Why do the Cowboys and Lions always play on Thanksgiving?

(Editor's note: A version of this story originally ran in 2020.)

If you're reading this on Thanksgiving, you have questions about the NFL teams you're about to watch play on Turkey Day. Maybe you don't know the answer to this question that comes up every year: Why do the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys ALWAYS play on Thanksgiving?

Good question, right? There were years when both teams weren't that great, yet they still got that seat at the table for one of the biggest NFL days of the year.

Let's go back in time for the answer as to when this all started and see if we can figure out why this is still the case.

When did Thanksgiving NFL games start in the first place?

Per Princeton University, Princeton and Yale played each other in football in 1876, and the game would become a tradition until 1893. When professional football sprouted up in the early 20th century, Thanksgiving games did as well.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame lists Thanksgiving games starting in 1920 between teams including the Decatur Staleys and Chicago Tigers and the Dayton Triangles and Detroit Heralds.

When did the Lions start playing on Thanksgiving?

In 1934, Detroit Lions owner George Richards decided a good way to market his team was to play on Thanksgiving. He also agreed to allow NBC's radio station network to broadcast that first game between the Lions and Chicago Bears. He had hit on something, per the Hall of Fame:

The 26,000 tickets for the Turkey Day clash in the University of Detroit Stadium, were sold out two weeks in advance of the game. It was estimated that another 25,000 would have attended had there been seats available.

They did it again next year and the year after that, and thus a tradition was born.

When did the Cowboys start to play on Thanksgiving?

Dallas owner Tex Schramm, too, wanted some national attention, so he volunteered his team to play. The NFL was concerned about how many tickets the Cowboys could sell that day, but the same thing that happened with the Lions: after the league got a guarantee of minimum ticket revenue, the Cowboys had a reported 80,000-plus fans show up to watch them play the Cleveland Browns.

When did the NFL add a third game to the Thanksgiving lineup?

That would be in 2006.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Why Cowboys and Lions always play on Thanksgiving, explained