How NFL football became a Thanksgiving holiday tradition

Before the NFL had three Thanksgiving games — or any games at all — the tradition was already under way in one part of the country.

The northeast is credited with creating the Thanksgiving game tradition. But, no, it wasn't the New York Giants or the New York Jets that started it. Rather, the tradition began in the upscale setting of Princeton and Yale.

'People in this area ... are used to having football with their turkey.'

Back in 1876, the two schools played what is considered to be the first college football game on Nov. 30. Just 1,000 fans sat through a 2-0 Yale victory in Hoboken, New Jersey, that would start a tradition for the ages.

Over the next two decades, the annual game grew in popularity, with Princeton winning 6-0 in front of more than 50,000 fans in 1892, according to History. While this was the last time the schools met on Thanksgiving, the tradition was in full swing as colleges, high schools, and clubs played around 5,000 games on Thanksgiving Day throughout the 1890s.

Thanksgiving Pros

While most associate the start of the Thanksgiving tradition in the NFL with the Detroit Lions, there was more than a decade of games on the holiday before it became a fixture in the Motor City.

On Thanksgiving 1920, teams like the Akron Pros and the Dayton Triangles shut out the Canton Bulldogs and Detroit Heralds, 7-0 and 28-0, respectively. Even non-league teams like the Elyria Athletics and Chicago Boosters played that Thanksgiving.

In 1922, the Chicago Bears played their first of 17 consecutive Thanksgiving games. One of those games was against the Lions in 1934 after entrepreneur George A. Richards bought the Ohio Spartans for just under $8,000 and moved them to Detroit. In order to draw fans, he invited the champion Bears for the Thanksgiving game.

A record 26,000 fans watched the game at the University of Detroit Stadium, setting a record for a football game in Detroit. Even though the Bears won 19-16 — finishing with an undefeated season — it sparked a Lions tradition that continues to this day.

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Photo by Jorge Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Lions and Cowboys and Cardinals, oh my!

Since the Lions became the Lions, they have hosted a Thanksgiving game every year — except between 1939 and 1944 during World War II.

The first televised game came in 1953 for the Green Bay Packers-Lions game, but fans would have to wait another 13 years for a second Thanksgiving game to come on the airwaves.

On November 24, 1966, the Dallas Cowboys became the second team to host a televised Turkey Day game. They beat the Cleveland Browns 26-14 at the Cotton Bowl in front of more than 80,000 fans that day.

The area was thirsty for the tradition to continue. Cowboys General Manager Tex Schramm remarked at the time that Texas football fans had become accustomed to the holiday game.

"People in this area, because of the Texas-Texas A&M game, are used to having football with their turkey," he said.

For nearly a decade, the Cowboys hosted the second game. However, in 1975 the NFL wanted to showcase the St. Louis Cardinals' highly-touted offense and gave the team a few years to show it off. They lost in 1975, 1976, and 1977 — including a loss to the Cowboys in '76 — before the league asked the Cowboys if they wanted to take the tradition back for the 1978 game.

"I said only if we got it permanently," Schramm told the Chicago Tribune in 1998, according to History. "It's something you have to build as tradition. He said, 'It's yours forever.'"

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Turducken and a third game

Late and great coach-turned-commentator John Madden has brought the football world so many things: Madden video games, hilarious telestrator segments, and, of course, his sideburns.

Another addition in his 85 years was bringing the joy of eating to the Thanksgiving Day broadcast.

Calling 22 straight Thanksgiving games starting in 1981, Madden's three-bird roast was born in the lead-up to the 1996 broadcast, according to ESPN. Along with his annual Turkey Leg Award for player of the game that started in 1989, the turducken became an annual staple, with Madden explaining his complex process on how to cook, cut, and even eat the birds.

In 2002, he even tore the roast open with his bare hands to create a working diagram.

"It's a deboned chicken stuffed in a deboned duck stuffed in a deboned turkey, with dressing between the chicken and the duck, and the duck and the turkey. So as you cut down that way, you go turkey, dressing, duck, dressing, chicken," he instructed.

Unfortunately, Madden retired just a few years after the NFL expanded its Thanksgiving schedule to three games in 2006, which would have offered a lot more opportunities to spread his turducken joy.

Although no specific host team is used for the third game, players have recently carried on Madden's tradition by eating turkey on the field after the game — or even just a carrot.

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