I'm curious what put people down for the count faster on Thursday -- Thanksgiving dinner or NFL football.
Oh, the woes of tryptophan and an extra-large helping of hapless football.
For the sixth straight year, the Detroit Lions took their one day in the national spotlight and gracefully allowed their opponent to look like an All-Class, All-Pro, All-World caliber team. This year, the belle of the ball was Green Bay, which put on a clinic in the second half for a 34-12 win.
If that wasn't bad enough, somebody decided to pit Dallas -- the second half of the annual doubleheader on national TV -- against the woeful Oakland Raiders.
Like going for a second piece of pumpkin pie, that was a bad idea.
The Cowboys cruised to a 24-7 win in a throwback game, which would have been better off thrown out.
A few years back, the NFL added a third game to the Thanksgiving roster to be shown on its own network. But for much of the country, Thursday's intriguing matchup between Denver and the New York Giants was nowhere to be found.
And so, after another lackluster showing, there will be calls to take the annual Thanksgiving games away from Detroit and Dallas.
Detroit has failed to sell out eight home games in the last two seasons. These days, Lions fans don't care about their team, so why should the rest of the country?
It's an embarrassment to have a national audience watching the Lions right now. And it makes it magnifies the despair when the Cowboys follow it up with a yawner of their own.
Thanksgiving and football. The two are as connected as Pilgrims and American Indians on this November holiday.
And so, it's time to take the games away from their historical locations and schedule quality, engaging NFL games on Thanksgiving. Can you imagine if the Colts and Patriots game from a couple of weeks back had been played on Thursday? Dinner would have gone cold in millions of houses.
Give me one reason why Detroit and Dallas should keep these games year in and year out -- beyond tradition. Take your time, I'll wait.
I've opposed this for years, but I can't fight the good fight any longer. As much as the Lions have been a part of my Thanksgiving tradition, I can't stomach another game like Thursday. You're supposed to reach for antacids after dinner, not before you get to the table.
If the NFL takes the Thanksgiving game away from Detroit, it's not to say it could never come back. But let's at least wait until the Lions are respectable before going down this road again.
Change. Nobody likes it. But sometimes it's inevitable. If you're a Lions fan, remove yourself from the situation and imagine if the annual games were played in Cleveland and St. Louis? Kind of loses its luster, huh?
Thanksgiving is a national holiday. And in terms of football, it's about time we have something to celebrate on that day.
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