The NFL is going the most boring way possible with the Lions’ Thanksgiving game, and everyone is sick of it

The NFL does not want you to have fun on Thanksgiving. It wants to show the same thing you’ve always seen

Mike Payton — Detroit Lions Beat Writer
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Dec 14, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) is seen during warmups prior to the game against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

One of the biggest things that happens every year with the Detroit Lions is Thanksgiving. It’s a huge piece of the franchise because it’s their thing. They created the entire tradition of football on this holiday. Sadly, in the last few years its become boring because the league keeps jamming NFC North games into it, and everyone is just tired of it. Now it’s happening again.

The Lions will play the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving….again

The Lions just played the Bears on Thanksgiving two seasons ago. They played the Packers last year and in 2023 as well. In the last 15 years, the NFL has forced the Lions to play an NFC North opponent in 11 of those games. I’m pretty sure Bears and Packers fans are sick of it, too.

Look back at the last few years under the Dan Campbell regime. What was the best Thanksgiving game you saw during that time? It was the one game they didn’t play a division rival. Their game against the Bills. Everyone universally loved that game, and the hope was that the league would build off of that and introduce some new teams to the holiday. Instead, they’re going the laziest route possible.

The Patriots were right there. Yes, that is the Germany game, and that’s cool. But man, if you’re an NFL fan whose team isn’t playing that day, that was the game you would have wanted to watch. It’s a game you have no stock in, but know you’re going to get a fun performance. Instead, you get to watch the game you just watched a couple of years ago.

Yes, there are stakes to the game in this case, and there is a storyline there. Dan Campbell vs Ben Johnson will give people reason to want to tune in, but this would have been much more interesting on a Monday Night on ESPN than on Thanksgiving, where you’ve seen it a million times. It’s like Christmas Story playing all day on TBS. Who is that for? We’ve all seen that movie more than any other movie we’ve ever seen.

Welp, maybe the NFL will get interesting with it next year. But they’ll probably just play the Packers again.

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