Detroit Lions Weblog

Thanksgiving Game

The Lions again have their one chance(usually the only chance each season) to be featured on a national stage this seaon, with Thursday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts. The Lions also have a chance to achieve the dubious distinction of losing three games within the span of 12 days! The team will be a featured in front of most of it’s peers and millions of families nationwide. It is their last chance this season to gain a sizable measure of respectability.

The Lions 33-29-2 in Thanksgiving Games (.532 winning percentage). The annual tradition which began in 1934, was the brainchild of the Lions first owner, G.A. Richards, who had moved the franchise from Portsmouth, Ohio. The 1934 game was against the George Halas lead, Bronko Nagurski-era Bears. The game had high stakes, it was to determine the winner of the Western Division. The game was broadcast nationally on NBC radio and was a huge success, becoming an elemental part of an American tradition that includes turkey, cranberry sauce, indigestion, and gross overconsumption. The Lions lost the inaguaral game, 19-16.

For me, the game still possesses all of the magic it did when I was a kid. I enjoy nothing more than seeing the Lions playing in the “throwback” uniforms (the greatest uniform in all of professional sports, in my opinion!). The Lions usually turn in a competitive performance, even if the game doesn’t end in victory. The game will be especially festive when it recognizes it’s three great #20’s from the franchise’s history, two of whom are Hall-of-Famers! Lem Barney, Billy Sims and Barry Sanders all inspire pride among Lions fan and all are deserving of the respect and adoration that they will receive this Thursday. One thing I have always enjoyed about Turkey Day broadcasts is that in order to maintain a thread of continuity, the television broadcast will often feature film clips from past Thanksgiving games. I would gladly sit through an hour documentary about the history of this game and thoughts and reflections of Lions players who participated in it. It is really a shame in the era of national broadcasting, there would be little interest in something like that. Yet, we are going to be inundated with media glitz and an empty half-time performance from America’s second favorite “everyman” songrwriter, John Cougar Mellencamp. No other performer in America has better utilized the misfortunes of others (the plight of farmers) towards their achievement of their own personal gain. I am sure that Thursday’s performance will be just as earnest and credible as we have grown to expect from this erstwhile flannel-shirted ersatz rocker.

All of that aside, I look forward to Thursday’s game no matter how gut-wrenching the outcome. Nothing can match Chicago’s Dave Williams 2 kickoff returns for TD’s that defeated the Lions in 1980. That was the penultimate in Lion misery.

From Lions.com:
(http://www.detroitlions.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=170724)

Memorable Thanksgiving Games:
(http://www.detroitlions.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=4585)