So we gather again collectively, crammed into kitchens and living rooms, ready to feast on food and football. We consume the turkey, the ham, the stuffing and potatoes, the corn and green beans, the rolls and pie, the wine, the beer and anything else we can stuff into our screaming bellies. It satisfies us. It fattens us. Life is swell.And then we look over to the television, where the most powerful and popular sport in the history of this country, if not the world, gives us the entertainment equivalent of take-out sliders and Spam.
It's beyond me why the NFL, which doesn't hesitate maneuvering its schedule for marketing and programming advantages, continues to feed America with an annual diet of Detroit and Dallas on Thanksgiving Day. Because the masses provide the league and its partner networks with spectacular ratings all season, there should be an inherent duty to pay back viewers with attractive matchups on a holiday when most everyone is watching. This is the very definition of prime time, so why would you use it to annually showcase the Lions, a wretched franchise that hasn't won on Turkey Day in five years -- a stretch that has included a 41-9 loss, a 27-7 loss and a 47-10 loss? The Cowboys are more competitive, of course, but are long removed from any consideration as America's Team when they've gone 13 years without a playoff victory and have struggled the last two weeks to score a touchdown.
The beauty of the NFL is in its bold flexibility. It now plays games on Thursdays and Saturdays, along with Sundays and Mondays, and likely could get away with playing every day of the week. It reserves the right, with NBC, to move more attractive games into Sunday night prime time, such as replacing a reasonably hot Patriots-Dolphins matchup on Dec. 6 with the hotter treat of Brett Favre and the Vikings against Kurt Warner and the defending NFC champion Cardinals. It plays a regular-season game in London every year and eventually might expand to Europe. It has played exhibition games around the world, force-fed its product to places that don't know a first down from a hip flexor.
But it won't touch Thanksgiving Day, though there would have been ample opportunity to replace the two daytime dog games with, oh, the Steelers against the Ravens and the undefeated Colts against the Texans. Tell me one thing remotely interesting about the Lions and Packers, especially with the emerging Matt Stafford sidelined for Detroit after his brilliantly gutsy performance Sunday? And why would anyone spoil a warm-and-fuzzy holiday mood by putting the Raiders -- Darth Vader, Al Davis, the antithesis of good -- into a slot against the Cowboys? Only the Broncos-Giants game has any meaning, and even at that, Denver has scored a combined 37 points over four straight losses and is swimming in turmoil.
For now, commissioner Roger Goodell isn't budging. Taking the game out of Detroit would be cruel at the moment, given the city's economic disrepair. But in due time, Goodell has suggested that more cities could be involved in hosting Thanksgiving games. When asked if Detroit ever could lose the slot, he laughed.
"I don't know about ever,'' Goodell said. "Give me a chance here.''
Tradition is nice and all, but where has it gotten baseball? The NBA has the right strategy, using its superstars for product placement on Christmas Day. When LeBron James and Kobe Bryant obviously sell, why wouldn't the NFL automatically pencil in Favre, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and all the rest? I understand that the Lions have been hosting Thanksgiving games since 1934, when owner G.A. Richards launched the plan because he wanted more people at the games. But the NFL has outgrown parochial traditions, much as the Lions' first-year coach, Jim Schwartz, tries to safeguard the event.
"This isn't just another game," Schwartz said. "This isn't just one of 16 for us. This is a special tradition and something we need to embrace and uphold. It's not just everybody watching. It's everybody with relatives, everybody meeting up with families. They're all sitting around the living room waiting for the turkey and the pumpkin pie, and they're going to turn the game on. You're on national television. And there's also a pride thing. You want to perform well in front of a national audience."
A Baltimore native, Schwartz remembers how important the game was to him as a kid. "Everybody always watched the Lions because the family got together and everybody was waiting for the turkey to get done," he said. "So you always caught the whole Lions game, and then you watched maybe a half of the Cowboys game before you fell asleep on the sofa. We were always getting to my grandmother's house. The Lions game was on."
Yes, but it would be much more fun if the Colts game was on. Or the Steelers game was on. Or the Vikings game was on.
Goodell has cleaned up the league's criminal element. He finally is understanding the link to concussions with dementia and cognitive failures. Thanksgiving games aren't nearly as important in the total scope, but if the nation loves the NFL, he needs to love the nation in return by giving it what it wants on the tube.
One turkey is enough today.
Comments (Page 1 of 2)
I'm with you and everyone I know feels the same way. One turkey on Thanksgiving is enough...let's mix it up already!
for once i agree with the people who say "mariotti is an idiot." this isn't an NFL tradition. Detroit started this whole thing. it is their tradition. then dallas copied the idea. and lastly, the NFL is already trying to steal the tradition by adding a 3rd game on their own network to further demand cable providers to carry their network.
let Detroit and Dallas keep their tradition and then let the NFL change the 3rd game as they wish to appease the short-attention span writers like mariotti.
The Lions started the tradition. I will admit I am a Lions fan, and taking away the game from this team would be a HUGE mistake. It's one of the best traditions in the NFL and you wanna change it just because the team has had a decade of failure? Eventually the Lions will be a team that can compete. If you get rid of 1 game during Thanksgiving, get rid of the new 3rd game only on NFL network. But the Lions started it and shouldn't be forced out of hosting the annual game.
Give Detroit time to remove the Millen stench, by next year they will be respectable.
I think they should have the AFC CHAMPIONSHIP AND NFC CHAMPIONSHIP REMATCH GAMES ON THIS DAY IT WILL BE A GAME EVERYONE WOULD WANNA SEE AND WOULD BRING UP THERE RATINGS?????
WHO IS WITH ME ON THIS ONE/???
The Cowboys are and will always be Americas Team. Check out TV ratings, merchandise sales,number of fans on sports website team pages, number of winning seasons, playoff and Superbowl appearances and the value of the franchise. Face it the Cowboys, the Yankees, and the Lakers are the creme de la creme of professional sports. Put down the Hatoraide and come back to reality.
I wish they would showcase a Redskins-Cowboys game on thanksgiving. I think that would be awesome.
First let me start with long before I was born. Many NFL owners wanted nothing to do with a game on Thanksgiving when the lions first started it.
Now they see what a money maker it has become.
The NFL should try this. Let Detroit and Dallas be Two of the showcase games. Eliminate the Monday before.Let ESPN have the Sunday night before game. All teams play on Thanksgiving. With
the Regular Network who wins the bid have what can be billed as The super Bowl rematch. Winning Team hosts it. No Sunday game after this way all teams have the same bye week. Granted the Lions
will probablly never make it to Super Bowl. and if they do and don't win then they will have to play on the road. The season stays at 16 games everyone has the same advantage to rest injured players.And you only have one bye week.
The first Turkey they should remove is Mariotti !! The Detroit Lions started the tradition and it is theirs. Those of you that do not wish to see the Lions play on Thanksgiving can always change the channel and watch Hiedi or some equally lame movie. I personally would like to see The Patriots but Detroit started this and they should continue THEIR tradition. The Hell with the cowgirls they should never be allowed on National TV, they are an insult to the NFL and America. Go Lions !!
I think the game that will really give Football fans a treat on Thanksgiving is the Saints and Patriots.
A good punishment for the Lions for being so awful for so long would be to take the Thanksgiving game away from them, if only for one year.
I love the Sunday Night flex scheduling in the NFL. It's living proof that this league, unlike Major League Baseball, is progressive and forward-thinking. They're always looking to improve their product, even if it means going against the holy grail of "tradition."
Taking a look at the Week 12 schedule about one or two weeks prior, there's no excuse the NFL shouldn't schedule more attractive games like Pittsburgh vs Baltimore and Indianapolis vs Houston. Hell, even Arizona vs Tennessee would be a lot better given how hot the Titans are right now.
Goodell will eventually get around to this. It won't be long. Until then, I have a way to make the Lions game fun...
Drinking game! Drink every time a commentator talks about "how good this is for Detroit's economy," or drink anytime a commercial references the recession. You'll be wasted by halftime. :)
Tradition is Detroit's. They keep it. Dallas will keep theirs, too. But they will have a live opponent. For the past few years, the Cowboys have enjoyed stiffs on Thanksgiving allowing them to build their brand. Brain waves muddled by triptophan, Non-Texan Cowboys fans (the lowest form of humanity, by the way)became fans as youngsters on Thanksgiving, since the Cowboys always win (except for the icy Keith Byers Snow Angel/Leon Lett brain cramp game in '93).
The Lions have been playing on Thanksgiving Day for 50 years. So much has been taken away from the City of Detroit in the past years. Why do you selfish jerks feel the need to take this away too?
you have to leave Detroit on Thanksgiving. Its a tradition that they started and should be left at so. I'm not a Lions fan but I think they should have their day. The game I'm loafing to see is the middle game. What a boring, glad I'll be eating at this time game!
Come on, Jay. I would like to see more meaningful games on Thanksgiving as much as anyone else, but taking the Thanksgiving Day game away from the Lions is tantamount to kicking a man when he's down, given Detroit's current economic woes. Let them have something to look forward to. Besides, it's been this way for 75 years. Tradition still menas something, doesn't it?
I'm not referring to Mariotti's article specifically, but I'm seing it everywhere -- is there any more useless speculation in all of sports journalism than, "If the playoffs started today........."
i like the tradition of it, even though they suck i know on turkey day im gonna have a chance to watch the lions...every year....why change it.plus theyre never on tv so it gives their fans a treat for routing for a crappy team..and the cowboys always play exciting games...i wish people would stop blowing manning and brady so much....mariotti is a douche....hes not clever with his writing at all...i hate around the horn when hes on it with his stupid remarks...thats off subject but oh well
Why shouldnt they keep it the same . It is a tradition by now . Thats like saying i will have a plastic turkey this year for thanksgiving instead of a real one . Keep it as it was when the same thing as the past 100 years or so our parents and their parents have been doing . And i'm not a fan of any of them
Yo Marriotti, Nobody was complaining when the madden bus was in detroit cookin up that turkey with 6 drumsticks.. or dont you rememember? Everything goes in cycles. Today ur tappin on a keyboard tommorrow ur pickin out of a garbage can. Jackass...
marriotti, nobody was complaining when the madden bus was in detroit cookin up that turkey with 6 drumsticks. Or dont u rememember? Everything goes in cycles... today ur tappin on a keyboard tomorrow ur eatin out of a gabage can. hehehe...