Thanksgiving Football Worksheet Download

Do you hear loud cheers on Thanksgiving Day? Many families sit close and watch football on TV together. Others play touch football in the yard, where players tap each other instead of tackling.

Those yard games copy a habit that is very, very old. Back in the 1870s and 1880s, college teams played big games on Thanksgiving. Soon high schools had rivalry games, big matches between teams that want to beat each other.

Then pro teams joined the fun in the 1920s, and their players are paid. Detroit's team has played on Thanksgiving nearly every year since 1934. Wow, people have cheered at these games for well over 100 years!

Wow, one football team has played on Thanksgiving nearly every year since 1934! That team is the Detroit Lions, and many families watch its game on TV. Or you might bundle up and toss a football in the yard.

Yard games copy something much older: college teams played big Thanksgiving games in the 1870s and 1880s. High schools soon added a rivalry, which is a yearly game between two teams that really want to beat each other. Fans cheered in scarves and coats.

Those crowds grew when professional teams, whose players are paid, joined in during the 1920s. The Dallas Cowboys joined the holiday lineup in 1966, and they have played nearly every year since. That is more than fifty years of Thanksgiving touchdowns for Dallas!

Today, TV touchdowns bring families together, and touch football lets them score some of their own. In touch football, a gentle tap stops the runner instead of a tackle. So when a crowd roars on Thanksgiving, remember that people have cheered for football on this day for about 150 years!

Imagine you are snuggled in a blanket on the couch when the TV crowd roars as a football spirals through the air! For many families, football is part of Thanksgiving Day. Some people cheer from the couch, while others dash outside for touch football in the yard. In touch football, players tap the runner with a hand instead of tackling, so it is a gentler game.

Touch football is gentle, but the first Thanksgiving games were big, bumpy college contests in the 1870s and 1880s. Many people had the day off, so a game was a fun way to gather. Soon high schools wanted in, and they began rivalry games of their own. A rivalry is when two teams have played each other for years and both really want to win.

Rivalry games were not just for students for long, because by the 1920s professional teams joined in too. Professional players are paid to play football as their job. The Detroit Lions have played on Thanksgiving nearly every year since 1934. The Dallas Cowboys joined the tradition in 1966 and have played almost every year since.

Those teams play in giant stadiums, but you do not need a ticket to watch them. Because the games are on TV, people can cheer from home, even far from the stadium. Just think: a game that college students played in the 1870s is still being cheered on today!

Picture Thanksgiving Day in 1934: a crowd in Detroit packs a stadium to cheer for the Lions, a team that had just moved to town. Across the field stand the Chicago Bears, and the stadium rumbles with noise. Today, football on Thanksgiving means cheers in stadiums, on living-room couches, and in muddy backyards. In that last spot, families toss a ball around and make up rules as they go.

Those backyard games copy a tradition that started long before the Lions, way back in the 1870s. In those years, college teams such as Yale and Princeton played big games on Thanksgiving Day while crowds gathered to watch. Football was brand new then, looking more like rugby than today's game, and its rules kept changing.

Fans weren't the only ones cheering for that changing game, because high schools began their own rivalry games not long afterward. A rivalry is a yearly contest between two teams that really want to beat each other. Schools were closed for the holiday, so whole towns could come watch. Some of those rivalries are more than 100 years old, older than most people's great-grandparents!

Crowds like those didn't go unnoticed, and pro teams joined the Thanksgiving fun in the 1920s. Detroit's game began in 1934, when the Lions' owner hoped a holiday game would bring fans to a new team, and the Lions have played on Thanksgiving nearly every year since. Dallas's team, the Cowboys, has done the same since 1966, so two cities now share a long holiday habit.

Thanks to those pro games, many families have football on TV while the day unfolds. Some gather around a big meal, and others simply relax together. Then kids and grown-ups head outside for touch football, where a quick touch replaces a tackle. So the next time you hear a Thanksgiving cheer, remember that fans were roaring in the 1870s, long before anyone had a TV to watch it on.

Here's a puzzle: why does a day for family gatherings also come with the thump of a football and the roar of a crowd? On the fourth Thursday of November, many families turn on the game while snack smells drift through the house. Outside, cousins in puffy jackets zigzag across the grass, playing touch football until someone calls them in. How did a sport land on a holiday about being together? Let's follow the clues back in time.

The first clue comes from the 1870s and 1880s, when college football was brand-new and no one had a TV. In New York City, crowds gathered on Thanksgiving to watch college teams such as Yale and Princeton battle it out. Because many people had the day off, it was an easy day to gather and cheer. High schools soon began rivalry games of their own, and some of those matchups are still played today.

Once fans were packing the stands, professional teams wanted in on the fun. They joined the holiday in the 1920s, when pro football was just getting started. The most famous holiday game began in 1934, when Detroit Lions owner George A. Richards hosted the Chicago Bears. He hoped a holiday game would win fans for his new team, and radio stations across the country carried it.

That gamble paid off, and Detroit has played on Thanksgiving nearly every year since 1934. In 1966, the Dallas Cowboys, still a young team, began hosting a holiday game of their own. Their general manager, Tex Schramm, hoped the game would bring in new fans, just as Detroit's had. Because Detroit's streak is so long, several generations of one family may have watched the same team on the same holiday.

Those families are not just watching from the couch, because many head outside to play. Touch football uses a touch instead of a tackle, so kids, parents, and grandparents can all join in. Of course, many families skip football and take a walk, play a board game, or simply rest, and that is part of the day too. In the end, the puzzle's answer is a simple bet: in 1934 one team owner guessed that people would gather around a holiday game, and Detroit has played nearly every year since.

Do you think football on Thanksgiving was invented for television, a way to keep everyone glued to the couch on a holiday afternoon? Think again! Picture a crisp November afternoon, a football spinning against a gray sky, and a crowd stamping its feet to stay warm while it roars at every pass. That scene was playing out long before anyone owned a TV. Football and Thanksgiving have been teammates for well over a century, and their partnership began on college fields.

Those college fields were the starting line in the 1870s and 1880s, when teams from schools such as Yale and Princeton played huge Thanksgiving games in and around New York City. The sport looked quite different back then, since it was still close to rugby and players had little padding and no modern helmets. Crowds filled the stands to cheer for their schools, and a holiday championship game became a big event for sports fans. Before long, the idea began to travel far beyond the big universities.

Travel it did, all the way to high school fields, where rivalry games between neighboring schools became a Thanksgiving tradition in many towns. Imagine lining up against kids from the school across town, with half your community shivering in the bleachers! Many of those rivalries are still played today. In the 1920s, professional teams joined in, scheduling games for a day when many people were off work and ready for some fun. Suddenly, grown-up pros were playing on the same holiday that students had been claiming for decades.

Of all those pro teams, none has kept the date quite like Detroit's. The Lions played on Thanksgiving in 1934, their first season in Detroit, and they have played on the holiday nearly every year since. Team owner George A. Richards hoped a holiday game, broadcast on radio across the country, would introduce the city to its brand-new team. Dallas joined the tradition in 1966, and the Cowboys have hosted a game on nearly every Thanksgiving since. That means a child today has grown up in a world where Thanksgiving football is as dependable as the calendar.

Dependable is a good word for the traditions at home, too. Millions of people watch on TV, while many families head outside for a game of touch football in the yard, with no tackling, plenty of laughing, and grass-stained knees. Not every family watches, plays, or even celebrates the day, but for many, a game gives everyone something to cheer about together. I think that is why the tradition has lasted: the score matters far less than the shared shouting, groaning, and high-fiving. Not bad for a custom that began with college students on a chilly field, long before any holiday kickoff flickered onto a TV screen.

What do a stadium packed with tens of thousands of fans and a muddy backyard with six cousins have in common? A football, a chilly Thursday in late November, and a tradition that many families share. Picture the roar of a crowd through the TV speakers, the shrill whistle of a referee, and someone in the kitchen calling, "What's the score?" Football on Thanksgiving can feel as natural as the holiday itself, yet it took a long journey from college fields to radio waves to living-room screens to get there.

That journey began on college fields, where young men were still tinkering with the rules of a brand-new sport. In 1876, Yale and Princeton played a major Thanksgiving Day game in the New York City area, the same year the telephone was patented. Over the 1880s, games like it grew into a holiday event that fans traveled to see, and players wore far less padding than players do today. Why Thanksgiving? One reason is timing: late November was the end of the football season, and the holiday gave many students and fans a day off.

While college stars drew crowds in the New York area, teenagers around the country caught the same football fever. In the late 1800s, high schools began rivalry games of their own, and some of those matchups are still played on Thanksgiving morning. A rivalry game is more than a contest, because the same two schools face off year after year and every win becomes a story that gets retold. Hometown games also gave neighbors, grandparents, and graduates home for the holiday a reason to sit in the same bleachers. Some of these rivalries are more than a century old, so your great-grandparents' generation could have cheered at the same matchups.

Professional football noticed those crowds, and by the 1920s pro teams were scheduling games on the holiday too. The idea really took off in 1934, when the Detroit Lions, newly arrived in the city, hosted the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving. The team's owner hoped a holiday game would win fans, so the game was broadcast on radio to listeners far beyond Detroit. It worked, and the Lions have played on Thanksgiving nearly every year since. That means most of today's grandparents were not even born when the streak began!

If one Thanksgiving team made a hit, a second could make an even bigger one, and in 1966 the Dallas Cowboys joined the holiday lineup. The Cowboys were still a young team then, and television gave them a way to introduce themselves to homes across the country. Dallas has played on Thanksgiving nearly every year since. Television also changed the tradition itself, because fans no longer needed a ticket to take part. Instead, the game could hum in the background while families cooked, chatted, and snacked, with someone always jumping up to shout at a replay.

Of course, not everyone watches from the couch, because the game has a habit of tumbling out the back door. Many families play touch football in the yard, and those friendly games are often nicknamed a "Turkey Bowl." In touch football, a tap with one or two hands replaces a tackle, so cousins of very different ages can play together. The rules bend to fit the yard, with end zones marked by jackets or a garage door and the setting sun serving as the stadium lights. From a Yale and Princeton game in the year the telephone was patented to a backyard game today, the tradition has been running for about 150 years.

In 1934, a radio-station owner named George Richards had a problem: he had just moved a football team to Detroit, and the city had little reason to care about it yet. His bold solution was to schedule a game on Thanksgiving Day against the Chicago Bears, one of the strongest teams in the league, and to send it out over a national radio network. The seats filled, listeners across the country tuned in, and the Lions have returned to the holiday nearly every year since. Today, in many homes, the scene is familiar: pans clattering in the kitchen, an announcer's voice rumbling from the television, and a cousin groaning at a replay. How did a scheme to sell tickets become something that feels as much a part of the day as the table itself? The answer begins more than fifty years before Richards, on college fields.

Those college fields were already hosting Thanksgiving crowds in the 1870s and 1880s, when football was a rough young sport that looked more like rugby than today's game. Colleges liked the holiday because students and alumni were free to travel, and big matchups such as Yale against Princeton, often played in New York City, drew crowds in the thousands. The game those crowds watched was still being invented. A Yale player named Walter Camp helped push through rule changes, including the line of scrimmage and the system of downs, that carried the sport farther from rugby. Can you imagine cheering at a game whose rules kept changing from one season to the next? Fans in the 1880s didn't have to imagine.

While the rules kept changing, the habit of a holiday game kept spreading, and high schools began staging Thanksgiving rivalries of their own. A rivalry game works differently from an ordinary one: the teams often come from neighboring towns, and the crowd is full of people who know the players or once played themselves. Some of these matchups have been played for well over a century. Notice the distinction: the college spectacle gathered fans to watch celebrated teams, while the high school game gathered neighbors to watch their own. In that sense, the holiday had a grand stage and a neighborhood one, and both were filled.

Professional football soon wanted a seat at the same crowded table, and in the 1920s young pro teams began playing on the holiday too. The league began in 1920 and took the name National Football League in 1922, so Thanksgiving games gave it a chance to borrow the holiday's crowds. Richards's 1934 gamble in Detroit then turned an occasional date into a lasting one. Dallas followed in 1966, when the Cowboys, a team only six years old, hosted a Thanksgiving game and have played on the holiday nearly every year since. Their general manager, Tex Schramm, saw the holiday as a way to put the young team in front of a national audience. Since 2006, a third professional game has joined those two in the evening.

Two teams, two cities, and two team leaders with a plan: that pattern raises a question worth arguing over, which is whether football joined Thanksgiving or borrowed it. The practical explanation says the holiday simply offered what a game needs: a day off, crisp late-season weather, and people already gathered in one place. The promotional explanation points to Richards and Schramm, who chose the date on purpose because they expected a big holiday audience. Each explanation has evidence behind it, but neither is enough alone, since a day off explains why fans could come and promotion explains why those teams made the date theirs. Taken together, they suggest that the tradition grew from convenience and ambition at once.

Whichever explanation you favor, the tradition has long since left the stadium and moved into living rooms and backyards. On television, the games give many families a shared event to cheer, groan at, or doze through after a meal. Outside, relatives and neighbors play touch football, in which a touch replaces a tackle, so a lawn is enough and no pads are needed. Of course, families celebrate in many ways, and some skip the games, the big meal, or the holiday altogether. Still, it is striking that a custom now so familiar began with a radio-station owner worrying about empty seats, and a game meant to fill one stadium now fills living rooms across the country.