NFL should take Thanksgiving game away from Lions
November 12, 2008 by Tom Ferda
Santa Claus comes early every year for the Detroit Lions, on Thanksgiving to be exact. The jolly old soul 
hands the Lions their annual ‘gift’ in the form of a Thanksgiving game on their home field.
This is a clear case of not needing to be ’good’ in any way shape or form to receive this handout from the NFL.
Year after year, this franchise struggles, and against the will of many of the other NFL owners, they continue to keep the Thanksgiving Game and the exposure that goes along with it.
Over the years many owners have brought up discussions and votes have occurred to move this game around the league to share the revenue. Somehow William Clay Ford continues to keep the game in his hometown of Detroit.
You have to wonder if the fact Ford Motor Company is one of the NFL’s biggest and most loyal advertisers has anything to do with this joke of an organization keeping this game.
I personally have attended several Thanksgiving games over the years and it’s quite the tradition. I saw O.J. Simpson shatter the single game rushing record when his Buffalo Bills visited the Lions at Pontiac Silverdome back in the 70’s. I spent many Thanksgiving days tailgating, seeing the game then finishing the day off stuffing myself with turkey dinner.
I love tradition and have a strong track record of supporting and keeping it. It makes my gut hurt to say this, but it is time for a change. To make NFL fans across the nation sit through a Lions game on this upcoming holiday and the ones to follow is absurd. It is time for Ford and his 0-9 Lions to hand over the torch.
The Dallas Cowboys were a dismal 1-15 one year but rebuilt and bounced back over the years, becoming a contender and winning a Super Bowl, earning the right to keep their spot.
The Lions on the other hand have shown no improvement over that same span, in fact they have gotten worse as their record over the past decade indicates.
If you’re out there Santa Claus, stop handing this gift to this NFL team and deliver a stocking full of coal and sticks to Ford and his Lions.
Taking the game from the Lions and spreading it throughout the league would bring much joy to fans across the nation.
Making this change is like delivering a Christmas gift to the rest of the NFL football world and relieves them from the agony and torture of sitting through Lion debacles year-after-year.
There is a rebuttal to this case and point found on Deadspin.
Yes-please put on another team! I wach the Falcons in GA but any team is fine besides these Lions.
As much as I hate the team half the time, I need to keep this tradition in my sports life. Have mercy on us Lions fans–we’re suckers and deserve at least one national game a year–if nothing else, for a good laugh!
The Lions started the tradition themselves outside the NFL. There WOULDN’T BE football on Thanksgiving without the Lions starting it. Its not anybodies exept the Lions to take away. Period.
[...] Day game away from the Lions. Or not. Either way, I’ll be drunk on cranberry sauce. [Sports Climax + [...]
Lions are Thanksgiving.
Haven’t we been through enough here in Michigan? Let us have our Turkey Day fun where we get to see the Lions get destroyed. It’s our tradition.
And Mr. Ferda, that’s the Pontiac Silverdome, not Pontiac Stadium.
Enough of seeing this team year after year. Good point about the Cowboys turning it around but how many decades do we give the Lions to do the same. I’ll have the game on in the background, maybe, but wont be watching it.
I am scared of this game. Hope the Lions win before we go in. Never good to play a winless team on thier filed, even if it’s the Lions.
Fredda, you are an imbecile!! The Lions started the tradition!! Just because you are not a fan of the Lions does not give you the right to bring up such a topic that has been beaten to death and solved via a third game. I know you would not be writing such trash if you were a fan of the Lions. So please, quit your crying and deal with it just like we have with the fact that we have only one playoff victory since 1957. Is it not enough that things are the way they are? Man, talk about stepping on one’s head when they are drowning!!
And Ferda, who are you to talk about fairness? Life is not fair. Is is fair that the Lions have not won a championship since 1957(3 years before your precious Cowpies even existed)? Of course not!!! But you know what? we deal with it. The fact of the matter is is that people will watch football no matter who is playing even if it is just background music. The Lions and the city of Detroit have dealt with enough hardships of late and do not need to lose yet another thing to look forward to. You wouldn’t know anything about that though would you? To us Lions fans, it means something and we would be heartbroken if the NFL were to rip it away like you suggest. So please do me a favor and pull your head out of your a$$ and imagine if it were your favorite team. I think your opinion would be different!!
Chris:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I seemed to have hit a nerve and I understand that.
I actually grew up as and still remain a true Lions fan. I was born and raised in Lincoln Park, a suburb of Detroit and have been a loyal fan of that team since I attended a game there in 1968 at Tiger Stadium against the Bears in sub-zero weather at the age of 10.
This is the hardest article I have ever written but I do have a reputation as a writer for pulling no punches and telling it like it is. The rest of the NFLworld besides the few of us in Detroit are done with the Lions.
There is good reason they are never on a prime time or MNF schedule–because no one is interested in seeing them besides you Chris and I and the other Lions die hards.
Being a sportswriter, I must set all emotions aside at times and that is what I did with this story.
My brother has not called me since I wrote this, he has been a season ticket holder for over 20 years and I’m hoping it’s only because he lost my number.
Thanks for visiting the site and feel free to continue to share your comments, except for the kind like the two I had to delete that were to harsh even for this website.
And Chris: Good argument on that third game on Thanksgiving solving the question of rotating games around.
You are missing the fact that football sells. It does not matter who plays because football is a staple of our culture. No one cares about the Lions? So what? that can be said about all but a few teams. The fact of the matter is that more would be willing to watch the Lions get their butts kicked than almost any basketball game, hockey game, or baseball game, especially on Thanksgiving. There is no denying that the organization is a joke, but that is no reason to punish the fans who have made it a tradition to go to the games since 1934. Punish the owner. The Lions started the tradition, not the NFL. Having that go unrecognized would be a shame. The bottom line is that we would not be having this discussion right now if the Lions were even half decent right now.
I apologize for the hostility but I am just sick of people putting us down because we are not some “Premodana Town” with one of the NFL’s favorite teams. Likely due to the Lions inept management, I have to read excerpts from so-called professionals making outrageous comments like ” Could Detroit lose the Lions?” and ” Due to the state of the economy, I would not be surprised if Detroit loses one or more of its pro-teams within the next 10 years.” Statements like that just sound so dumbfounded and irrational that it blows my mind. Heck I can think of many reasons why that likely will not happen!!
Another thing to consider is that football changes. Sure the Lions have been bad but that is not to say they will not get better. Who would they put in the Lions place and how is one to predict whether those teams will be good enough for the game to be meaningful? Take for instance the San Diego Chargers, no one expected them to be as bad as they are this year just like no one gave the Cardinals a chance. Do you actually believe that family gatherings will turn off their televisions just because it is the Lions playing? I would have a hard time believing that. Having said that we need to just wait until they one day improve and watch this knee-reaction evaporate into thin air.
Chris:
I agree that when the Detroit Free Press suggests the Lions possibly could move, that is outright ridiculous especially since they sell out most every game and that is the problem with the Lions. If my friends and family stopped buying tickerts for a season or two, then the team like all other franchises will be forced to figure out a way to win and they will.
Why should Ford worry about putting a good team out there if the stadium remains full. The year the Lions were 3-13, they sold out their final game that year so why should Ford care what we media or the fans say? Detroit is the best sports town on the planet and Ford takes advantage of that.
Thanks for writing.
I hope this goes away like it does every year but one of these years it wont and we’ll lose our game. I would be sickened by that.
I have gone to that game for 8 years in a row and will continue to go, even if it’s for the laugh. I would LOVE to upset the Titans this year and shut all the media up about this game!
I wonder how much ESPN has to do with this notion that the Lions should lose the game. It seems Mike Greenberg likes to take a jab at the team whenever he gets the chance. He, like others on ESPN, is somewhat biased in favor of the east coast (he is a Jets fan from New York). Having said that, I wonder if his opinion would be different if it were the Jets, who have never been a really good team, who were playing on Thanksgiving every year. If the Lions played in say New York, I bet their opinions would be totally different and that is what really bothers me. That is why I hardly watch ESPN anymore because of the joke it has become. They should just call it “Your Source for 24 Hour Redsox, Yankees, Cowboys, and Lakers News.
I have been to that game the last few years now. My dad goes every year just as my grand father and great grandfather did. That is a yearly family tradition like it has been for many more and it would be a shame if they just gave it to someone else who can not fully appreciate it from a traditional and historical perspective. It would lose its sort of corky and genuine feel by becoming something that is just cold, corporate, and gimmicky, kind of like how the third game feels. Despite what some people say, it is not all about the money!!