NFL on Thanksgiving: Should the Tradition Be Amended?

For football fans, Thanksgiving represents three things - food, thankfulness and football. Some would argue that football is the only pastime worth looking forward to on Thanksgiving Day. I am one of those people. I am usually cuddled up in front of a television on Turkey Day. Don't get me wrong; I love my family and I love dead birds. However, nothing beats watching football on a full stomach. The household holiday and the virile sport have been interlinked since the 1930's.

America is all about tradition. Doing the same thing every year is a very American thing to do. We celebrate the same holidays in the same way, and no one seems interested in doing anything different. People of contrasting backgrounds may not share the same views, but everyone takes a Christmas vacation. The nation revels in tradition. States have their own traditions, cities have their own traditions, small towns have their own traditions, and families have their own traditions. I think that it's time to amend a tradition that is fast approaching.

For decades, the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys have hosted games on Thanksgiving Day. The Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers are usual suspects on this early Sunday as well. Certain teams choose not to play on Thanksgiving for fear of disrupting the flow of the regular season. I say, change the Thanksgiving match-ups. The decision should be up to the NFL commissioner, not the teams themselves. I'm sure that Roger Goodell will read this article. Sure.

The Lions and the Cowboys host Thanksgiving games regardless of how well they have played up to that point. Coincidentally, the Lions are finally playing well this season, but for the longest time, fans were stuck watching mediocre teams play on Thanksgiving Day. If this is a special day for the National Football League, shouldn't the games be...oh, I don't know, a big deal? This particular tradition does not reward success, and in most cases, it does not involve teams that played well the year before.

Why can't there be one significant game on Thanksgiving? How about a rematch of the previous year's Super Bowl? This year, such a game would pit the Chicago Bears against the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts are, in fact, playing on Thanksgiving Day this year, but they are squaring off against the Atlanta Falcons. Yawn. If that idea doesn't sit well with you, then how about division title rematches? Maybe the Thanksgiving games could involve the four teams that have the best record up until November 23rd.

There has to be something that the NFL can do to make these games more exciting. Imagine if Major League Baseball held a similar tradition on Thanksgiving. Imagine if annual match-ups were hosted by a universally revered team like the New York Mets and a team like the Kansas City Royals. How special does that sound? Tradition has its place, but football is a form of entertainment. Surely we have breathing room enough to change a custom that is essentially the icing on the cake of Americana.