When you think of Thanksgiving, certain images probably spring to the forefront of your mind. There’s undoubtedly a table full of food, whether it’s an idealized version à la Norman Rockwell or something more akin to real life. And, for many families, football is probably a part of that equation.

Over the years, the NFL has successfully staked its claim to Turkey Day, with the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys becoming as much as of a holiday fixture as turkey and stuffing. But have you ever wondered why they’re ever-presents?

As with many other seasonal mysteries, it largely comes down to tradition.

Why Do the Cowboys Play Every Thanksgiving?

There are plenty of cliches about how you can’t get an opportunity without asking for it. Former Cowboys president and general manager Tex Schramm apparently took that to heart.

As laid out in a 2021 Dallas Morning News post, Schramm volunteered his team for a second Thanksgiving Day game (the Lions, as we’ll discuss shortly, were already playing on the holiday). The offer, however, came on one condition: the Cowboys would play that contest at home.

The gambit promptly paid off. Dallas took to the field on Thanksgiving 1966 and beat the visiting Cleveland Browns 26-14. To make things even sweeter for Schramm, more than 82,000 fans piled into the Cotton Bowl to watch the game.

The Cowboys have played away from home twice, in 1975 and 1977, but those games were outliers.

Why Do the Lions Play Every Thanksgiving?

When the Cowboys entered the Thanksgiving Day picture, they were the new kids on the block. The Lions, believe it or not, have an even longer history on the holiday.

As explained by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the tradition dates back to 1934 when George A. Richards bought the Portsmouth Spartans, moved them to Detroit and rebranded the club as the Lions. Looking to make a splash during the initial campaign in the Motor City, Richards not only scheduled a Thanksgiving game against the Chicago Bears, but struck a deal with NBC to broadcast the game across 94 radio stations.

Detroit lost that day, but the game proved to be a massive public relations success. It was such a hit that barring a break for World War II, the Lions have hosted an annual Turkey Day contest ever since.

Do Other Teams Play on Thanksgiving?

While the Lions and the Cowboys are synonymous with Thanksgiving Day football, they don’t hold a monopoly on the holiday. Since both teams traditionally host home games, two other clubs have to enter the fray to complete the matchups.

The NFL made things a triple-header in 2006, making even more space on the holiday schedule. The Kansas City Chiefs hosted the first edition of that third contest—KC’s founder and original owner had advocated for a third Turkey Day game—but they didn’t become a fixture like Detroit and Dallas. That means two additional franchises get a spot in the limelight each year.

Over the years, every currently active NFL team has gotten a chance to play on Thanksgiving barring one: the Jacksonville Jaguars.

What Was the ‘Thanksgiving Day Massacre?’

When you settle in to watch some festive football, you’re probably rooting for an evenly matched contest, assuming you don’t have any skin in the game. The “Thanksgiving Day Massacre” however, was a bit one-sided.

That contest took place in 1962, when the defending champion Green Bay Packers visited the Detroit Lions. The hosts jumped out to a 14-0 lead and never looked back.

Detroit’s defense dominated the day, limiting Green Bay to 122 yards of total offense. Quarterback Bart Starr threw two interceptions and took his lumps from the Lions’ pass rush; the finer statistical details are unclear, but he was probably sacked at least 10 times. One of those tackles for a loss resulted in a safety, and another turned into a fumble that Detroit recovered for a touchdown.

While the 26-14 score line doesn’t seem that dramatic, the punishment that the Lions’ defense dished out, the game has earned a place in NFL history as the “Thanksgiving Day Massacre.”

2024 NFL Games: Schedule, Matchups and Times

So, with all of that history established, who will be taking the field on Thanksgiving 2024?

As per tradition, the Detroit Lions will host the early game, facing off against the Chicago Bears at 12:30 p.m. ET on CBS. And while NFL fans will remember years of questioning why awful Lions teams had to play on Thanksgiving, the current squad is certainly worth the watch.

The middle matchup looked good when the schedule came out, but the New York Giants’ visit to the Dallas Cowboys (4:30 p.m. ET on Fox) has lost some luster. The game is a rivalry, but with both clubs struggling and playing without their opening day starters (Dak Prescott is injured and Daniel Jones has been benched), this one could be a slog.

The 8:30 p.m. ET nightcap (NBC) features the Miami Dolphins and the Green Bay Packers. If you haven’t drifted off into a turkey-fueled nap by then, the game will feature both plenty of talent and some potential playoff implications. It will also be interesting to see if the Dolphins can cope with a chilly Wisconsin evening; Florida teams struggling in cold road games is a bit of a cliché, but Miami didn’t exactly disprove that theory during a freezing playoff game last season.

And, if that’s not enough for you, there will also be a Black Friday game as the Kansas City Chiefs host the Las Vegas Raiders at 3 p.m. ET (Prime Video). If last year’s Christmas Day edition of the classic rivalry is any indication, expect a hard-fought contest with at least a few twists and turns along the way.

A man who recently attempted to enter a Dallas church with a tactical rifle was charged with a federal firearm crime stemming from a 2022 shooting, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the North District of Texas announced.

Russell Alan Ragsdale, 25, was arrested Friday and made his initial appearance Monday on a possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance charge.

On Nov. 2, a church reported to Dallas police that Ragsdale was at the location with a gun, according to federal court documents. The church was not named in the filing.

Based on surveillance footage and witness interviews, officers determined Ragsdale arrived at the church about 5 p.m. while Mass was being celebrated with about 100 church members, according to an affidavit. He entered about 5:05 p.m.

“At 5:07 p.m., [Ragsdale] stood from his front row seat and approached the priest, embraced him and kissed him on both cheeks,” the affidavit says. Ragsdale “handed the priest a note that said, ‘May peace be with you.’”

Ragsdale remained in the church for about five more minutes before returning to his car. He put on a black and white poncho, retrieved a rifle from the trunk of the car, and then closed the three gates to the church parking lot, according to the affidavit. Ragsdale tried to reenter the church with the gun about 5:35 p.m., but parishioners had locked the doors.

A parishioner talked to Ragsdale outside after he placed the rifle on the ground. Officers arrived a few minutes later and arrested him.

The arresting officer noted “an odor of alcohol” coming from Ragsdale, the affidavit says.

During this investigation, police learned Ragsdale had been arrested two years ago as a suspect in a Seagoville slaying. He had faced a felony murder charge in the February 2022 killing of his roommate, but the case was later dismissed.

At the time, Ragsdale told police his roommate attacked him so he “shot him many times” in self-defense, according to court documents.

“Officers recovered three firearms, including a 10mm Glock and an AR-15 rifle, and almost two grams of hallucinogenic mushrooms from the residence,” the news release said. ” An analysis of Mr. Ragsdale’s phone showed a history of drug use dating back to November 2021, as well as evidence of purchasing and using hallucinogenic mushrooms on Feb. 2, 2022.”

Pursuant to a search warrant issued, earlier this month Dallas police received copies of information, including messages, from Ragsdale’s phone that indicated he used illegal drugs leading up to the February homicide, according to court documents.

If convicted, Ragsdale faces up to 15 years in prison.

A photography print of a man inside a minaret tower. A ceramic chalice. A tissue paper collage illustration from a children’s book. A short film about a trip to Europe with friends.

Each of these pieces of artwork was created by Asian American artists from North Texas and featured in the Dallas Asian American Art Collective’ first annual art show over the weekend.

The co-curators Leili Arai Tavallaei, Jackie Tao Law and Christina J. Hahn, who are all Dallas-based artists, partnered with The Cedars Union where they put on the show.

Tavallaei said the collective wanted to reflect the diversity of emerging and established AAPI artists in North Texas. The co-curator is a printmaker, mixed-media painter and animator whose work explores her mixed race identity as someone with parents who are Persian Iranian and Hāfu, mixed Japanese identity.

“A lot of people, when they hear of Asian artists, they usually think of international Asian artists that have made it big across the pond,” she said. “We here want to kind of make a statement that we are, in fact, here in the States. We are here in Texas.”

Law said that distinction of being an Asian American artist matters because being part of the diaspora is an entirely different experience from being Asian.

“You end up having this blend of maybe your home culture and then being from wherever you immigrated to,” said Law, who is a first-generation Hakka Chinese visual artist.

Here are some of the artists who displayed work at the show:

Growing up way out east in Tyler, Mallari said his family would travel two hours one-way to get groceries from the Hong Kong Market Place in Dallas. It was part of his family’s Sunday ritual: get a haircut, buy groceries and head home.

Mallari said there’s a “small but mighty” Filipino community in Tyler, but for a long time there wasn’t a space to pick up basic ingredients to make food from his culture.

“When I was a kid, I was annoyed that we would have to be there. But as I got older, I appreciated how important that was, how some of my favorite foods we wouldn’t have been able to make it or they wouldn’t have been my favorite foods had we not gone there.”

The second-generation Filipino American filmmaker describes “To Here and Back” as a visual tone poem that reflects the immigrant story.

“I think it’s about coming back to a place and seeing how time has changed it even though it’s kind of stayed the same in your head,” he said.

Berglund said this last year she focused on “trying to be more Chinese” and returning to her roots. A big part of that has been drawing scenes from everyday life in China, including sketches of three delivery drivers, a night market full of delicious snacks or people waiting in line with thick parkas.

“I was just there about a year ago during the winter when everyone was in the big, puffy jackets which is not something you see in Texas,” she said.

Originally from Beijing, the artist – who works as a web architect by day – now lives in Plano with her family. She sometimes makes sketches from photos and online reference art, which reminds her of how different the scenery is back in China.

“I remember the hutongs, which are the little alleys. I remember wearing my red scarf as a little kid and the yellow hats in elementary,” she said. “Seeing those things in drawings brings back a lot of memories.”

Choi is a medical student in North Texas by day and artist by night. His colorful, abstract paintings don’t immediately seem to reference language but that’s the inspiration for his work.

He said he incorporates Chinese typography into his pieces as a system that connects Korean and Japanese, the two languages that he speaks.

The artist said he wanted to explore questions like: “How do we represent the world through language? What are some ways that you can kind of twist or distort or play with the form of language to represent the world?”

Choi said language has been an important way to connect with loved ones.

“It’s how I feel connected to my family abroad. Whenever I go back to that language context, it feels like coming home in a way,” he said. I feel like so much of Korean culture is bound up in the way language is constructed, in the way you relate to people and honorifics.”

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