Why the Lions and Cowboys Always Host on Thanksgiving

The Lions host Thanksgiving's early game because of a 1934 marketing gamble, and the Cowboys host the afternoon game because of a 1966 one. Detroit radio executive George A. Richards scheduled a Thanksgiving game to fill the University of Detroit's stadium and put his new Lions on national radio; Dallas general manager Tex Schramm volunteered the Cowboys for a holiday slot nobody else wanted and drew 80,000 fans. Both bets paid off so completely that the league has treated the two host slots as untouchable ever since.

What it means for schedule making

Thanksgiving is the single most constrained day on the calendar. In a mock schedule, Week 12 arrives with two of its game slots effectively pre-assigned:

• Detroit hosts the 1:00 window. The Lions cannot be scheduled on the road in Week 12, and no other team can occupy that hosting slot.
• Dallas hosts the 4:30 window. Same lock, same consequences.

That also constrains everyone else: any team already scheduled to visit Detroit or Dallas that season becomes a candidate Thanksgiving visitor, and neither the Lions nor the Cowboys can appear anywhere else that week. The MockSlate builder enforces both locks and will tell you exactly why a placement fails when you try to break tradition.

The third game

The league added a primetime Thanksgiving game in 2006, and it rotates freely — no host tradition attaches to it. Combined with Thanksgiving Eve and Black Friday windows, the holiday stretch has grown into a five-slot showcase in recent seasons, which is exactly how the MockSlate Week 12 board models it.