[St. Loser Fan]

Ravens to open at Chiefs is the rumor out of KC.

[Elvis]

People speculating Thanksgiving in Detroit but why waste that game at 9:30 am? I'd think a more featured slot...

[PARAM]

People speculating Thanksgiving in Detroit but why waste that game at 9:30 am? I'd think a more featured slot...

9:30 for you, 12:30 for us ESTers. I'm a huge fan of Thanksgiving dinner and it's hard to think anything could make it taste better. But a win over the Lions would definitely do it.

[St. Loser Fan]

People speculating Thanksgiving in Detroit but why waste that game at 9:30 am? I'd think a more featured slot...

There's no way that could happen.

I went back as far as 2007 but every team that's played at Detroit with the 12:30pm E time slot has been from the Eastern or Central time zone. Forcing an early start on a Pacific time zone team would go against trend.

EDIT: found a full list of the Detroit Thanksgiving games.
-in 1990, 1978, 1974 the Denver Broncos (Mountain Time Zone) played in Detroit
-in 1975, 1967 the LA Rams (Pacific Time Zone) played in Detroit
-in 1966 the 49ers played
The thing is that list doesn't have the start times. Before Tom Landry built the Cowboys into a powerhouse those Detroit games in the 1970s could have very well been the late time slot.

[actionjack]

What would be the best time of the season to play that game? I'd think early, on National TV. Because there's a fair chance they could meet again in a postseason matchup.

Def think this is an early prime time game, it will be electric as we run the ball damn their throat!!

[St. Loser Fan]

Maybe one of you guys that are a bit older can confirm, but I want to say back in the 70s and even 80's the Thanksgiving Day games used to alternate with who got what time slot. Then when the Cowboys became "America's Team" I think they stopped alternating and Dallas became the later time slot.

[rams74]

Maybe one of you guys that are a bit older can confirm, but I want to say back in the 70s and even 80's the Thanksgiving Day games used to alternate with who got what time slot. Then when the Cowboys became "America's Team" I think they stopped alternating and Dallas became the later time slot.

I guess that's possible, but I don't remember that. As far as I remember, the Lions have always been the early game on Thanksgiving.

[actionjack]

People speculating Thanksgiving in Detroit but why waste that game at 9:30 am? I'd think a more featured slot...

Yep I could see opening weekend, the Rams never play on Turkey Day.

[Elvis]

Looking at Wikipedia, Dallas has been playing Thanksgiving since 1966, Detroit got in on it in 1978 and have always played the early slot. Not sure how complete of definitive this is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_on_Thanksgiving_Day

[St. Loser Fan]

Looking at Wikipedia, Dallas has been playing Thanksgiving since 1966, Detroit got in on it in 1978 and have always played the early slot. Not sure how complete of definitive this is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_on_Thanksgiving_Day

Deep in that article is says the Detroit game was always early.

Starting in 1970, the Detroit "early" game and the Dallas "late" game initially rotated annually as intra-conference (NFC at NFC) and inter-conference (AFC at NFC) games. This was to satisfy the then-television contract balance between the network holding the rights to the "AFC package" and televised inter-conference games in which the visiting team is from the AFC (NBC from 1970 to 1997, and CBS since 1998) and the network with the "NFC package" (CBS from 1970 to 1993, and Fox since 1994).