The best Thanksgiving football games are the 1974 Clint Longley Hail Mary, the 1980 overtime that lasted 13 seconds and the 1993 Leon Lett game in the snow. Seven more join them below, from the Lions’ first holiday game in 1934 to Buffalo’s win in Dallas in 2019.
Updated October 27, 2026.
For a lot of families, the day just is not complete until the plates are full and the game is on. Anyone who has watched Thanksgiving football for years learns the same lesson. The Thursday games are seldom the league’s best, but they are often its strangest. Most of us have had a holiday where the game ran in the background while somebody asked who was winning for the fifth time. When that many people are half watching and half carving, one small mistake turns into a story people tell for decades. That is why so many entries here are blunders and odd rulings, not blowouts.
1934: The First Lions Thanksgiving Football Game
The Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions 19–16 on November 29, 1934, in front of 26,000 fans. That game started the Lions’ Thanksgiving tradition, and it happened because of radio. Lions owner George A. Richards also owned WJR, a Detroit station on the NBC Blue Network, and he struck a deal with NBC to carry his Thanksgiving game live across the network.
The Lions played on Thanksgiving from 1934 through 1938. There was no Lions game in 1939 or 1940, when the holiday’s date was split. The NFL played no Thanksgiving games from 1941 to 1944 during World War II. The Lions have played every year since 1945.
1962: The Thanksgiving Day Massacre
The Lions beat the Green Bay Packers 26–14 on November 22, 1962. Detroit’s defense sacked Bart Starr 11 times, and people started calling it the Thanksgiving Day Massacre. The Packers came in at 10–0, and this was their only loss of the season. Not many teams get to say they handed a champion its one bad day.
1966: The Cowboys Start Hosting
Dallas beat the Cleveland Browns 26–14 on November 24, 1966, in the Cowboys’ first Thanksgiving game as a regular host. St. Louis hosted in 1975 and 1977, and Dallas resumed in 1978. The Cowboys have held the late afternoon game ever since. For plenty of fans, Cowboys football is as much a part of the day as the turkey. The tradition has outlasted generations of stars, Troy Aikman among them.
1974: Clint Longley and the Hail Mary
Lots of people remember this one as an overtime game. It was not. Dallas beat the Redskins 24–23 on November 28, 1974, in regular time. Roger Staubach was hurt, and backup Clint Longley led a wild fourth-quarter comeback. Down 23–17, Longley threw a 50-yard Hail Mary to Drew Pearson along the left sideline with 28 seconds left and no timeouts. Anyone who has ever thrown a football in the backyard as far as they could, and hoped for the best, knows how unlikely that is when it actually works.
Longley also threw a 35-yard touchdown to Billy Joe DuPree that day. He had earned the nickname “Mad Bomber” for wild passes in his rookie training camp, not in this game, which makes the finish even better.
1980: Dave Williams Ends Overtime in 13 Seconds
The Lions’ 1980 Thanksgiving game against the Bears ended on the first play of overtime. On November 27, 1980, the teams were tied 17–17 after regulation at the Pontiac Silverdome. Chicago’s Dave Williams returned the opening overtime kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown in 13 seconds, and the Bears won 23–17.
It was the shortest overtime in NFL history at that time. The Lions, who had kicked off, never touched the ball again. If you blinked, you missed the whole thing.
1993: Leon Lett’s Thanksgiving Football Blunder
Dallas and Miami played at Texas Stadium in a rare snow and sleet storm on November 25, 1993. The Cowboys led 14–13 with 15 seconds left when Miami lined up for a 41-yard field goal. Jimmie Jones blocked it, and the ball landed a few yards away.
Cowboys lineman Leon Lett went for the loose ball, slipped and knocked it forward. Miami recovered it, and under the muffed-kick rules the ball went to the Dolphins at the one-yard line with three seconds left. Pete Stoyanovich kicked the short field goal, and Miami won 16–14. Lett only had to leave the ball alone. Most of us have done the same thing in our own lives, grabbing at something when the best move was to do nothing.
1998: The Coin Toss That Went Wrong
The Lions beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 19–16 in overtime on November 26, 1998, at the Silverdome. The game was tied 16–16 when Steelers running back Jerome Bettis called the overtime coin toss. Referee Phil Luckett heard both heads and tails in the call and ruled on live TV that Detroit had won the toss. It is still one of the strangest calls in Thanksgiving history. The Lions received and drove for the winning field goal.
Barry Sanders was the face of those Lions teams, and plenty of fans still call him one of the greatest running backs ever. He finished with 15,269 career rushing yards, 2,053 of them in 1997, and entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame on August 8, 2004.
2012: The Butt Fumble
The New England Patriots beat the New York Jets 49–19 at MetLife Stadium on November 22, 2012. Quarterback Mark Sanchez ran into the backside of his own guard, Brandon Moore, and fumbled. Patriots safety Steve Gregory recovered and returned it for a touchdown, and New England led 21–0. It was NBC’s first year with the prime-time Thanksgiving game, and the play has been replayed ever since. It became an internet joke almost right away. Anyone who has tripped over their own feet in public knows the feeling, just with a lot fewer people watching.
2016: The Cowboys Win Their Tenth Straight
Dallas beat Washington 31–26 at AT&T Stadium on November 24, 2016, in Dak Prescott’s first Thanksgiving game there. Washington never led, though it made a late run in the fourth quarter. Dez Bryant and his “Throw Up the X” celebration were a big part of those Cowboys teams. The win moved Dallas to 10–1 and extended its streak to ten games, the longest in franchise history at that point.
2019: The Bills Beat the Cowboys in Dallas
Buffalo won 26–15 on November 28, 2019, on CBS. It was not a Bills debut, since Buffalo first played on Thanksgiving in 1961. The game honored the teams’ two Super Bowl meetings, XXVII and XXVIII, as part of the NFL’s 100th season.
Is the Snow Bowl a Thanksgiving Football Game?
No. The 2013 Eagles-Lions Snow Bowl is often filed under Thanksgiving, but it was played on December 8, 2013, at Lincoln Financial Field. Philadelphia won 34–20, LeSean McCoy ran for 217 yards to set an Eagles single-game record, and at least eight inches of snow covered the field at 27 degrees. It is a great football game, and it belongs on a different list. Anyone who has stood outside in the cold for an hour knows how hard it is to even hold on to a football in that kind of weather.
For more upsets from another kind of football, see the top 10 college football upsets.
Thanksgiving Football Games: Common Questions
What are the best Thanksgiving football games?
Three stand out: the Cowboys’ 24–23 win over Washington in 1974 on Clint Longley’s Hail Mary, the Bears’ 23–17 overtime win in 1980 that ended after 13 seconds, and Miami’s 16–14 win in 1993 after Leon Lett touched a blocked kick in the snow.
When did the NFL start playing on Thanksgiving?
The Lions began their Thanksgiving tradition in 1934, losing 19–16 to the Bears before 26,000 fans. They played through 1938, sat out 1939 and 1940 when the holiday’s date was split, missed 1941 to 1944 during World War II, and have played every year since 1945. Dallas started hosting in 1966.
Who hosts Thanksgiving football games?
Three games are played each Thanksgiving: two in the afternoon and one in prime time. The Lions host the early afternoon game and the Cowboys host the late afternoon game. The prime-time game has no fixed host.
What was the Butt Fumble?
It was a play on Thanksgiving 2012 in which Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez ran into his own guard Brandon Moore, fumbled, and watched the Patriots’ Steve Gregory return the ball for a touchdown. New England won 49–19 at MetLife Stadium.