NFL on Thanksgiving Day
National Football League games in the US
Why this is trending
Interest in “NFL on Thanksgiving Day” spiked on Wikipedia on 2026-07-21.
Categorised under Sports, this article fits a familiar pattern. Sports articles typically spike during championship events, record-breaking performances, or high-profile transfers and controversies.
At GlyphSignal we surface these trending signals every day—transforming Wikipedia’s vast pageview data into actionable insights about global curiosity.
Key Takeaways
- Since its inception in 1920, the National Football League (NFL) has played games on Thanksgiving Day, patterned upon the historic playing of college football games on or around the November holiday.
- Since 2006, a third game has also been played in prime time on Thanksgiving night.
- The NFL's Thanksgiving Day series is very different from their Christmas games and the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s traditional Christmas Day series, both of which have no fixed hosts at all.
- In 2001, the NFL began branding the games as the Thanksgiving Classic .
- All three of the games played in 2025 set NFL regular season viewership records; the Kansas City Chiefs–Dallas Cowboys game broadcast on CBS and streamer Paramount+ stands as the most-watched NFL regular season game of all time (57.
Source note: This page combines GlyphSignal analysis with attributed reference material from Wikipedia. GlyphSignal adds trend context, traffic history, categorization, and editorial interpretation. See how we build these pages.
Source summary
WikipediaSince its inception in 1920, the National Football League (NFL) has played games on Thanksgiving Day, patterned upon the historic playing of college football games on or around the November holiday. The NFL's Thanksgiving Day games have traditionally included one game hosted by the Detroit Lions since 1934, and one game hosted by the Dallas Cowboys since 1966 (with two exceptions in 1975 and 1977). Since 2006, a third game has also been played in prime time on Thanksgiving night. Unlike the two afternoon games, this game has no fixed teams.
The NFL's Thanksgiving Day series is very different from their Christmas games and the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s traditional Christmas Day series, both of which have no fixed hosts at all. Furthermore, the NBA's Christmas Day series features 5 games, rather than 3.
In 2001, the NFL began branding the games as the Thanksgiving Classic. In 2022, the league changed the branding to the John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration in honor of former head coach and broadcaster John Madden, who died in December 2021.
Content sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0
