Thanksgiving is all about family, friends, and food, but football is a big part of the holiday, too.
The sport established an association with Thanksgiving in 1934 when the NFL’s first Thanksgiving game was played. The tradition was put on hold because of World War II, but professional football has been the unofficial sport of Turkey Day over the past three-quarters of a century.
Naturally, many NFL fans will be excited to see who will play on the holiday. The Lions and Cowboys will continue their long-running traditions of playing on the holiday, so each will host a game at home for the holiday.
The NFL chooses their opponents carefully, as they do for the rotating Thanksgiving evening game. The last game of the day is usually a marquee clash involving potential playoff teams, and this year is no exception.
Here’s what you need to know about the NFL’s Thanksgiving schedule in 2024.
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The NFL’s Thanksgiving schedule will feature a couple of the usual suspects, as the Lions and Cowboys will host opponents per usual. This year, Dallas will be joined by the Giants, while Detroit’s opponent has not yet been reported.
Finally, the night game will feature a marquee, primetime matchup between the Packers and Dolphins.
Here’s the full Thanksgiving schedule, including kickoff times and TV channels for all three games.
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The Lions will be playing host to the Bears on Thanksgiving in a classic NFC North battle. Chicago last played Detroit on Thanksgiving in 2021, earning a 16-14 victory over the Lions. The Bears have won four consecutive Thanksgiving games dating back to 2015.
The Giants will travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium on Thanksgiving. New York played Dallas on the NFL’s marquee holiday two seasons ago, falling to the Cowboys 28-20 on Thanksgiving in 2022.
The Dolphins will take on the Packers at Lambeau Field in the primetime slot on Thanksgiving. This will be Miami’s first Thanksgiving game since 2011 when it lost to the Cowboys, 20-19.
The Packers had one of their best wins of the season on Thanksgiving last year, defeating the Lions in Detroit, 29-22. This time, Green Bay Gets to host a game in the friendly confines of Lambeau Field in what could be a cold-weather game.
Two NFL teams are fixtures on the league’s Thanksgiving schedule: The Lions and Cowboys.
Detroit began the tradition of playing on Turkey Day in 1934. The 2024 game will be its 85th game played on the holiday overall and 79th consecutively. The Lions didn’t play on Thanksgiving from 1938-44 because of World War II.
Former Lions owner George A. Richards was the one who came up with scheduling a Thanksgiving Day game. He wanted to pull attention away from MLB’s Detroit Tigers — the city’s most popular sports team at the time — and it became a tradition.
MORE: Why the Lions always play on Thanksgiving, explained
The Lions are 37-44-2 on Thanksgiving. They were expected to end a six-game losing streak in 2023 but were ultimately beaten by Jordan Love’s Packers, who beat them 29-22 thanks to a 20-point first quarter.
That ran their losing streak to a still-active seven games.
The Cowboys eventually joined the Lions on the holiday slate in 1966. Dallas’ goal was to thrust itself into the national spotlight, and it succeeded in achieving that. Their 2024 matchup will be their 57th straight Thanksgiving appearance, as the Cowboys were forced to sit out of the holiday from 1975 to 1977 while the St. Louis Cardinals tried to gain traction on the day.
The Cardinals weren’t able to do that, so Dallas eventually reclaimed the slot.
The Cowboys are 32-22-1 all-time on Thanksgiving. They crushed the Commanders in their 2023 matchup in a 45-10 rout.
MORE: Why do the Cowboys, Lions always play on Thanksgiving?
There remains just one NFL team that has yet to play on Thanksgiving Day: The Jaguars. Jacksonville joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1993 but wasn’t featured on the holiday during its first 30 years of existence.
The Jaguars figure to eventually be a featured team on Turkey Day, especially if Trevor Lawrence can blossom into a true franchise quarterback. For now, they remain the only NFL team that hasn’t played on Thanksgiving.
Three other NFL teams — the Bengals, Buccaneers, and Panthers — have appeared on Thanksgiving once. Of the league’s 32 clubs, just 10 have played on the holiday fewer than five times
Here is the leaderboard for Thanksgiving game appearances:
Jacob Camenker is a senior content producer at The Sporting News.
