There are three NFL games today. The Lions host the Packers, the Cowboys host the Chiefs, and the Ravens host the Bengals. The teams playing the night game change annually, but you might notice that the Lions always host the first game of the day, and the Cowboys always host the second game. How did that come to be?

The Lions played their first Thanksgiving game in 1934. It was their first season in Detroit. They had previously been located in Portsmouth, Ohio, where they were known as the Portsmouth Spartans. A radio executive named George Richards bought the franchise and moved it to Detroit. The Lions were having difficulty gaining any sort of popularity in their new home city. Richards came up with the idea of scheduling their team’s big game against the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving.

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