CHIvsDET: Thanksgiving Day at 12:30pm ET on FOX pic.twitter.com/dMa0jYGPm3
ā NFL Legacy (@NFLLegacy) November 27, 2019
1998:
Vikings rookie Randy Moss had only three catches, but all three went for 50-plus-yard touchdowns in a 46-36 win over the Cowboys. Three catches. Three TDs. 163 yards.
Three catches. Three TDs. 163 yards.
The Cowboys passed on @RandyMoss in the draft.
So when he took the field in Dallas on Thanksgiving of his rookie year, he ripped them up. (Nov. 26, 1998) @Vikings pic.twitter.com/3chjj0l8tp
ā NFL Throwback (@nflthrowback) November 22, 2018
2004:
In Indianapolis’ 41-9 win over the Lions, Colts QB Peyton Manning threw six touchdown passes, tied for the most on Thanksgiving Day with Bob Griese (1977).
That time Peyton threw more touchdowns (6) than incompletions (5) on Thanksgiving. (Nov. 25, 2004)
šŗ: @ProFootballHOF Enshrinement Week — Aug. 5-8 on @NFLNetwork pic.twitter.com/nEIOR4og6K
ā NFL Throwback (@nflthrowback) July 30, 2021
2010:
Tom Brady finished with a perfect passer rating. Brady completed 21 of 27 passes for 341 yards and four touchdowns in the Patriots’ 45-24 rout of the Lions. The Patriots actually trailed 24-17 midway through the third quarter before Brady threw three touchdown passes — of 79 and 22 yards to Deion Branch, and 16 yards to Wes Welker — in a span of 13 minutes, 30 seconds.
Also known as the Ā«Butt Fumble.Ā»
