Why Is Football Played on Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving football didn't begin with the NFL. College teams were playing on the holiday decades before the league existed. The tradition has a much longer history than many fans realize.

College rivalries had already made Thanksgiving a popular day for football, drawing crowds eager to watch their favorite teams compete. And professional teams wanted a slice of the action, too.

In 1934, a young NFL team in Detroit decided to take a chance on a Thanksgiving game. The team was hoping to make a name for itself. What it got was something much bigger.

Before the NFL, There Was College Football

Long before Thanksgiving meant watching the Detroit Lions or Dallas Cowboys, it meant watching college rivals battle for bragging rights.

On November 30, 1876, Yale and Princeton faced each other on Thanksgiving Day in Hoboken, New Jersey. Yale won 2–0, although the game looked quite different from the football Americans recognize today. It was closer to rugby, with rules and scoring that modern fans might barely recognize.

The timing mattered. Thanksgiving was becoming a day for families and communities to gather, and college football gave them something exciting to watch together. Rivalry games drew enthusiastic crowds, and by the late nineteenth century, some matchups had become major holiday attractions.

The Yale–Princeton rivalry was a striking example. In 1893, an estimated 40,000 spectators came to watch the teams play in New York. What had once attracted a relatively small crowd had grown into a major sporting event.

College football had become one of Thanksgiving's biggest attractions. And the NFL wasn't about to miss out.

Detroit Lost the Game. Then Came the Real Victory.

In 1934, the Detroit Lions were new to their city and needed attention.

Their owner, George A. Richards, had a background in radio and understood the value of publicity. Detroit already had an established baseball team, the Tigers, and winning over local sports fans wasn't going to happen overnight.

So Richards made a bold choice. He scheduled the Lions to play the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving Day, hoping a holiday matchup would give his young franchise the spotlight it needed.

The idea worked almost immediately.

All 26,000 tickets sold out two weeks before the game. The matchup was also broadcast nationally over a network of 94 radio stations, giving people far beyond Detroit a chance to hear about the Lions.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan.

Except for one small detail.

Detroit lost.

The Bears won 19–16.

For a team trying to impress its new hometown, that might sound like a disappointing ending. Yet the scoreboard told only part of the story. The Lions had attracted a full house, reached listeners across the country, and made Thanksgiving football part of their identity.

They lost the game, but the promotion was a success.

Richards hadn't invented professional football on Thanksgiving. NFL teams had played holiday games since the league's earliest years in 1920. What Detroit did was turn one holiday matchup into an attraction that would become closely associated with the franchise.

A defeat on the field had helped launch a winning tradition.

Dallas Wanted a Piece of Thanksgiving, Too

For decades, Detroit was the team most closely associated with Thanksgiving football. Then another franchise saw an opening.

In 1966, the Dallas Cowboys decided to host a Thanksgiving game of their own.

The Cowboys were still building their reputation, and the NFL wasn't entirely convinced that a holiday game in Dallas would draw enough fans. The league even arranged a financial guarantee in case ticket sales fell short.

It turned out that Dallas didn't need the safety net.

A crowd of 80,259 showed up to watch the Cowboys face the Cleveland Browns. Dallas won 26–14, delivering the kind of holiday debut that team executives could only have hoped for.

The contrast with Detroit's first Thanksgiving game was striking. Detroit had lost but found success beyond the scoreboard. Dallas won on the field and at the ticket office.

The Cowboys soon became another holiday fixture. There were exceptions, including 1975 and 1977, when the St. Louis Cardinals hosted the Thanksgiving game instead. But Dallas eventually reclaimed its place on the holiday schedule.

What began as a way to attract attention had become something fans expected to see every November.

From a Football Game to a Family Tradition

And that same excitement and energy carried right from the stadium into living rooms across America.

Television changed where people could experience the game. What once required a seat in the stands could now be enjoyed from the couch. And as televisions grew bigger and broadcasts became more immersive, families could experience more of the action without ever setting foot in a stadium.

Thanksgiving still brings relatives together, often at Mom's or Grandma's house, sometimes after months or even years apart. Everyone is happy to reconnect, but finding common ground isn't always easy. Different cities, different lives, different interests.

And what better time to turn on the TV and catch a Thanksgiving football game?

One by one, relatives gather around the screen, caught up in the excitement. It doesn't even have to be their favorite team. And if someone happens to root for the other side? Even better!

For a few hours, different lives and different interests give way to something everyone can share. Football doesn't replace conversation. It gives the family something new to talk about, laugh about, and remember together.

Back then, for professional teams, Thanksgiving football was largely about business: drawing crowds, selling tickets, and getting attention.

But over time, it became something more: a way to strengthen the bonds among families gathered for the holiday.

On the field, the players are a team. At home, the family is a team.

References: Library of Congress · Pro Football Hall of Fame · Princeton Alumni Weekly · Detroit Historical Society · Dallas Cowboys · NFL · HISTORY