Traditions are good - I like traditions, but not all traditions are worth keeping. It is high time that we boot Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys from a guaranteed spot on a Thanksgiving Day. I am not suggesting this just because Lions sucks. I think no team should have a monopoly on Thanksgiving football. NFL should figure out a way to find great match ups. Perhaps, using something like the Monday Night’s Football formula.
I think one great (maybe controversial) match up would be a repeat match up between the two Super Bowl participants from the previous year, it is very rare for those teams to meet in a regular season of the Super Bowl.
Anyway, below is the explanation I found for why we have to endure the Lions and the Cowboys every year. Times are changing, so should NFL be on Thanksgiving.
"The tradition goes back as far as 1934, the year the Lions franchise moved to Detroit from their original home, Portsmouth, Ohio. New Lions owner George A. Richards was looking for a way to boost attendance for his new team which was struggling to draw 10,000 fans a game. Richards decided to schedule a game on Thanksgiving as a way to draw attention to the fledgling franchise. Richards, who owned a powerful Detroit radio station, used his connections in the media to have NBC broadcast the game nationally.
The move worked brilliantly as Richards drew 26,000 fans to the game plus a respectable radio audience. Seven decades later, football fans are having to pay the price for Richards' success by watching a horrible Lions franchise play year after year on Turkey Day.
As for the Dallas Cowboys, they first played on Thanksgiving back in 1966. The NFL was looking to add a second game to its Thanksgiving schedule. Cowboys GM Tex Schramm jumped at the chance to give his team some national exposure."
http://www.nowpublic.com/...