Nothing matches that yet. Try a word like “states”, “Disney” or “hard”.
This Thanksgiving football trivia quiz is for everyone who spends the holiday between the kitchen and the TV. The 10 questions span 150 years of Turkey Day games, from an early college showdown to snowy blunders, a coin toss gone wrong, beloved broadcast traditions and the newer games that now fill the long weekend. Play it before kickoff, or read it aloud as a ready-made round for the family table.
Football and Thanksgiving grew up together. In the late 1800s, college teams and local clubs scheduled their biggest games for the holiday, when crowds had the day off and the season was winding down. High schools followed, and some of their rivalries are still going: in Massachusetts, Wellesley and Needham have met on or around Thanksgiving since 1882, the oldest such public high school series in the country. Pro football joined in right away: the NFL scheduled Thanksgiving games in its very first season, 1920.
Today the long weekend is packed with football, from morning high school kickoffs and backyard games to college rivalries and pro games that run late into the night. A big part of the fun is that the holiday has produced some of the strangest moments in the sport, from games played in surprise snowstorms to plays that fans still replay every November.
A good way to approach this quiz is to think in eras. Questions about the 1800s and 1930s are about how the tradition began, while the more recent ones lean on famous TV moments and new additions to the schedule. If you're stuck, picture what the game looked like on your screen that year, since broadcast traditions are part of the story too.
Besides the Detroit Lions, which NFL team hosts a game on Thanksgiving Day almost every year?
Answer: Dallas Cowboys
Dallas first hosted in 1966, a move pushed by general manager Tex Schramm, and has hosted every year since 1978.
Which team beat the Detroit Lions in the Lions' first Thanksgiving Day game, in 1934?
Answer: Chicago Bears
The Bears won 19-16 against a Lions team in its first season after moving from Portsmouth, Ohio.
Starting in 1989, what did broadcaster John Madden hand to the standout player of his Thanksgiving NFL game?
Answer: A turkey leg
A Texas barbecue owner even cooked Madden a six-legged turkey so there would be legs to spare.
Which three-bird dish did broadcaster John Madden famously champion during his Thanksgiving NFL broadcasts?
Answer: Turducken
It's a deboned chicken stuffed inside a deboned duck, all stuffed inside a deboned turkey.
The NFL's first-ever Black Friday game, played in 2023, was streamed on which service?
Answer: Amazon Prime Video
Fittingly for the biggest shopping day of the year, Miami beat the New York Jets 34-13 in that game.
In the infamous "Butt Fumble" on Thanksgiving 2012, which New York Jets quarterback ran into his own lineman?
Answer: Mark Sanchez
The New England Patriots scored three touchdowns in 52 seconds that quarter and won 49-19.
In a snowy 1993 Thanksgiving game, Dallas lineman Leon Lett's blunder on a blocked field goal handed the win to which team?
Answer: Miami Dolphins
Lett slipped and kicked the loose ball, Miami recovered, and Pete Stoyanovich won it 16-14 from 19 yards.
A disputed overtime coin toss on Thanksgiving 1998 led the NFL to change its rules. Which team did the Detroit Lions play that day?
Answer: Pittsburgh Steelers
Jerome Bettis said he called tails but the referee heard heads, so now the call is made before the toss.
In what year did the NFL make a third Thanksgiving Day game, played in prime time, a yearly fixture?
Answer: 2006
Unlike the two afternoon games with fixed hosts, the night game can be hosted by any other team.
On Thanksgiving Day 1876, Yale played which school in Hoboken, New Jersey, helping start college football's holiday tradition?
Answer: Princeton
Yale won two goals to none, in a game that looked far more like rugby than modern football.
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