Here's my opinion...

No, the Lions should not lose their Thanksgiving Day Game. Despite all the gripes from the World Wide Leader and the piss poor product we put on the field, the tradition for families and the people of the metro-area having the Thanksgiving Day Game in Detroit goes beyond the Lions winning or losing.

If it wasn't for the Detroit Lions, there'd be no football on Thanksgiving in the first place, so the league has no right to take it away simply because we're not a good team. Isn't the NFL a league of parody?? Just because we have a lousy record right now, doesn't mean we won't be competitive five or ten years from now.

What about Dallas?? If you make Detroit rotate their game, you have to make Dallas rotate too. Would the league REALLY want to upset 2 of the longest tenured owners in the game? I don't think so...

To suggest that your Thanksgiving is actually WORSE having watched the Lions...please, spare the mellow drama. If the Lions literally RUIN your Thanksgiving, than turn off the TV, and take some anti-deps.

Lions fans aren't stupid. We know better than anybody else our franchise is pathetic, we're not in denial, we don't look for acceptance, and we don't want sympathy. We haven't had a Monday Night Football game since 2001 (and rightfully so), so at the very least we should be entitled to keep our Thanksgiving Day Game.

God knows that if the league decides to rotate, the Lions will never get it back...

The NFL can't afford to neglect the smaller markets. People complain about Detroit being on Thanksgiving, yet the piece of shit Browns have had 5 games on National TV this year (2 MNF, 2 SNF, 1 Thursday Night). Give me a break...

yes they should. It would be a loss of network revenue which would force the ownerships hand in getting serious about turning this bitch around.

Add a level of embarassment to the mix, and the prospect of regaining their turkeyday game if their record improves, and I think the possibility of such a move can be real

To: Rest of the country
From: Overly romantic, nostalgic (and possibly naive) Detroit Homer

Re: Thanksgiving Day game

Dear rest of the country,

I truly understand that the Lions are painful to watch. I know because I watch them every week. What happened yesterday was an insult to the game of football. You probably have no desire to ever see the Lions on Thanksgiving again. Most of us Lions fans would say the same thing (which is mostly a lie of course). So when you shout out to the world about the need for the NFL to take the game away from Detroit I stand up with you and shout, "kiss my ass."



The Origin of the Lions' Thanksgiving Day Game
The game was the brainchild of G.A. Richards, the first owner of the Detroit Lions. Richards had purchased the team in 1934 and moved the club from Portsmouth, Ohio to the Motor City. The Lions were the new kids in town and had taken a backseat to the baseball Tigers. Despite the fact the Lions had lost only one game prior to Thanksgiving in 1934, the season’s largest crowd had been just 15,000.

The opponent that day in 1934 was the undefeated, defending World Champion Chicago Bears of George Halas. The game would determine the champion of the Western Division. Richards had convinced the NBC Radio Network to carry the game coast-to-coast (94 stations) and, additionally, an estimated 26,000 fans jammed into the University of Detroit Stadium while thousands more disappointed fans were turned away.

Despite two Ace Gutowsky touchdowns, the Bears won the inaugural game, 19-16, but a classic was born. Since 1934, 67 games have been played with the Lions holding a series record of 33-32-2 (.507). And each game, in its own way, continues to bring back memories of Thanksgiving, not only to Lions' fans, but to football fans across the nation.


Since that is directly from the Lions site I will also quote Wikipedia. However, Wikipedia itself directly references the above passage:



The National Football League's Thanksgiving Classic is a series of games played during the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. It has been a regular occurrence since the league's inception in 1920. Since 2006 three games are played every Thanksgiving. The first two are hosted by the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys, with one team from each conference playing either team (the game with an NFC team airs on Fox, as they have the rights to the NFC; CBS airs the games where an AFC team plays the Lions or Cowboys). The third game airs on NFL Network as part of its Thursday Night Football package and pits two different teams against each other each year.

The Lions have hosted a game each year since 1934 (excluding the years 1939-1944), and the Cowboys have hosted a game each year since 1966 (excluding 1975 and 1977 when the St. Louis Cardinals hosted a game instead).


The Lions were not the first team to play the game on Thanksgiving. They were not the only team to play the game when the idea started. But they are the only team that has kept playing the game for the last 74 years.

The word tradition has been thrown around ad naseum during this whole discussion and to be honest I'm sick of hearing it (just like I got sick of hearing "wall street and main street" during the elections). Unfortunately it is the appropriate word to use, so I will have to make a major contribution to its redundancy. The Detroit Thanksgiving Day game is not an NFL tradition. It is a Detroit tradition. It was started during a time when owners had much more autonomous power over their scheduling and stadium ticket sales were the most important source of revenue. It has since become an important annual event for the city of Detroit. With the growth of the NFL, football as a sport and of course the televising of sports, the rest of the world has been invited to share our tradition as all parties involved (including the Lions organization and the city of Detroit) try to cash in on it.

Though everyone watches it (or is tortured by it) that does not mean it is a game for everyone. It is still about Detroit and the Detroit Lions. The NFL schedules the games now. There is no doubt they have the power to take away the game. They do not, however, have the right.

Every city has its own traditions. A lot of them were not fully original when the city started the tradition. Pamplona was not the first nor the only village in Spain to do something wacky with bulls to celebrate its festival (and still isn't today, though its festival is by far the most famous). And the fact that the whole world now visits the city during San Fermin or watches the running on TV or via the internet does not make the tradition any less about Pamplona.

NOTE: I am not so much of a naive homer that I actually place the Lions game on the same level as the running of the bulls. I am simply taking one of the biggest examples of city traditions to make a point.

The New Years Eve ball is a New York City tradition. It is one that the entire country shares. Would anybody have the right to take it away should it start to suck? Would it be fair to move it to Miami for the dropping of a big orange just because the rest of the country wants it?

Again, having the power to change it is not the same as having the right. And witnessing a tradition and even making it a part of your tradition does not make you a part of the tradition itself. Rest of the country, you are not a part of the Lions game tradition. The NFL has incorporated it and maybe even enhanced it with making it a nationally televised game. But it still remains above all a Detroit tradition, our tradition. And our right to keep our tradition trumps your desire to see a better football game.

Best regards,
Detroitexport
WTFDetroit.com

P.S. Yes, I have no life, spending too much time on this. At the same time it is actually something I feel really strongly about. Not as much as more important issues of course but it's still something that affects me. The fact that my family has been going to the game since the Lions played in Tiger Stadium probably has something to do with it.

Here's 32 MoTowns I've been saving, go get yourself something nice.

No they shouldn't. They're still 32-33 on Thanksgiving Day games, so they haven't lost every single time. They've only been painful to watch for the last 10 years. How do we know the game they put in there won't suck. It's the only game of the year where the Lions are on National TV. Let them keep that.

As bad as it is for the rest of the country, it's worse for us. So let it be. Enjoy your turkey and have a laugh.

Ur all a Bunch of Punks®.

If the Raiders had the Thankgiving Day game, you'd want that shit pulled faster than cyanide-laced Tylenol.

Probably, but if they've had it for 70-something years I could understand wanting to continue the tradition.

I wouldn't mind the league scheduling another 12:30 game, just don't take away ours.

Like I said, each year the premium teams (Pats, Colts, Cowboys, Giants, Packers, Chargers) ALWAYS get multiple SNF and MNF slots, at the very least, let the dumbfounded franchises like Detroit keep one National TV slot.

I think they should do a better job with the Detroit coverage. They don't show the parade nationally or anything. They just cut into the game and that's it. I think it should be more about the tradition than just showing a crappy game.