Why do the Cowboys always play on Thanksgiving?

The War Room
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By the mid-1960s, the NFL was well on its way to becoming the entertainment behemoth it is today. Television networks, eager to satisfy the sporting appetites of audiences, worked with the NFL to add a second Thanksgiving Day game for the 1966 season. Dallas Cowboys team president Tex Schramm shrewdly volunteered his team to play in a Thanksgiving game, so long as Dallas would host the game each year.

That decision — as well as the team’s long run of success from the mid-60s well into the 1980s — profoundly contributed to its “America’s Team” moniker.

With the exception of two seasons since 1966 — in 1975 and 1977 when the [St. Louis Cardinals](St. Louis Cardinals News, Videos, Schedule, Roster, Stats - Yahoo Sports) hosted a Thanksgiving Day game — the Cowboys have hosted a game on the holiday, always scheduled after the Detroit Lions’ annual game. Unlike the Lions, the Cowboys enjoy success on Thanksgiving, posting a 32-22-1 all-time record on the holiday.

While I suspected why, I never knew the reason why the Cowboys got the second game, but definitely did not know that the Cardinals actually hosted two Thanksgiving Day games in the 70s–an interesting historical footnote

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Check me if I’m wrong, but believe back then the game was rotated around the three networks. The game was a huge hit and the networks wanted more. Roselle was brilliant in granting Dallas “the second game” because now he could pit the three networks into a bidding war for television rights.

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Cowboys stole the Lions blue and silver color scheme and then their Turkey game strategy on the way to becoming “America’s team”.

Now the Lions are reclaiming their original heritage. We’re going to Dallas and kicking their behinds.

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Can’t wait brother

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I’d like, maybe every few years or so, to have Det & Dal play each other. Then have two random teams play the second game.

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Epic. Loser has to have the other’s logo at midfield for next home game.

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I was just gonna say this. My very first football game was in 1985 when the Lions played the Cowboys……I routinely got the two teams confused because the unis and the helmets were the same

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