Although I do not recall when I first heard the rationale, but it has stuck in my head each year when Thanksgiving rolls around. It references Thanksgiving being the best holiday of the year because ‘you don’t have to buy gifts, just eat and sit around and watch football all day.’
While that was never the Pilgrims’ intent 404 years ago, the annual gathering of family and friends on this late November day includes many of these same rudimentary ingredients.
For everyone born after World War II, NFL football and a huge turkey spread have been a Thanksgiving staple since 1945; however, the first Turkey Day game was actually played eleven years earlier.
The Detroit Lions established the first Thanksgiving game in 1934, the first season they played in Detroit. Their owner, George Richards, a local radio executive, wanted the team to play on the holiday to bring more fans to the stadium. The Detroit Tigers were the most popular sports team at the time, and Richards thought this game could get more fans to watch the Lions.
The game was a sellout, and the Lions lost a close 19-16 game to the Chicago Bears, but Richards had attracted 94 radio stations to broadcast the game. The game was so popular that it became a permanent part of the schedule, disrupted only during the years of World War II.
In the 1960s, when NFL TV viewership was rapidly growing, the league wanted to add a second holiday game, and unknowingly, I sat in on TV history in 1966.
At the time, I was a student at the University of Houston, and so many miles from home, Thanksgiving loomed as a lonely day in the dorms, as the campus had been vacated by homebound travelers. A few days earlier, I became aware of a program that invited students to sign up to be matched with Houston-area households to be ‘adopted’ for the day, and I received notice of the family I would be visiting.
On Thanksgiving morning, I was met on campus by my host family. On the ride to their home, the husband asked if I was a football fan. Replying, I was, and my favorite team was the Baltimore Colts, I received a stern rebuff. ‘Today, you’ll be a fan of the Dallas Cowboys,’ I was told.
At-the-time Dallas president Tex Schramm volunteered the Cowboys to play the second game of the day, so long as the team could host the game each year. So, on that 1966 Thanksgiving Day, in the home of a family I had just met, I combined a TV first, a great home-cooked meal, and my christening as a Dallas Cowboy fan.
The Cowboys won that Thanksgiving game 26-14 over the Cleveland Browns and will continue that tradition when they play the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday. The Lions have played 84 Thanksgiving games and will host the Green Bay Packers this year over whom they hold a 12-9-1 Turkey Day record.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are the only active NFL franchise to have never played on Thanksgiving. Three teams have only played once: the Carolina Panthers, Cincinnati Bengals, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Carolina (1-0), the Baltimore Ravens, and Houston, Texas (2-0) are undefeated on Turkey Day, while the Cleveland Browns are a winless 0-3.
While Thanksgiving was celebrated well before football crashed the party, from a sports perspective, the day provides an opportunity to reflect upon the thankfulness that can be generated for those who have participated in team sports. They include:
Teamwork: We greater than I. When a group of people can work together to overcome obstacles and achieve a common goal, lessons are learned that can be carried throughout a lifetime.
Learning from mistakes: No one is perfect, no matter how much you practice. Focusing on mistakes and the negative impact will make it difficult to succeed in the next opportunity that comes your way.
Communication: In sports or life, communication with your teammates keeps everyone ready and on the same page to achieve success.
Self-Confidence: If you want to accomplish anything in life, believe in yourself and ‘be ready to swing at the next pitch.’
Following Directions: Don’t be afraid to take advice from people trying to help you. Get used to it, and learn how to take instruction.
Be Punctual: If everyone is punctual, everyone benefits. People are depending on you to be on time, every time.
Decision Making: Team sports help you learn to make decisions, sometimes under stressful conditions.
Making Friends: Providing help and support is a great way to make friends. Support teammates provide one another, bringing them closer together.
Representing a Group: Gaining the understanding that once you put on a team uniform, you are representing a group. Do not allow yourself to make stupid decisions that would bring the team down.
Wishing you and yours and the home team a very thankful Thanksgiving!
