For six decades the Detroit Lions have played football on Thanksgiving Day.
No. 62 comes up Thursday, against the NFC Central Division rival Green Bay Packers, but for the first time in team history the Lions go into their traditional battle winless.
Obviously, the Lions would like to turn their famine into a feast. But, the Packers (6-3), knocked out of first place in their division race last Sunday, have some feasting of their own in mind.
Having little luck under rookie Coach Marty Mornhinweg, Detroit is 0-9, only NFL team without a win, off to its worst start since an 0-11 campaign in 1942, a wartime year when the Thanksgiving series was interrupted. Starting the tradition in 1934, Detroit has posted a 32-27-2 record.
In the other NFL game Thursday, Dallas and Denver, also reeling from numbing losses Sunday, will stage their first Thanksgiving meeting.
The Cowboys (2-7) have participated in 33 Thanksgiving games since 1966 with a 21-11-1 record, but have lost three of the last four holiday contests. The Broncos (5-5) have a 1-2 record on Thanksgiving with all the games in Detroit. Their last appearance was a 40-27 loss to the Lions.
Detroit has come close to winning in recent weeks, losing its last six games by eight points or less with the Lions' best offensive showing of the season last Sunday before losing to Arizona in a wild one, 45-38. Charlie Batch passed for a career high 436 yards and three TD passes but was intercepted three times.
The Packers (6-3) were on the other end of the spectrum, atop the division standings until an unexpected 23-20 loss Sunday to Atlanta knocked them out of first place. Brett Favre was intercepted three times and lost a fumble. The Pack is now one game back of Chicago in the divison race.
From 1951-63, the Lions and Packers met on Thanksgiving 13
straight times with Detroit going 9-3-1 in those contests. The
teams split games on Thanksgiving in 1984 and 1986.
Green Bay started the Lions on their downward spiral, handing them a 28-6 loss on Opening Day. The teams have split the regular-season series in seven of the last eight seasons. Green Bay leads the series, 73-62-7.
The occasion in Dallas, before kickoff, anyway, offers little holiday cheer from Denver Coach Mike Shanahan. After the Broncos managed just 10 first downs and 186 total yards in last Sunday's 17-10 loss to the Washington Redskins, Shanahan called it "the worst offensive performance I've ever seen in my time in the National Football League."
Dallas' Dave Campo witnessed his team play perhaps its worst game of the season last Sunday as the Cowboys were crushed, 36-3, by the Philadelphia Eagles.
All four teams, saluting history and hoping to rekindle their winning spirit, will dress out in vintage uniforms Thursday.
The Packers will sport the club's 1939 uniforms -- reflecting a year in which they won their fifth National Football League championship. The Lions will be in uniforms from the 1934-52 seasons.
The Dallas players will have an adaptation of the traditional double-bar jerseys they wore from 1960-66 and in 1994. Denver will be dressed in its 1986 "Orange Crush" jerseys and royal blue helmets with a rising Bronco bucking through an orange D. The Broncos wore versions of this uniform from 1968-96.
Dallas leads the series, 5-3, but the Broncos won the last meeting, 42-23 in 1998.
