It’s no secret that NFL teams try to one-up each other with their yearly schedule release videos on social media.
To reveal their 2025 slate, the Dallas Cowboys relied on subtle hints from a stream led by some of their biggest stars. Micah Parsons, CeeDee Lamb, Osa Odighizuwa and Tyler Smith spent much of the day together, starting a YouTube stream at 1 p.m.
As the Cowboys players golfed and played some pranks on each other, hints were being dropped that ultimately revealed the team’s schedule. Need some examples?
In one frame of the team’s social media video, Smith is seen eating an apple. That was used to pinpoint Dallas’ Week 2 game against the New York Giants. A few seconds later, Parsons throws a green paper airplane that quickly lands a few inches in front of him. That imagery was used for the team’s Week 5 game against the New York Jets.
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Take a look at the Cowboys’ full schedule reveal below:
The Cowboys will face a challenging slate in 2025, starting with a Week 1 showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles. Other marquee matchups include a Thanksgiving game against the Kansas City Chiefs and a Christmas Day battle with the Washington Commanders.
Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Pool season ended in September, but we welcome a splash of good news anytime. And how’s this for a headline? Dallas has started work to replace a 20-year-old water feature at the popular Bahama Beach Waterpark in Red Bird — with the expectation that the new amenities will be ready by summer 2026.
As our newsroom colleague María Ramos Pacheco reported earlier this year, the $2.5 million upgrade for the water park is coming from a federal Community Development Block Grant and from the city’s Parkland Dedication Program Fund.
This water park is exactly the kind of aquatic facility that Dallas should be investing in. City Hall faced resistance this year over the closure of several community pools, but as we’ve written previously, those facilities’ days were numbered. With sparse attendance and with parts dating back decades and no economical replacements, to keep those pools open was to pour taxpayer money down the drain.
Today, communities across North Texas gravitate toward “spraygrounds,” aquatic centers and waterparks, which are larger facilities that combine pools with amenities such as lazy rivers, tubes and tall slides.
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Bahama Beach Waterpark opened to much fanfare in 2005, and it remains a crowd favorite to this day. Annual attendance was 50,000 a decade ago and has risen to 76,000, Park and Recreation Director John Jenkins told us. The water park is also one of the city’s most cost-effective aquatic facilities. Bahama Beach, which charges a modest admission fee and also receives rental income, generates about $1.3 million in annual revenue and recovers 70% of its costs.
The latest upgrade will replace Coconut Grove, a playground styled like a water fortress featuring slides, pulleys and water buckets. It will be replaced by a bigger installation including 16 decks, more than 55 water features and new slides. It will also bring back the huge water-dumping bucket that is as much a hit with adults as it is with children.
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This upgrade follows a more substantial overhaul in 2021, when the city invested $5.9 million to create an area dedicated to families with small children, including new restrooms.
“This is what folks want,” Jenkins said. “They want to have this type of amenity in their communities.”
The water park isn’t just for kids and their parents. Summer programming includes water aerobics classes for seniors.
Jenkins told us that the city has contracted with a company to seek corporate sponsorship opportunities for the park system, not including Fair Park and city parks with separate management. The park director said the city wants to keep fees affordable for families and is looking to sponsorships to generate more revenue and cover its costs at Bahama Beach.
Dallas residents vote with their feet, and they love their water park. City Hall is wise to keep its sole water park in great shape and to recognize that a commitment to Bahama Beach is a much-needed investment in southern Dallas.
The NFL’s Thanksgiving Day slate of football will continue on Thursday afternoon in Dallas as the Cowboys host the Chiefs for a 4:00 p.m. ET kickoff from AT&T Stadium.
Kansas City enters Week 13 coming off a massive overtime win against the Colts last Sunday that brought them to 6–5 on the season and kept their playoff hopes alive. Despite still not playing his best football, Patrick Mahomes got back to delivering when it mattered most—leading the offense to 14 unanswered points to close out the comeback while logging just his second 300-yard performance of the season.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, are winners of their last two after retooling their defense at the trade deadline. The team is sitting at 5–5–1 and is just outside the NFC playoff picture. With a win over the Eagles in their pocket and a matchup against the Lions upcoming, Dallas suddenly has a realistic path to returning to the postseason for the first time since 2022.
With a lot on the line this Thanksgiving afternoon, here are three bold predictions for Cowboys vs. Chiefs.
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CeeDee Lamb is looking to get back on track. / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images
CeeDee Lamb hasn’t been nearly as productive as Dallas would like him to be over the last several weeks, but it’s not for a lack of trying.
Despite failing to tally a 100-yard game in over a month, Lamb has been targeted double-digit times in three of the Cowboys’ last four games. Drops, however, have become an issue—as the 26-year-old recorded his second three-drop performance of the season last Sunday against the Eagles.
With George Pickens garnering some much-deserved attention from the Chiefs’ secondary, expect Dak Prescott to continue feeding Lamb on Thursday afternoon—only this time, it pays off. Look for Lamb to post a season-high in receiving yards (115-plus) while also pacing Dallas in receptions as the former All-Pro gets back on track. ––Mike Kadlick
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Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has 54 receptions for 674 yards this season. / Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
The 2025 season hasn’t been the most productive for Kelce, as he’s still yet to record more than 91 receiving yards and hasn’t caught more than nine passes in any game this season. A matchup against the Cowboys’ defense may be the perfect recipe for him to turn in his best game of the campaign.
Two weeks ago against the Broncos, Kelce had nine catches on 13 targets for 91 yards and a touchdown in what was a vintage performance for the future Hall of Famer. I’m expecting him to have a Thanksgiving feast in Dallas, with even bigger numbers than he had in Week 10.
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The Cowboys’ secondary has surrendered the third-most passing yards per game this season. Opponents have averaged 2.2 passing touchdowns per game against Dallas, second-most in the league. That all bodes well for Kelce, who I’m predicting will have his first game of the season with double-digit receptions, 100-plus yards, and more than one touchdown. ––Karl Rasmussen
Mahomes has a chance to make magic happen once again on Thursday afternoon. / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
Despite the Chiefs playing on what feels like every holiday since Mahomes took over as quarterback, Kansas City hasn’t suited up on Thanksgiving since 2006—when they beat the Broncos 19–10 at Arrowhead.
Now headed on the road, and with their backs against the wall as they look to avoid missing the postseason for the first time since 2014, look for the Chiefs to make it two in a row on Turkey Day—though it won’t be easy.
In what will be not only an all-time classic, but also potentially the highest-rated game in NFL history, I’m predicting that—behind a three-touchdown performance from Mahomes—Kansas City will win 30–27 to keep their hopes alive for at least one more week. ––Kadlick
FRISCO, Texas — For the first time since 1995, the Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs will face off on Thanksgiving Day.
On that day 30 years ago, Troy Aikman’s 192 passing yards and two touchdowns were enough to beat Chiefs QB Steve Bono’s 276 yards passing as the Cowboys won 24-12.
Now, both teams are in a new era, with Dak Prescott leading the Cowboys and Patrick Mahomes the Chiefs. The two have only faced each other one time, with Mahomes and Kansas City getting the better of Prescott and the Cowboys 19-9 at Arrowhead Stadium back in 2021.
Who will come out on top in their first meeting since, with the Cowboys sitting at 5-5-1 and the Chiefs at 6-5? Our staff weighs in:
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Patrik: This is yet another difficult one to predict, but it does feel a lot less impossible for the Cowboys to walk away with this one than, say, four weeks ago when they fell to 3-5-1 after being dismantled by the lowly Cardinals. One trade deadline and bye week later and they’ve added Quinnen Williams, Logan Wilson, DeMarvion Overshown and Shavon Revel to the active roster, and Caelen Carson looks rejuvenated in his return from IR. The problem now is self-inflicted wounds that continue to make things more difficult for the Cowboys than they need be, and including offensively, being a key reason Dak Prescott and Co. sputtered or stalled on several drives against Philly. Do that against the Chiefs and you’re eating an L for Thanksgiving dinner. Mahomes is still Mahomes, yes, but while Travis Kelce can impact games, he’s not a gamebreaker anymore, and I do think the Cowboys’ defense bottles up the KC rushing attack much how they successfully did Ashton Jeanty and Saquon Barkley; and the offensive line that deleted the Eagles’ acclaimed front gives me good vibes. A close one here, but Dallas finds a way … wow, I just said that, huh? 24-21, Cowboys
Tommy: There is no question that the Cowboys’ defense has improved a lot since the trade deadline when they made the moves to acquire Quinnen Williams and Logan Wilson, and were also able to get guys like DeMarvion Overshown back from injury. Because of that, Dallas has done what they’ve aimed to do all year the last two weeks: Stop the run. And it’s worked! I think it’ll work on Thursday against Kansas City as well. When your run game gets stopped offensively, what do you do? Well, throw the ball. The good thing for Dallas is in their last two games, the teams that have thrown the ball on them have been the 23rd (Eagles) and 25th (Raiders) passing offenses in the league. Kansas City is the 2nd best passing offense, right behind Dallas at #1. I don’t think the Cowboys secondary is at a place to where they can consistently stop Patrick Mahomes and his array of speedy wide receivers, plus Travis Kelce who may not be as shifty as he once was but is still plenty efficient and leads the team in receiving yards. I’m not as concerned about Dallas’ offense, but they’ll still have to beat a tricky Steve Spagnuolo defense that’s a top ten unit. Don’t be fooled by the Chiefs’ 6-5 record, all their losses have been by one possession. I don’t mean to ruin Thanksgiving, but I’m taking Kansas City. Chiefs 31, Cowboys 24
Nick: I love the build-up to this game, because a few weeks back, I didn’t think it would be any decision at all to pick this game. Every time we saw a quarterback such as Bo Nix, Jacob Brissett or even Bryce Young and Russell Wilson before that, all I could think of was how bad it’s going to be when Mahomes comes in here on Thanksgiving. Well, that defense is not the same. Just how different are they? We’ll find out soon enough. But more than just playing him, I wonder how consistent the Cowboys can be as a team. We haven’t seen three straight wins since 2023 and something tells me it’s just not going to happen this week. Kansas City might look the same with a 6-5 record, but they haven’t played many games with their entire offense – Kelce, Worthy, Pacheco, Hunt, Rice, etc. They’re all coming together again and I just think it’s going to be too much for the Cowboys to overcome. I think it’ll be high-scoring, but I’ll take the Chiefs 34-30.
Mickey: We’ve been seeing more and more of this in his two games with the Cowboys, defensive tackle Quinnen Williams becoming a nuisance for opposing offenses with his ability to disrupt up front. Well, the Chiefs will be without starting guard Trey Smith, and look for Q to take over the game up front, not only being a huge help stopping the Chiefs running attack but also applying pressure to QB Patrick Mahomes. So, thinking the Cowboys will get a game-ball like performance from Williams up front, dragging this defense along with him, enabling the Cowboys to pick up their third consecutive victory and inch above .500 for the first time this season.
