Why Dallas Cowboys play every Thanksgiving and all-time record on ‘Turkey Day’ explored

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America’s Team has become synonymous with American Thanksgiving for over five decades.

Since 1966, the Dallas Cowboys have been a staple for NFL audiences during the November holiday in the United States.

If you are among the lucky ones to have the day off work this Thursday, you will notice two familiar teams on your TV every year: the Cowboys and Detroit Lions.

Why the Dallas Cowboys play every Thanksgiving

Former Dallas general manager Tex Schramm began scheduling games on the American holiday to attract crowds, with the Cowboys being featured in every Turkey Day game except two (1975 and 1977) since 1966.

Schramm’s motivation was simple: to attract more crowds while showcasing the Cowboys to a larger audience, seeing as Thanksgiving Thursday is a statutory holiday in the US, allowing more people to view the spectacle.

According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame the Cowboys have played 55 Thanksgiving games, boasting a record of 32-22-1 all-time.

The good, bad and ugly Thanksgiving games for Dallas

Thanksgiving games in Big-D have produced blowouts, incredible finishes and great half-time shows.

From their 2008 beatdown against Seattle (34-9), to pummelling the Giants in 1992 (30-3) and putting up 42 points in a victory over the Green Bay Packers in 1994 (42-31), there’ve been many high-scoring affairs.

We’ve also witnessed various entertaining and wacky half-time shows on holiday Thursday in Dallas featuring bands like Creed, Ellie Goulding, Kane Brown, Reba McEntire, the Jonas Brothers and coming soon, Dolly Parton.

The best Cowboys run on Thanksgiving occurred in the 1980s when they won six successive Turkey Day games from 1980-85.

Under Mike McCarthy, though, the Cowboys have not fared so well, losing two of their previous three Thanksgiving affairs, giving up 77 points combined in losses to Washington and Las Vegas in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

Dak Prescott has started in six of the last seven Thanksgiving Day fixtures, winning three times in 2016, 2018 and 2022.

The Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game that’ll forever live in infamy belongs to Leon Lett, who gave the Dolphins a second field goal chance when he touched the football after a block, putting the ball on the one yardline, enabling Miami to win.

Dallas Turkey Day record against Washington

On Thursday, the Cowboys face a division rival in the Washington Commanders, with the two teams producing arguably some of the most well-known Thanksgiving affairs historically.

The most memorable game between the two was probably in 1974, when we were introduced to Clint Longley.

Longley replaced Roger Staubach in that encounter with the backup marching his team down the field, hitting Drew Pearson in the dying seconds to give Dallas a one-point win.

Dallas and Washington have played each other 10 times on Thanksgiving, with the Cowboys boasting an 8-2 record.

Thursday will be the first time the Cowboys face Washington under their current name, Commanders.

In 2020, when these teams last met on Thanksgiving, Dak Prescott was out injured, and the Washington Football Team won 41-16 versus Andy Dalton.

The Cowboys are 4-6 in their last 10 Thanksgiving games, though they won last year against the Giants (28-20).

With a victory on Thursday, the Cowboys would stretch their home winning streak to 13 games, with their 12 so far, the longest such active run in the NFL.

Overall, home teams on Thanksgiving are 118-112-12.