NFL on Thanksgiving Day

"Thanksgiving Classic" redirects here. For the Canadian Football League games, see Thanksgiving Day Classic. For the black college football rivalry, see Turkey Day Classic.
The NFL Thanksgiving logo used for 2016; the year is updated annually, with the new NFL shield being used for the first time in 2008.

Since its inception in 1920, the National Football League (NFL) has played games on Thanksgiving Day, patterned upon the historic playing of college football games on or around the November holiday. The NFL's Thanksgiving Day games have traditionally included one game hosted by the Detroit Lions since 1934, and one game hosted by the Dallas Cowboys since 1966 (with two exceptions in 1975 and 1977). Since 2006, a third prime time game has also been played on Thanksgiving Day. Unlike the two afternoon games, this game has no fixed teams.

In 2001, the NFL began branding the games as the Thanksgiving Classic.[1] In 2022, the league changed the branding to the John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration in honor of head coach and broadcaster John Madden, who had died in December 2021.[2]

In 2023, the league added a Black Friday game to complement the three Thanksgiving Day games. Similar to the third Thanksgiving Day game, this additional game does not have any fixed opponents.

  1. ^ Lefton, Terry (November 15, 2001). "NFL Establishes Thanksgiving Games As New Marketing Platform". Sports Business Journal. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference madden was invoked but never defined (see the help page).