Dallas and Detroit play on Thanksgiving because each franchise grabbed the holiday as a promotional showcase decades ago, and the NFL eventually locked those traditions in as annual, nationally televised home games for both teams.

Origins of Detroit on Thanksgiving

  • In 1934, new Lions owner and radio executive George A. Richards needed attention in a baseball‑first city that preferred the Detroit Tigers.
  • He scheduled a special Thanksgiving game against the undefeated Chicago Bears as a publicity stunt, tied it to radio coverage, and sold out the 26,000‑seat University of Detroit Stadium, convincing the league to keep giving Detroit the holiday slot.
  • Aside from a pause during World War II (1939–1944), the Lions have hosted a Thanksgiving game every year since, making them the longest‑running NFL Thanksgiving tradition.

How Dallas Got its Thanksgiving Game

  • The Cowboys were an expansion team in 1960 and struggled to fill seats and build a national fanbase in their early years.
  • In 1966, general manager Tex Schramm lobbied hard for a Thanksgiving game, believing a nationally televised holiday slot would boost the team’s profile and ticket sales.
  • The first Cowboys Thanksgiving game in 1966 drew over 80,000 fans and strong TV interest, so the NFL essentially made the Cowboys the permanent afternoon host, with only 1975 and 1977 given briefly to the St. Louis Cardinals before Dallas reclaimed the spot “for good.”

Why It Stuck: Tradition and TV

  • By the 1970s, Thanksgiving football had become part of the holiday routine in U.S. households, and the Lions’ early slot plus the Cowboys’ later game gave networks reliable national ratings anchors.
  • The league kept Detroit and Dallas in place because fans associated those teams with the holiday, ratings stayed strong, and both franchises embraced the branding and pageantry around being “the Thanksgiving game.”
  • When the NFL later added a third prime‑time Thanksgiving matchup, it did so without touching Detroit’s morning/early‑afternoon home game or Dallas’s late‑afternoon home game, reinforcing the idea that those two are the permanent hosts and everyone else rotates through as opponents.

“Why Those Two?” in Today’s Context

  • The short‑week scheduling is now seen as both a perk and a burden: the Lions and Cowboys always get the home‑field advantage, while opponents travel on a tight turnaround, which fans debate as “unfair” but accept as baked‑in tradition.
  • Even when the teams have struggled on the field, the Thanksgiving slots have remained because they are high‑rating TV properties and part of the cultural ritual of the holiday, much like the parade or the turkey itself.

Quick Scoop (SEO‑style recap)

  • Why do Dallas and Detroit play on Thanksgiving?
    • Detroit started in 1934 as a radio‑driven publicity stunt to sell tickets and attention in a Tigers‑dominated sports town.
* Dallas joined in 1966 after GM Tex Schramm pushed for the holiday game to grow the Cowboys’ brand nationally, which worked so well the slot became effectively permanent.

* The NFL and TV networks kept both as annual home hosts because fans now expect “Lions early, Cowboys later” every Thanksgiving, and the games consistently draw strong national audiences.

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