31
2009
Don't You Dare Mess With Our Tradition
An article by Joe D.
Comments Off For as long as I could remember, Thanksgiving Day has always meant one thing to me; family, good food, and Dallas Cowboys football.
For almost a decade, envious team owners have bemoaned the fact that the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions play at home each Thanksgiving Day. They raise the issue at every owners meeting, but nobody has ever paid any real attention to their gripes, not even the NFL commissioner, that is until Roger Goodell became commissioner.
Whether you’re a Cowboys fan or not, I think most fans would agree that watching the Cowboys at home each Thanksgiving, has become an American tradition. It’s become part of the fabric of the day. Like a warm blanket on a cold day, there’s some comfort to be found in maintaining some of these holiday traditions. Especially Thanksgiving, which is meshed with so many family memories that are intertwined with a backdrop of Cowboys football.
In recent years, the NFL has shown very little love for any of the age old traditions of the game.
With Roger Goodell as NFL commissioner, nothing is sacred anymore.
The Star-Telegram, quotes Goodell on the subject in a recent article by Charean Williams.
The Dallas Cowboys have been a fixture on Thanksgiving Day since 1966. The Detroit Lions have hosted the annual holiday game even longer, since 1934. But there is no guarantee either team will have a Thanksgiving Day game in 2010.
“I attended that [Thanksgiving] game [in Detroit] a little over a year ago,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in his state-of-the-league news conference Friday. “I understand it’s a great tradition in Detroit and Dallas. [Moving the game around] is something that our owners have raised from time to time. It will not change for this season. As to whether ownership feels the same, we will discuss it as we get later in the year. We certainly will raise it.”
Hopefully, common sense will prevail, and the NFL will continue to support one of it’s last remaining traditions. However, it worries me that Goodell would actually create a forum in the near future for sharing the game with different teams. It pains me to know that our Thanksgiving Classic will be put to an up and down vote at the next owners meeting.
In past meetings, a few bitter owners were allowed to interrupt the meeting, raise the issue, say their piece, and move on to the next topic on the agenda. However, when the commissioner himself makes it a part of the actual agenda, then it makes me believe that the 2009 Thanksgiving Day Cowboys game, may be the last one we see for a long, long time.
I can’t believe this is even a topic. I am so mad I don’t even know what to comment. Goodell sucks!
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OMG…if they take that away I’ll just die. Watching the Boys play on Thanksgiving for me and my family is and was always the best part. I moved away from home about 5 yrs ago and if I don’t get to spend Thanksgiving with my family in TX…I still look forward to getting to watch the game. That’s just one way I can still like I’m with my family even though they are soooo many miles away.
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Goodell is really starting to get on My Freakin Nerves!!!
it’s one thing to take the Pro bowl out of Hawaii it’s one thing to keep having games in other Countries BUT…He is going to Damn far this time !!!
He needs to think about this long and hard He would really hate to have 15 Million Pissed Off Cowboy Lovers to deal with !!
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What goes through these individuals minds when they start rocking the boat? Change may be good sometimes, but tradition should carry some valor, otherwise everything would be done in vane, things would be drab….and “for Pete’s sake” can’t they see the numbers when it comes to highest rated/sold memorabilia, TV ratings, etc. etc. This world we live in has grown so numb that hardly nothing has value.
Baseball, for instance….you think of hotdogs, peanuts, and popcorn….
THANKSGIVING, per say, is family unity, good food, and COWBOYS football. Otherwise is loses its fizz,….its purpose!
Ugh!!!!!
What the Heck is up with this man?
Lord help us.
~lin
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Cowboys and Turkey are the best combo ever!!!who would even think of changing that….
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Back in the day, when nobody wanted to play on Thanksgiving, we stepped up and took it. How does anyone have the right to take it away, now that they see how high profile and profitable it has become? This is garbage and Godell is a punk if he lets other teams in on it.
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we should flood Goodell’s office with email or letters!
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Money talks in this modern era of the NFL. That’s why the Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game will stay where it is. The Lions on the other hand…well…
Great piece Joe.
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Why are you even worried about this? Jerry has enough swing with the other NFL owners, to keep
the tradition the way it is.
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