5K Turkey Trots: Super fun or a holiday vibe killer?
Mackenzie Salmon asks current and former NFL players how they would feel if they woke up Thanksgiving morning to run in a 5k Turkey Trot.
Sports Seriously
Fill your stomach with football, then stuff your faces with turkey.
The NFL and Thanksgiving go together like mashed potatoes and gravy. Turkey and stuffing. Your face and a couch cushion after seconds. To put it plainly: football and Turkey Day have been a marriage for as long as many can remember – but few know just how far back it goes.
In fact, you have to go back nearly a century to find the first time NFL football was played on Thanksgiving. That makes for a tradition as deep as your favorite green bean casserole tray – or the snooze you’ll take after dessert.
The Lions and Cowboys take center stage on Thanksgiving, two teams that have been staples of Thanksgiving football going back a long, long time. Detroit, though, is the OG of NFL Thanksgiving football, with its first game being played in the 1930s.
Here’s what to know about the first NFL Thanksgiving game, and when it was played.
When was the first NFL Thanksgiving game?
The Lions played the Bears in the first-ever Thanksgiving Day NFL game in 1934. The site was the University of Detroit Stadium with 26,000 people in attendance, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It’s believed that more people would’ve attended if the stadium capacity was larger.
Picture it: Detroit 1934. Bing Crosby is at the top of music world, the Great Depression is ravaging the country, Franklin D. Roosevelt is president and Babe Ruth is in the midst of his final season with the New York Yankees.
Meanwhile in the Motor City, the Lions are looking to gain some traction in a town dominated by baseball’s Tigers. Enter George A. Richards, who bought the Portsmouth Spartans and moved them to Detroit in 1934. The team then become known as the Lions but needed something to get the fans’ attention.
So Richards went and scheduled a game on Thanksgiving against the defending champion Chicago Bears. Just like that, a tradition was born.
Detroit won the first Turkey Day contest by a score of 19-10, beginning a tradition that has withstood the test of time. While fads such as the “Harlem Shake” and “Tebowing” came and went, the Lions have managed to weave themselves into Thanksgiving just as much as your mother’s stuffing recipe.
The team’s fans don’t often feel in the holiday spirit on the holiday, however. In fact, the Lions experience on Thanksgiving typically resembles the feeling you get when the annoying family member arrives.
While they’ve gotten better in recent years, Detroit still has some work to do to get above .500 on Turkey Day. — Nick Brinkerhoff
NFL team Thanksgiving records
All records as of 2024 season.
- Arizona Cardinals: 6-15-2
- Atlanta Falcons: 1-3
- Baltimore Ravens: 2-0
- Buffalo Bills: 6-4-1
- Carolina Panthers: 1-0
- Chicago Bears: 20-15-2
- Cincinnati Bengals: 0-1
- Cleveland Browns: 0-3
- Dallas Cowboys: 33-22-1
- Denver Broncos: 4-7
- Detroit Lions: 37-45-2
- Green Bay Packers: 15-20-2
- Houston Texans: 2-0
- Indianapolis Colts: 2-1-1
- Jacksonville Jaguars: 0-0
- Kansas City Chiefs: 5-5
- Las Vegas Raiders: 4-4
- Los Angeles Chargers: 3-1-1
- Los Angeles Rams: 4-1
- Miami Dolphins: 5-2
- Minnesota Vikings: 7-2
- New England Patriots: 3-3
- New Orleans Saints: 3-1
- New York Giants: 7-6-3
- New York Jets: 4-4
- Philadelphia Eagles: 6-1
- Pittsburgh Steelers: 2-6
- San Francisco 49ers: 3-2-1
- Seattle Seahawks: 2-3
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 0-1
- Tennessee Titans: 5-2
- Washington Commanders: 4-9
