Like Christmas and New Year’s, Thanksgiving in America comes equipped with non-stop sports entertainment to keep it interesting while you mingle with friends and family. So without any further ado, let’s have a breakdown on the three games that will air on at least one television where you’ll be at you’re eating, drinking or sleeping throughout the day.
Game one: 12:30 p.m. CBS – Chicago Bears (5-6) at Detroit Lions (7-4) – On paper, this is the weakest of the three games on the schedule but Jay Cutler and the Bears are still in the playoff hunt at 5-6, so count on the intensity. The Lions were sort of looking like a bit of an elite team for awhile there, but came crashing down to reality lsat week after being spanked by the Patriots last Sunday. And speaking of Cutler, he sort of makes it easy to root against the Bears, doesn’t he? You can argue about how talented he truly is, but the guy’s attitude is horrible. And it doesn’t appear to be a love connection between him and second-year coach Mark Trestman, the cerebral head coach who has made his bones coaching quarterback and offenses over the years. Cutler’s also averaging nearly two turnovers a game, making him a convenient (and not inappropriate) piñata for frustrated Bears fans.
Fun fact: The Bears have failed to score in the last six first quarters, and they looked noticeably lethargic last week vs. Tampa Bay, before reality kicked in and Lovie Smith went home a loser (again). Meanwhile, the Lions are one of the top defensive teams in the NFL, holding their opponents to 17.3 points per game.
And thank God the Lions are at least competitive again. Thanksgiving in America is all about tradition, and that’s all we heard from Roger Goodell a few years ago when the clamor got really hot to take the damn Lions off this national broadcast, especially after the Motowners dropped an 0-16 record on us all back in 2008. But they’ve rallied back, and it’s no longer the worst part of your Thanksgiving.
Game Two: 4:30 p.m. Fox – Philadelphia Eagles (8-3) at Dallas Cowboys (8-3).
You never know which Philadelphia Eagles team is going to show up this year. The same could be said for their ace running back, LeSean McCoy,who was all-everything last year, but has looked stuck in quicksand in some games earlier this year. The Eagles did look impressive in defeating Tennessee 42-23, last Sunday, but so did the Cowboys in coming from behind in New Jersey against the Giants on Sunday Night Football. And for the ladies, the Eagles are starting Mark “The Sanchise” Sanchez at quarterback. Of course, he had perhaps his darkest moment as a New York Jet in a Thanksgiving night game a few years ago, something he’s undoubtedly been reminded of a few hundred times this week.
When I think of Philly-Dallas on Thanksgiving, it brings back memories of when Buddy Ryan was coaching the Eagles and there was reportedly a “bounty” placed on the head of their 5-foot-9 kicker, Luis Zendejas (Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson alleged there was also one placed on the head of Troy Aikman as well). It’s remember as fun hijinks now, but let’s face it – when the New Orleans Saints were accused of placing similar “bounties’ on their opposition a few years ago, there was nothing funny about the punishment. The Saints’s defensive coordinator was kicked out of football for a year, and head coach Sean Payton was suspended for half a season (Let’s not even get started how fair that process was under King Roger Goodell).
For awhile there, the same criticisms about Detroit always getting to host a Turkey Day game were really starting to get louder about the Cowboys, who had been stuck in mediocrity for years until this year’s surprising start. And it all starts with who Keith Jackson used to describe as the “big uglies” – the ‘Boys formidable offensive line which includes three first-round draft choices. They’ve been awesome this season, allowing a guy nobody ever heard of before named DeMarco Murray, who is on a pace to have one of the five greatest years a running back has ever had in the NFL. Not bad in a passing league.
Game Three: 8:30 p.m. NBC – Seattle Seahawks (7-4) at San Francisco 49ers (7-4)
When the NFL schedule was released in April, this looked like the game of the year. The two best teams at the end of last season, the Seahawks defeated the Niners in an absolutely epic NFC Championship game back in January before dismantling Peyton Manning and the Broncos in one of the most boring Super Bowls ever.
But that’s was then – and both these recent super teams have came crashing down to earth this year, so this ain’t no the game of the year anymore (that would be New England at Green Bay this Sunday). But still, it’s a fantastic rivalry between two teams fighting for West Coast supremacy while representing two of our greatest cities. The two teams actually will play again in just 17 days, and since this game is in Santa Clara, the Niners absolutely have to win it (their recent history at Century Link Stadium in Seattle is rather embarrassing, as the last two regular season games there they’ve been outscored 71-16).
The game’s at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, about an hour south of San Francisco. Friends ask me why the 49ers are playing so far away from the city. The answer is that Santa Clara County was the only local jurisdiction in the Bay Area who were willing to have their taxes raised to pay for this $1.2 billion stadium, which disturbingly seems to have lots of red seats unfilled during the beginning of the second half of Niner games this year. And we do get to see how Michael Crabtree goes up against Richard Sherman, in the first time since Sherman became a national celebrity by calling out Crabtree at the end of the NFC Championship game last winter.
