Thanksgiving Classic " The Canadian Football League also holds a Thanksgiving Day Classic on Canadian Thanksgiving . " The National Football League ' s Thanksgiving Classic is a series of games played during the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States . It has been a regular occurrence since the league ' s inception in 1920 . Since 2006 , three games are played every Thanksgiving . The first two are hosted by the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys , with one team from each conference playing either team on a rotating basis ; a third game , with no fixed opponents , has been played annually since 2006 . Broadcasting . The game with an NFC team as the visitors airs on Fox , as it has the rights to the NFC ; CBS airs the game with the AFC team as a visitor . Since 2006 , there has been a third NFL game on Thanksgiving that airs on NFL Network as part of its " Thursday Night Football " package . The " NFL on Westwood One " holds national radio broadcast rights to all three games . The team ' s usual Thursday night announcers handle the evening game , with a mix of other Westwood One announcers handling the Cowboys game . The Detroit game , however , uses other announcers not normally employed by Westwood One ; Detroit - area broadcasters were used until 2008 , but in 2009 , Sports USA Radio Network took over the announcing duties for the Lions game . History . Football on Thanksgiving is actually a tradition that predates the league ' s formation itself . Records of pro football being played on Thanksgiving date back to as early as 1902 , when the " National " Football League , a Major League Baseball - backed organization based entirely in Pennsylvania and unrelated to the current NFL , attempted to settle its championship over Thanksgiving weekend . After the game ended in a tie , eventually all three teams in the league claimed to have won the title . Members of the Ohio League , during its early years , usually placed their marquee matchups on Thanksgiving Day . For instance , in 1905 and 1906 the Latrobe Athletic Association and Canton Bulldogs , considered at the time to be two of the best teams in professional football ( along with the Massillon Tigers ) , played on Thanksgiving . A rigging scandal with the Tigers leading up to the 1906 game led to severe drops in attendance for the Bulldogs and ultimately led to their suspension of operations . During the 1910s , the Ohio League stopped holding Thanksgiving games because many of its players coached high school teams and were unavailable . This was not the case in other regional circuits : in 1919 , the New York Pro Football League featured a Thanksgiving matchup between the Buffalo Prospects and the Rochester Jeffersons . The game ended in a scoreless tie , leading to a rematch the next Sunday for the league championship . The first owner of the Lions , G . A . Richards , started the tradition of the Thanksgiving Day game as a gimmick to get people to go to Lions football games , and to continue a tradition begun by the city ' s previous NFL teams . Several other NFL teams played regularly on Thanksgiving in the past , including the Chicago Bears and Chicago Cardinals ( 1922 - 33 ; the Bears played the Lions from 1934 to 1939 while the Cardinals switched to the Green Bay Packers for 1934 and 1935 ) , Frankford Yellow Jackets , New York Giants ( 1929 – 38 , who always played a crosstown rival ) , and Green Bay Packers ( 1951 – 63 , always as the away team to the Lions ) . In 1939 and 1940 , during the Franksgiving controversy , the only two teams to play the game were the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles , as both teams were in the same state ( Pennsylvania ) . ( At the time , then - president Franklin Roosevelt wanted to move the holiday for economic reasons and many states were resistant to the move . This complicated scheduling for Thanksgiving games . ) In 1966 , the Dallas Cowboys , who had been founded six years earlier , adopted the practice of hosting Thanksgiving games . It is widely rumored that the Cowboys sought a guarantee that they would regularly host Thanksgiving games as a condition of their very first one ( since games on days other than Sunday were uncommon at the time and thus high attendance was not a certainty ) . The two " traditional " Thanksgiving Day pro football games have then been in Detroit and Dallas . Because of TV network commitments , to make sure that both the AFC - carrying network and the NFC - carrying network got at least one game each , one of these games was between NFC opponents , and one featured AFC - NFC opponents . Thus , the AFC could showcase only one team on Thanksgiving , and the AFC team was always the visiting team . AFL , AAFC and AFC Thanksgiving games . The Detroit and Dallas arrangements were made in spite of the fact that the American Football League played Thanksgiving Day games in each of its ten years of existence , 1960 - 1969 , actually beginning the tradition six years before the NFL Dallas Cowboys . From 1960 through 1966 , one AFL game was played every Thanksgiving . In 1967 , 1968 and 1969 , in the buffer period before the AFL - NFL merger , each Turkey Day had two AFL games . The team with the best record in AFL Thanksgiving Day games was the New York Titans , who played in the first three , and were 3 - 0 . The Oakland Raiders were second best , with a 3 - 1 record . The addition of the NFL Network game on Thanksgiving has AFC fans hoping that their conference will now have equal exposure , perhaps with an NFC - NFC , AFC - NFC , " and " an AFC - AFC game each Thanksgiving ; in fact , the Kansas City Chiefs ( after the Thanksgiving 2006 game ) attempted to regain " regular " status with the night game ( it was Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt who actively pushed for the night game to be established , and the league appeased him with the request ) . The Chiefs ' claim as Thanksgiving " regulars , " however , was dubious , as they had only played an AFL Thanksgiving game once — in the inaugural AFL season as the Dallas Texans — prior to when the AFL - NFL merger was finalized in 1967 , when the AFL decided to put mostly West Coast and Midwestern teams on Thanksgiving . The Buffalo Bills , on the other hand , played five games on Thanksgiving in the AFL ' s existence , between 1962 and 1968 , more than any other team , although all of those were away games ( Western New York ' s predecessor 1920s NFL franchises also played numerous times on Thanksgiving in their first 5 years , and the Bills of the AAFC , see next paragraph , also played once and won ; incidentally , the Buffalo team always was away in these cases as well ) . The Titans , Chiefs / Texans , Raiders , and Broncos each played four Thanksgiving games . The Chargers played on Thanksgiving three times in the AFL ' s time span and the Oilers twice ( both of those in the last two years of the league ' s existence ) . After Hunt ' s death in December 2006 , the NFL effectively turned around , deciding not to give any AFC team ( or even the conference in general ) the permanent hosting for that night game , as the subsequent Thanksgiving night games have both been hosted by still other NFC teams : the Atlanta Falcons in 2007 and the Philadelphia Eagles in 2008 . It would not be until 2009 that another AFC team ( incidentally , the same Denver Broncos that were the away team in the 2006 match ) would host the night game . From 1946 to 1949 , the All - America Football Conference also played on Thanksgiving ; the first season , 1946 , featured the crosstown rivalry of the Yankees and Dodgers of New York City , much as the NFL did in the 1920s and 1930s . Then , in 1947 , the league began scheduling two games on Thanksgiving , with the Los Angeles Dons getting an annual home game and the Cleveland Browns , the league ' s best team , playing away ( and amassing a 3 - 0 record in these games ) . The Dodgers hosted a 1947 Thanksgiving game , but ceded hosting to the Chicago franchise in 1948 and 1949 . The other away team was rotated . Incidentally , all of the AAFC ' s Thanksgiving games featured the away team winning . When the AAFC merged with the NFL in 1950 , the newly expanded league gave the Chicago Cardinals a second Thanksgiving game ( the league , at this time , was only playing one game on Thanksgiving , the Lions game ) as recognition of Chicago ' s AAFC team having done the same . This was not renewed in 1951 , when Thanksgiving became exclusively for the game when the Green Bay Packers went to Detroit to play the Lions ( in 1952 , a second Thanksgiving game was played , but only because the Dallas Texans lost their stadium midseason and had to squeeze a home game in at the Rubber Bowl in Akron , Ohio on that day to complete their schedule ) . The first AFL of 1926 also played two games in its lone season . The Philadelphia Quakers defeated the New York Yankees in New York by a score of 13 - 10 , while the Los Angeles Wildcats and Chicago Bulls played to a scoreless tie . Neither of the subsequent American Football Leagues ( 1936 - 37 or 1940 - 41 ) played on Thanksgiving . Throwback uniforms . From 2001 to 2004 , teams playing on Thanksgiving wore throwback uniform s to celebrate the teams ' heritage , similar to those adopted in the 1994 season when the league celebrated its 75th anniversary . As the traditional home teams Detroit and Dallas were , naturally , the most notable . Detroit always wore uniforms based on those of its early years . Therefore , the Lions had to remove all decals from their helmets to reflect the absence of helmet logos in that earlier era , and for the 2008 season , revived that tradition against the Tennessee Titans on November 27 . The Lions and New England Patriots both wore throwbacks for their November 25 , 2010 matchup . From 2001 – 2003 , Dallas chose to represent the 1990s Cowboys dynasty who won three Super Bowls in a four - year span by wearing the navy " Double - Star " jersey not seen since the 1995 season . In 2004 , the team went further back into its history by wearing uniforms not seen since the team ' s inception in 1960 . The 2007 season marked the first time since 2000 that the Cowboys chose to wear their home white uniforms for their annual Thanksgiving game . Since the 2005 season , teams have been permitted to wear their throwback jersey on any two weeks of the year , not necessarily Thanksgiving . In 2009 , to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the fourth American Football League , both the Dallas Cowboys and the Oakland Raiders played in a " AFL Legacy Game " as both teams began play in 1960 . Though the San Diego Chargers have not played on Thanksgiving itself since the AFL - NFL merger , they also wore their throwback white helmets and " powder blue " jerseys on Thanksgiving weekend during this time . The popularity of the throwback jerseys led to the team returning to white helmets in 2007 as well as several other teams ( beginning with the Buffalo Bills in 2005 and subsequently with many other teams in 2007 ) adopting throwback uniforms as their third jersey . The Chargers wore the 1963 throwbacks as part of the 2009 celebration of the AFL ' s 50th Anniversary , but not on Thanksgiving . During the years when throwbacks were used regularly , NFL . com altered its team logo frame to have the logos of each team be retro . Memorable games . A legend states that the Chicago Tigers and Decatur Staleys challenged each other to a Thanksgiving duel , in Chicago , in the league ' s inaugural season , with the loser being relegated out of the league at the end of the season and the winners getting shared NFL franchise rights to the city of Chicago ( along with the Chicago Cardinals ) . The legend purports to explain why the Tigers were the only NFL team to fold after the 1920 season ( no other team would fold until 1921 ) and why the Staleys relocated to Chicago that year , later adopting their current name , the " Chicago Bears . " However , though in fact the two did meet that year ( with Decatur winning 6 - 0 ) , the claims of it being a duel are unsubstantiated . Staleys owner George Halas , by all indications , was looking to move to Chicago all along ( but in fact did not do so until a week into the 1921 season ) . Furthermore , and more importantly , there ' s no evidence that the Tigers were at any of the league ' s organizational meetings and is widely believed to have never joined the league at all ; the only reason that they are listed as such today is because they played all of their games up to that point against NFL teams . ( Some sources claim that it was the Cardinals - Tigers matchup on November 7 , 1920 that was the subject of the duel , though this is even more suspicious because they played two more league games after that point . ) The Tigers , after a 27 - 0 win over the non - league Thorn Tornadoes the next week , never played football again . The 1921 Thanksgiving matchup between the same Chicago Staleys and the Buffalo All - Americans was notable in that the two teams were undefeated ; after Buffalo defeated Chicago , the Staleys ( who had refused to play any games outside of their home stadium at all that year ) demanded a rematch . Buffalo agreed , on the condition that the rematch be considered an exhibition game and not be counted in the standings . After Chicago won the December 4 rematch , Halas turned to the league and demanded the game be counted . The league agreed with Chicago , and furthermore instituted a now - obsolete tiebreaker saying the rematch actually counted " more " than the original game , giving the championship to Chicago in a decision referred to as the " Staley Swindle " by some Buffalo sports fans . DuMont was the first network to televise Thanksgiving games in 1953 ; CBS took over in 1956 , and in 1965 , the first ever color television broadcast of an NFL game was the Thanksgiving match between the Lions and the Baltimore Colts . Some memorable Thanksgiving Day games include the 1974 Cowboys - Redskins game in which unknown Cowboys backup quarterback Clint Longley took over for an injured Roger Staubach with the team down 16 - 3 and rallied them to an improbable victory on two deep passes . A similar experience occurred in 1994 when Troy Aikman was injured and third - string Cowboys quarterback Jason Garrett was forced to start against the Green Bay Packers and won in a shoot - out with Brett Favre 42 - 31 . Furthering this a decade later , Drew Henson started for the Cowboys in 2004 against the Bears ; after showing no performance in the first half , he was benched in favor of Vinny Testaverde . Testeverde , with the help of then - rookie running back Julius Jones , led the Cowboys to a 21 - 7 win . In the 1976 Thanksgiving matchup between the Lions and the Buffalo Bills , the Bills put forth at the same time one of the best and the worst performances in Thanksgiving history . On the positive side , running back O . J . Simpson set the league record for most rushing yards in a single game , with 273 . However , Simpson achieved this feat due in large part to the fact that the Bills ' backup quarterback , Gary Marangi , gained only 29 yards passing and completed only 4 out of 21 passes , in addition to throwing an interception affording a passer rating of 19 . 7 . Despite Simpson ' s record - setting performance , the Bills lost the game , 27 - 14 . Simpson ' s record would later be surpassed numerous times ( the current record is 296 , set by Adrian Peterson in 2007 ) . In 1980 , Chicago Bear David Williams returned the opening kickoff in overtime for a touchdown against Detroit , the only time that has happened on a Thanksgiving game . 1986 ' s Thanksgiving matchup between the Lions and the Packers , the highest scoring game in Thanksgiving history , was the best day of receiver Walter Stanley ' s career ; Stanley netted 207 all - purpose yards and three touchdowns in the contest , including an 83 - yard punt return to win the game for the Packers , 44 - 40 . Stanley had an otherwise undistinguished career in the NFL . The 1989 Bounty Bowl between the Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles , a 27 - 0 drubbing of the home team , led to allegations that the Eagles had placed a bounty on the Cowboys kicker , thus becoming the first of a string of three bitterly - contested games between the two teams , the other two being Bounty Bowl II later that year and the Porkchop Bowl the next season . Some of the games have been infamous for other reasons . In 1993 , the Cowboys led the Dolphins 14 - 13 with just seconds remaining in a snow - filled Texas Stadium . Miami ' s Pete Stoyanovich attempted a game winning 40 yard field goal that was blocked by the Cowboys ' Jimmie Jones . Dick Enberg of NBC proclaimed " The Cowboys will win . " However , Cowboys defensive lineman Leon Lett chased the ball and touched it , giving the Dolphins a chance to regain possession , and then kick a much shorter field goal to take an improbable 16 - 14 victory . In 1998 , the Steelers and Lions went to overtime . Pittsburgh ' s Jerome Bettis called the coin toss in the air , but confusion surrounded the call . The officials misheard Pittsburgh ' s call and awarded Detroit the ball , who went on to win 19 - 16 on their first drive in overtime . As a result of the fiasco , team captains are now required to call the coin toss before the coin is tossed . The 2010 Thanksgiving game between the Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints saw only the second attempted drop kick since the 1940s when Cowboys punter Matt McBriar ( who , having played Australian rules football at the amateur level , was familiar with the maneuver ) botched a punt and allowed the ball to hit the ground before he kicked it . McBriar did not successfully execute the drop kick by letting the ball bounce more than once before kicking . The officials declared the kick an illegal kick , but the penalty was declined . Home team controversy . While it has remained a tradition to keep the games in their host cities every season , in recent years NFL fans as well as other teams have wanted the Thanksgiving games rotated on an annual basis . The NFL adopted a compromise position in 2006 when it added the third game to NFL Network , rotated on an annual basis , while also allowing the Cowboys and Lions to keep their annual home games . The issue once again came to a head in 2008 , albeit solely focusing on the Lions , heading into that year ' s Thanksgiving games . Leading into the game , there was already some popular support ( including from NFL . com columnist Nick Bakay and ESPN personalities Mike Ditka , Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic ) for removing the Lions from the Thanksgiving game and replacing it with a game with more of a playoff impact , either through rotation like the night game or one that is flexibly scheduled . The Lions matchup was with the Tennessee Titans , whose undefeated season had come to an end in their regular Sunday game that week to the New York Jets , while the Lions were entering the game winless and , by the end of the season , had become the first NFL team to lose every game in a season since the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished 0 – 14 in their expansion season . The team has also had three local blackouts heading into the game , the first non - sellouts for the team since 2001 , and required an extension to sell out the Thanksgiving game in time for it to be televised locally . Indeed , the Titans improved to 11 – 1 for the year by crushing the Lions 47 – 10 , dropping the Lions to 0 – 12 and handing them their worst loss ever ( measured by margin of loss , 37 points ) on Thanksgiving . Following the 2008 season , NFL commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed that the Lions will be permitted to keep their Thanksgiving game for at least the 2009 season . Though league officials reserved the right to revisit the situation , this did not occur , and the Lions played on Thanksgiving as usual . Lions president Tom Lewand claims that their game is not in jeopardy , the controversy is media - generated and that the owners have never seriously talked about removing them ; however , this contradicts Goodell who stated that " it ' s come up a few times . " On March 23 , 2009 , the league owners officially kept the Lions on the Thanksgiving game with an announcement that the Lions would host the Green Bay Packers , one of their division rivals , on November 26 . If a change were to be made , under current television contracts with CBS and Fox ( which expire after the 2013 season ) , the early game ( with a 12 : 30 start time ) would have to be hosted by a team in the Eastern Time Zone and in the United States ( if it were to be moved back a half - hour , the Central Time Zone would also be eligible to host , but because of numerous issues including extended halftime shows , this is unlikely ; the annual game in Toronto is also out of the running because the date of American Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Canada ) , and their opponent be of the opposite conference of the one playing the Cowboys ( as it is today ) . Furthermore , such a move would leave the Dallas Cowboys as the only team to always play on Thanksgiving , and with the Cowboys being the league ' s biggest television draw , there have been far fewer public calls to remove them . SI . com columnist Peter King had originally speculated during the controversy that when the current schedule rotation ends after 2009 , both the Cowboys ' and Lions ' home Thanksgiving games will be reassessed by the league and possibly revoked - - the Lions ' for their poor performance , and the Cowboys because of a perceived unfair home field advantage that requires the visiting team to both travel and prepare for a game only four days after their previous one . This never materialized , and the 2010 NFL season featured no changes to the permanent hosting . In 2010 , the rotating host team was the New York Jets , who hosted the Cincinnati Bengals in the New Meadowlands Stadium , which the two New York teams share . The Jets and Bengals played on the NFL Network Thanksgiving evening . The traditional Thanksgiving Day participants - Detroit and Dallas - played in the afternoon . Detroit hosted the New England Patriots in the early game ; Dallas hosted the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints in the late game . < nowiki > * < / nowiki >