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The National Football League 's Thanksgiving Classic is a series of games played during the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. The games are usually hosted each year at the home stadiums of the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys , although starting in the 2006 season, the NFL Network also hosts one Thanksgiving game per season. The Detroit Lions have hosted a game each year since 1934 (excluding the years 1939-1944 due to World War II ), and the Dallas Cowboys have hosted a game each year since 1966 (excluding 1975 and 1977 when the St. Louis Cardinals hosted a game instead). It is widely rumored that the Cowboys sought a guarantee that they would regularly host Thanksgiving games as a condition of their very first one (since games on days other than Sunday were uncommon at the time and thus high attendance was not a certainty). Until 2006, the two "traditional" Thanksgiving Day pro football games were in Dallas and Detroit. Because of TV network commitments, one of these games was between NFC opponents, and one featured AFC-NFC opponents. Thus, the currently stronger AFC could showcase only one team on Thanksgiving, and the AFC team was always the visiting team. This arrangement was made in spite of the fact that the American Football League played Thanksgiving Day games in each of its ten years of existence, 1960 - 1969, actually beginning the tradition six years before the NFL Dallas Cowboys. From 1960 through 1966, one AFL game was played every Thanksgiving. In 1967, 1968 and 1969, each Turkey Day had two AFL games. This was another AFL "fan favorite" that was lost in the "merger", along with the AFL's name and logo. The team with the best record in AFL Thanksgiving Day games was the lowly New York Titans , who played in the first three, and were 3 - 0. The Oakland Raiders were second best, with a 3 - 1 record. The addition of the NFL Network game on Thanksgiving has AFC fans hoping that their conference will now have equal exposure, perhaps with an NFC-NFC, AFC-NFC, ''and'' an AFC-AFC game each Thanksgiving. From 2001 to 2004 , teams playing on Thanksgiving wore Throwback Uniform s to celebrate the teams' heritage, similar to those adopted in the 1994 Season when the league celebrated it's 75th anniversary. As the traditional home teams Detroit and Dallas were, naturally, the most notable. Detroit always wore uniforms based on those of their early years. Therefore, they had to remove all decals from their helmets to reflect the absence of helmet logos in that earlier era. From 2001 - 2003 , Dallas chose to represent the 1990s Cowboys dynasty who won 3 Super Bowls in a 4 year span by wearing the navy "Double-Star" jersey not seen since the 1995 Season . In 2004 , the team went even more throwback by wearing uniforms not seen since the team's inception in 1960 but the Cowboys have not performed well in the jerseys until Tony Romo won with the uniforms in 2006. Some memorable Thanksgiving Day games include the 1974 Cowboys-Redskins game in which unknown Cowboys backup quarterback Clint Longley took over for an injured Roger Staubach with the team down 16-3 and rallied them to an improbable victory on two deep passes. A similar experience occurred in 1994 when third string Cowboys quarterback Jason Garrett was forced to start against the Green Bay Packers and led the Cowboys to a 42-31 win. Some of the games have been infamous for other reasons. In 1993, the Cowboys led the Dolphins 14-13 with just seconds remaining in a snow filled Texas Stadium. Miami's Pete Stoyonavich attempted a game winning 40 yard field goal that was blocked by the Cowboys' Jimmie Jones . Dick Enberg of NBC proclaimed "The Cowboys will win". However, Cowboys defensive end Leon Lett chased the ball and touched it, giving the Dolphins a chance to regain possession, and then kick a much shorter field goal to take an improbable 16-14 victory. Also, in 1998, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions went to overtime. Pittsburgh's Jerome Bettis called the toss in the air. The officials misheard Pittsburgh's call and awarded Detroit the ball. GAME RESULTS 1920-1959 The current active franchises that have never played on Thanksgiving through 2007 include:
GAME MVPS In 1989 , John Madden of CBS awarded the first "Turkey Leg Award," for the game's most valuable player. Reggie White of the Philadelphia Eagles was the first recipient. The gesture was seen mostly as a humorous gimmick relating to Madden's famous multi-legged turkeys served on Thanksgiving. Since then, however, the award has gained subtle notoriety, and currently, each year an MVP has been chosen for both the CBS and FOX games. Madden brought the award to FOX in 1994 , but it was abandoned and replaced with the "Galloping Gobbler" -- a running silver Turkey wearing a football helmet -- when Madden left for ABC in 2002 . When CBS returned to the NFL in 1998 , they introduced their own award, the "All-Iron Award", which is, suitably enough, a small silver Iron , a reference to Phil Simms ' All-Iron team for toughness. Turkey Leg Award (CBS 1989-1993, FOX 1994-2001)
Galloping Gobbler Award (FOX, since 2002)
All-Iron Award (CBS, since 1998)
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