Why Do The Detroit Lions Always Play on Thanksgiving?

Photo Credit: guyfromlargo

The Detroit Lions and Thanksgiving Day games go together like turkey and stuffing. As a lifelong Lions fans, I've always looked forward to the opportunity to see the Honolulu Blue & Silver in a nationally televised game. For many years during my lifetime, Thanksgiving has been the only time that Detroit would be featured in such a game.

Even though the Lions have been more successful in recent years and feature NFL stars such as Calvin Johnson, Ndamukong Suh and Matthew Stafford, most Americans would probably prefer to see another team replace the Lions on the regular Thanksgiving Day schedule. But for those of us that consider ourselves devotees of the Lions, we hope the tradition continues.

So if you're wondering why the Lions play on Thanksgiving, here's a little history from the Lions' website:

"The [Thanksgiving Day] game was the brainchild of G.A. Richards, the first owner of the Detroit Lions. Richards had purchased the team in 1934 and moved the club from Portsmouth, Ohio to the Motor City. The Lions were the new kids in town and had taken a backseat to the baseball Tigers. Despite the fact the Lions had lost only one game prior to Thanksgiving in 1934, the season’s largest crowd had been just 15,000. The opponent that day in 1934 was the undefeated, defending World Champion Chicago Bears of George Halas. 

The game would determine the champion of the Western Division. Richards had convinced the NBC Radio Network to carry the game coast-to-coast (94 stations) and, additionally, an estimated 26,000 fans jammed into the University of Detroit Stadium while thousands more disappointed fans were turned away. Despite two Ace Gutowsky touchdowns, the Bears won the inaugural game, 19-16, but a classic was born. Since 1934, 69 games have been played with the Lions holding a series record of 33-34-2 (.493). And each game, in its own way, continues to bring back memories of Thanksgiving, not only to Lions' fans, but to football fans across the nation."

In addition, the Dallas Cowboys have also been featured on Thanksgiving since 1966 and a third game, featuring rotating teams in the evening slot, was introduced in 2006.

Viewers of last year's Detroit/Green Bay game witnessed a Lions victory, 40-10 -- the first time the country saw a Detroit win on Thanksgiving since 2003. Historically, the Lions overall record on Thanksgiving games is 34-37-2.

Their 2014 match-up features the 7-4 Lions taking on NFC Central Division rival, the Chicago Bears (5-6).

While time with family, giving thanks for God's blessing and enjoying a large feast are probably the highest priorities for most Americans on Thanksgiving, watching NFL football is another Thanksgiving tradition that many of us look forward to each year. Go Lions!

Looking For Models Of Grace In A Society In Dire Need Of It

Photo Credit: Viewminder

In the increasingly polarized society in which we live, it can be easy for those of us that call ourselves Christians to carry ourselves in the same kind of manner as those that don't consider themselves to be followers of Christ. By either treating others the same way they treat us or by simply living lives that don't look much different than everyone else, we can miss out on opportunities to demonstrate the difference that Jesus can make in our lives as individuals and in society as a whole.

In a recent interview with Leadership Journal's Paul Pastor, author Philip Yancey challenges us to consider the role that grace can play as we interact with our culture. Here's a highlight:

"The Barna Group has documented that ordinary Americans, especially the "nones" who have no religious commitment, view Christians much less favorably than they did even 20 years ago. Books like unChristian spell out why. Outsiders to the faith see Christians as judgmental, self-righteous, right-wing, and anti—anti-gay, anti-science, anti-sex—the usual stereotypes. 

I'll leave that field to the pollsters and sociologists. As a Christian, I'm more interested in how we in the church contribute to a crisis of grace. To me, much of the problem stems from the uncomfortable reality that American culture has moved away from having a solid Christian consensus at its core. Certainly a strong majority of people believe in God, and a strong minority attend church on a semi-regular basis, but the culture has grown increasingly secular compared to the recent past.

Recently I heard the writer Amy Sherman describe three possible approaches: fortification, accommodation, and domination. Fortification: some Christians hunker down in a defensive posture, insulating themselves against the broader culture, creating a bubble around the subculture. Accommodation: some follow the script of the world, watering down the message so that it no longer offends. Domination: some fight to "get our country back!" by electing Christian politicians and working to pass laws that reflect the moral values they cherish.

Each of these approaches involves pitfalls, as Amy Sherman pointed out. Fortification? Jesus sent out his followers as "sheep among wolves," not as sheep locked safely in the barn. Accommodation? Jesus never watered down the gospel message and its implications for how we should live. Domination? One of the main reasons for a decline of faith in Europe traces back to the days when church and state worked together to dominate culture; though a coercive approach may work for a while, inevitably it produces a backlash.

For a better model I look back to the early Christians, who were seeking to live out their faith in a culture far more hostile and arguably more immoral than our own. We think NFL football is violent; Romans watched gladiatorial murder for sport. Abortion is bad enough; in the cruelest form of birth control, the Romans abandoned their full-term infants to wild animals. Homosexuality? Sophisticated Romans practiced same-sex pederasty with children.

So how did the early Christians respond? As a tiny minority, they showed a watching world a different way to be human. They adopted those abandoned infants and nursed them back to health. Risking their own lives, they stayed behind to nurse plague victims whose families had fled. They lived out a new standard of sexual purity.

As anyone knows who cruises the Internet, watches television, or votes in elections, our culture is becoming increasingly polarized. I look for models of how to bring grace back to a society in dire need of it. American Christians have been spoiled, in a way, with our religious heritage. Historically, we're the outlier. More often the church faces situations like the early Christians faced in Rome—or like the church in China and the Middle East faces today. With our strong infrastructure of missions, education, and service organizations, I hope we in the U.S. church can demonstrate to the rest of the world a new model, of pioneer settlements showing the world a different way to live, a bright contrast to the violent, competitive, self-indulgent culture around us."

To read the rest of the interview please click here.