History of The NFL playing on Thanksgiving Day

 This year on Thanksgiving the Detroit Lions will play The Philadelphia Eagles, The Chicago Bears will play the Green Bay Packers, and The Carolina Panthers will take on the Dallas Cowboys. When did the NFL start playing games on Thanksgiving? It all started in 1934 when Detroit Lions owner G.A. Richards had the idea for his team to play on Thanksgiving to help them get noticed. The Detroit Lions and The Chicago Bears played in the first game.The Bears coming off a World     Championship a year previous were already a historic franchise. The game was being played at The University of Detroit Stadium where a remarkable 26,000 fans packed into the stadium. The Game was being carried on NBC because Richards convinced the network to carry the game. The Chicago Bears eventually won beating the Lions 19-16. 

 Now let's fast forward it to this year's match-ups. Of course the Lions will play, they have been a staple on Thanksgiving Day ever since starting the trend.They will face The Philadelphia Eagles who have a perfect record on Thanksgiving. The Dallas Cowboys who have also been playing on Turkey Day since 1966 will face a newcomer to the dinner table The Carolina Panthers who will make their debut. Let's not forget about The Green Bay Packers and The Chicago Bears. These two teams will battle for NFC North bragging rights on Thanksgiving Day.

The Networks the games are being carried on come up with trophies to give key players in that game.  CBS has it's All-Iron Award which originated in 1998 and the last player to receive the award was Detroit Lions WR Calvin Johnson in 2014. Fox also has an award called The Fox Galloping Gobbler Award. The last player to win that was LeSean McCoy RB for The Philadelphia Eagles. NBC who was the first TV Network to carry a Thanksgiving game has an award called NBC Madden Player of The Game Award. John Madden former player, coach, and broadcaster for NBC came up with the award. The Seattle Seahawks CB Richard Sherman won last year along with QB Russell Wilson.