The Dallas Cowboys “always” play on Thanksgiving because the team voluntarily turned the holiday into a national showcase in the 1960s, and the NFL has protected that tradition ever since.

Quick Scoop

How the tradition started

  • In 1966, Cowboys executive Tex Schramm asked the NFL for a Thanksgiving home game to generate publicity and boost a then-struggling franchise that was still building its fan base.
  • At the time, midweek games were uncommon and some teams worried fans would not show, so Dallas volunteered for the risk in exchange for a nationally televised spotlight.

Why the Cowboys kept the slot

  • The first Thanksgiving game in 1966 drew huge crowds at the Cotton Bowl and strong TV numbers, convincing the NFL to keep Dallas as a regular holiday host.
  • Outside of 1975 and 1977, when the league briefly gave the game to the St. Louis Cardinals (and quickly reversed course after poor results), the Cowboys have hosted every Thanksgiving since.

NFL’s bigger picture

  • The NFL realized Thanksgiving games could become some of the most-watched regular-season events of the year, so it built a fixed tradition: Detroit in the early game and Dallas in the later afternoon window.
  • Keeping the Cowboys on Thanksgiving also leverages their “America’s Team” brand, ensuring a large national audience and strong advertising value every year.

Modern fan and forum chatter

  • On forums and social media, fans often joke that “the Cowboys are as much a part of Thanksgiving as turkey,” mixing nostalgia (Leon Lett’s 1993 blunder, classic comebacks) with debate over whether other teams should get that high-profile slot.
  • Even when people complain about the same teams appearing, viewership numbers remain high, which reinforces the league’s incentive to keep the Cowboys in the Thanksgiving lineup.

So when people ask why do Cowboys always play on Thanksgiving , the short answer is: they asked for the spotlight early, delivered big audiences, and the NFL turned it into a permanent holiday tradition.

TL;DR: The Cowboys play on Thanksgiving because Tex Schramm volunteered for a Thanksgiving game in 1966 to gain attention, it became a ratings and attendance hit, and the NFL locked Dallas into that holiday slot almost every year since.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.