Update (November 6)<\/b>: This article has been updated with the latest information about the NFL’s 2026 Thanksgiving Day games.<\/p>\n
Arlington, Texas and Detroit, Michigan aren\u2019t exactly sister cities, but they do have at least one big thing in common (and it\u2019s a thing that\u2019s a mainstay of many families\u2019 holiday sports<\/a> traditions): Every Thanksgiving Day, the Cowboys<\/a> and Lions<\/a> each host a football game. In the 2026 NFL season, the Thanksgiving tradition will continue as the Lions face the Chicago Bears<\/a> at 1:00 p.m. ET and the Cowboys take on the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> at 4:30 p.m. ET. A third traditional game, introduced for primetime in 2006, will feature the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> versus the Buffalo Bills<\/a> at 8:20 p.m. ET on Thanksgiving Day.<\/p>\n The Lions first did it during their inaugural season in Detroit, in 1934, and Dallas went for it during the 1966 season, but both the Motor City and Dallas had pre-existing (if tenuous) ties to the holiday. It wasn\u2019t until the late 1970s that both the Cowboys and the Lions committed to an annual tradition of hosting Thanksgiving games, and it would take until 2006 for a third Thanksgiving game and a weekly Thursday night game<\/a> to allay worries as to whether both cities deserved to continue the tradition.<\/p>\n The 2026 Thanksgiving games will also be celebrated with halftime performances by Wu-Tang Clan<\/a> in Detroit and Miranda Lambert<\/a> in Texas, while Goo Goo Dolls<\/a> headline in Buffalo.<\/p>\n Learn more about the history behind why the Cowboys and Lions play on Thanksgiving below.<\/p>\nHistory of NFL Thanksgiving Games in Detroit<\/b><\/h2>\n