For many people, Thanksgiving is a time for food, family and fellowship. For a not insignificant number of people, Thanksgiving is also time for another F word: football.
Football, specifically NFL football, has become a staple of the annual holiday, something the NFL is keenly aware of.
“NFL games are as much a part of Thanksgiving as turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie,” boasts a side bar on the NFL’s website under their Thanksgiving section.
That tradition of professional football on the holiday is connected to two specific teams: the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys, which each host a Thanksgiving game annually.
“[Playing football on Thanksgiving] is still alive in the National Football League in two franchise cities, Detroit
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and Dallas, where Thanksgiving Day football has become a normal, expected way of life,” reads a post about the history of Thanksgiving football on the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s website. While most football fan could name the teams that play on Thanksgiving, that same follower may not know why the Lions and Cowboys, out of all 32 teams in the NFL, always play. The short answer is tradition. The Lions and Cowboys always play on Thanksgiving because they have done so for years. The long answer is a little more complex. The Lions began the tradition of NFL football on Thanksgiving in 1934 after George A. Richards bought the team and moved it from Ohio to Detroit. “Right away, the radio entrepreneur hand an issue: the Tigers,” wrote Eric Adelson in a 2012 Yahoo! Sports article. “Detroit’s baseball team was dominant, making it to the World Series that year and bearing down on its first championship in 1935…. The Lions were…talented but a side dish at best. Richards needed something to set his team apart.” So, he chose to play a game on Thanksgiving. It was not the first time the league scheduled a game on Thanksgiving, but Richards made it bigger and better than ever before. He scheduled the Chicago Bears to face his Lions. The Bears were perhaps the best team in the game at the time. According to the article on the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s website, the Bears had won 11 consecutive games before the contest, while the Lions were 10-1 on the season. Richards, a radio veteran, also set the game apart by partnering with NBC Radio to broadcast the game to 94 stations across the country, one of the biggest listening audiences to date. The Lions lost that first game 19-16, but they sold out their stadium for the first time all season and had to turn thousands of fans away at the gate. Richards decided to keep Thanksgiving football a tradition in Detroit. Motown kept its monopoly on Thanksgiving NFL football for years, but in 1966 the relatively new Dallas Cowboys decided to get in on the act. Although the Thanksgiving games consistently earned great TV ratings, the league harbored concerns about filling the stadium on a day dedicated to celebrating with loved ones over a home cooked meal. Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm, however, saw it as a marketing opportunity. “The team was struggling badly under head coach Tom Landry and the franchise was one of the more obscure teams in the league,” Adam Carlson wrote in a 2015 article for Fansided. “Schramm saw an opportunity for the Cowboys to get a primetime game by offering to play on the holiday when other squads were declining.” The fears of low turnout proved unfounded, as Dallas beat the Cleveland Browns 26-14 in front of a record-breaking crowd of over 80,000 people. Since then, the Cowboys have continued hosting duties in all but 1975 and 1977, when the St.
Louis Cardinals hosted a game as part of a failed plan to alternate between St. Louis and Dallas. The NFL gave up on the enterprise after the Cardinal’s poor attendance and performance compared with the Super Bowl-contending Cowboys.
The Lions have also faced some adversity when it comes to hosting their game. That reached its peaked in the most recent century, as fans and owners began to wonder if the league should replace the Lions on the ticket because of their losing trend.
Thus, besides the addition of an evening game in 2006, NFL football on Thanksgiving has largely remained the same for decades. In that time, it’s become a hallmark of the holiday, especially for its home cities, as the Lions website attests, though the sentiment is certainly true for the Cowboys as well.
“When you think of Thanksgiving, you think of football and the Lions,” the post reads. “The Thanksgiving tradition is older than 24 current NFL franchises, and Detroit’s passionate affair with the annual Thanksgiving Day game is evidenced by its growing popularity. Year after year, Detroiters look forward to not only spending Thanksgiving with their families, but they also enjoy sharing that time with the
Lions.”
It is the reason fans fill the stadiums or turn them into ghost towns. If you were to look up success in the NFL one would probably see a picture of the Patriots. Six trips to the Super Bowl, fourteen winning records, and making the playoffs fourteen out of fifteen times within a fifteen year period are all hallmarks of their success. Comparing that to the Cowboys’ one playoff win, zero Super Bowl appearances, and five winning records within that same time span really shows which team has enjoyed more
America’s newfound favorite pastime, football, came from a bizarre chain of events. Football started when a soccer player got fed up with just kicking the ball, so he picked up the ball and ran to the goal. His actions of picking up the ball and running with it fathered a new European sport, rugby, which was soon brought over to American shores, and was altered slightly, the shape of the ball and a few other small rules. The sport became organized into a league and produced the NFL(National Football League). The NFL had a slow beginning, but has picked up popularity, currently having a $9 billion yearly revenue.
The history of the Rams has not always been in St. Louis as most of you
The Dallas Cowboys, America’s football team, one of the most well known professional football franchises in the sport’s history. The Cowboys own five super bowl titles, which were won in ’71, ’77, ’92, ’93 and ’95. They are also home to 19 renowned individuals who have been inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame including standout football stars Tony Dorsett, Emmit Smith, and Troy Aikman. Established in 1960, the Cowboys have been a dominating force on the field and still continue to produce to this day. Forbes wrote, “The Cowboys franchise value reaches over 1.85 billion and are listed as the third most valued sports team in the world”, (Page 1). With all of this hype and world wide recognition the powerhouse from Dallas needs a venue just as prominent as the team itself as well as having the capability to hold all the weight the Cowboys name carries.
The longer that football was on television, the more intense the publicity for the NFL became. The Monday Night Football Logo showed to helmets hitting together forcefully, the NFL marketed the violence and captured the tension between violence and the art of football.
Dallas cowboys are among the top ranking professional American football sports franchise in the world. They play in the eastern Division of National Football League (NFL). The owner of the Dallas Cowboys is Jerry Jones. They have a great fan following not only for their performance but for their pregame, in game and post game activities as well. They have many large fan communities. One of them is “blogging the boys”. They have their fan communities in every city and country of the world. They provide best entertainment before and after the game to their fans. They have the largest domed stadium facility complete with a retractable roof.
There is considerable controversy that dates back to the 1960’s over sports teams’ names that reference Native American heritage. “The National Congress of American Indiana’s (NCIA) created a campaign in 1968 to eliminate stereotypes found in print and other media.” (ChangeTheMascot.org). The American Indian community has worked for many years to abolish the right to use Native American Names, spiritual and cultural symbols by professional sports teams (Teters) that they feel offensive. The Washington Redskins football team continues to battle a long standing controversy to change their name. Native Americans, politicians, fans of American football, as well as the general public all seem to have opposing viewpoints regarding if this team should be forced to change their name out of respect to those offended.
...nderstand and appreciate the games my dad and the rest of my male family members have been watching for years, I became that much closer with all of them. As John Madden said “The turkey brings the family together, but the football keeps them together” (www.espn.com). As a tradition Thanksgiving’s football watching extravaganza has become an occasion I have begun to look forward to for months. After spending this great tradition with my father and my family those geezers are looking a lot younger.
Now don’t be confused on the word football, since I am not talking about “soccer” at all. Football which is otherwise known as the NFL or the National Football League, is an American based sport that involves thirty-two teams from cities all over the country that compete against each other through strategy and strength in order to reach one goal; to win the Super Bowl.
American Football is a huge spectator sport where offensive and defensive players will use teamwork and perseverance to try and score more points than their opponent. Football is highly respected in America, where boys will try and pursue the dream of playing in the NFL (National Football Association) someday; but if you look at an average neighborhood, you will find that kids and adults of all ages love to go out and throw around the pigskin. (Lerner and Lerner 275). One thing Americans will take pride in is the college and NFL football teams they root for. People sit down with a beer and talk hours upon hours of football and two individuals can get in a heated discussion in the local sports store of whose sports team is better.
When the discussion about how the United States is different from other countries comes up people are quick to say football, the American way, but more specifically the NFL. The NFL, which stands for National Football League, was birthed in 1922 after changing its name from the American Professional Football Association (NFL 2013). Since the birth of American football, fans and players raised the NFL to become the most popular sport worldwide. According to Isidore (2013), the NFL had a profit of $9.5 billion, the highest of all American professional sports. The profit, however, barely comes from sales produced by women merchandise.
The National Football League (NFL) has a concussion problem. Of course, many believe they’ve known that for quite some time. That hasn’t changed the fact that football is America’s favorite pastime (sorry baseball) – and dominates the airwaves each and every Sunday while the season is in session.
Football is by all means an American sport. Since the day a baby is born in America whether it be a boy or a girl, one of the first words they learn to say is ball, and after a few months they add the word foot in front of the word ball, and by the time you know it your baby boy is playing football, and your little girl is cheering “Go Steeler’s go!” and without intention their cultural identity starts. As far back as I can remember, every year, uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends would gather at my family’s home to watch this event called theSuper Bowl. It was something that could not be missed, because if you did you were considered a lost cause.
The National Football League (NFL) has been a staple on Sunday’s in America homes for quiet sometime. It provides excitement and generates billion’s of dollars, but what I told you that this league may lose viewers or even not exist in a few years. The NFL is a great brand, but what is potentially going up against may have you scratching your head as a parent to let your child even take a snap early in his football career if not taken care of.
In the modern day United States the sport American football has become not only entertainment but also a tradition whether it’s watching the BCS college championship or watching the super bowl with the family. The sport of American football is unique to the United States and has grown and became iconic over the years and has become a part of many Americans lives. American Football was made in 1869 and was modeled after the sport of rugby. They took the basics of rugby and changed it to make it fit better for them. The game has changed over the years but it also affected many Americans as the tradition of Monday Night football has begun. The game has had problems with the United States government as it was said to be too dangerous to play, this lead to an upgrade in the equipment and they tried very hard to make the equipment well ensuring player safety throughout the sport.