Thanksgiving and football feel like they’ve always gone together...but the story behind that tradition is way stranger than most fans realize.

This week, Jake and Tyler break down the full history of Thanksgiving football, from Yale vs. Princeton in the 1800s to the Detroit Lions’ radio-fueled rise, the Cowboys volunteering their way into a national spotlight, and how the NFL turned a quiet holiday into one of the biggest moments on its calendar.

🕐 Timestamps

00:00 – Intro
00:20 – NFL Thanksgiving, Not Turkey Bowls
00:49 – Early Thanksgiving Football Traditions
01:19 – The First Thanksgiving Games in College Football
02:01 – Michigan and Chicago Maroons Era
02:31 – College Football’s Role in Shaping the Tradition
03:00 – Yale & Princeton’s Historic Football Legacy
04:22 – Ivy League Football Today
05:09 – The Messy Early Days of Pro Football
06:28 – Scandals, Collapses & Regional Leagues
07:01 – Why the Ohio League Stopped Thanksgiving Games
07:21 – Thanksgiving High School Football Culture
08:29 – How Fragmented Early Pro Sports Really Were
10:07 – Grassroots Growth vs. Top-Down Leagues
11:29 – Detroit Lions Enter the Story
12:50 – George A. Richards and the 1934 Breakthrough
14:44 – “Franksgiving” and FDR Changing the Holiday
16:32 – States Not Agreeing on a Thanksgiving Date
17:10 – Post–WWII: Lions Cement the Tradition
17:56 – The Almost-Packers Thanksgiving Tradition
18:44 – Cowboys Volunteer for the Spotlight (1966)
19:30 – Why the Cardinals Briefly Replaced Dallas
21:00 – 2006: NFL Adds the Primetime Game
21:55 – The NFL Expands Holiday Football
23:06 – Should the NFL Take Over More Holidays?
24:14 – Does More Football Dilute the Magic?
25:46 – Why the NFL Will Only Keep Adding Games
27:40 – Thanksgiving Food Talk
28:47 – Charity & The Salvation Army Kettle Kickoff
29:40 – The Madden Thanksgiving Games
30:56 – John Madden’s Turkey Leg Legacy
31:09 – Outro