Peter King MMQB - DWare and Rotating Thanksgiving Day games

[WoodysGirl]

The Fine Fifteen

4. Dallas (8-4). I understand the consternation of you who follow "The Fine Fifteen'' rankings, who set your watches by them, who believe in them the way you believe in everything your mother ever told you. And you wonder how I can be jumping the Cowboys over teams more consistently better. Simple. They're better than Carolina, better than Tampa Bay, better than Atlanta, better than Washington.

The Award Section

Defensive Players of the Week
DeMarcus Ware, LB, Dallas. Ware leaped to the top spot on my AP Defensive Player of the Year ballot by twice beating oft-All Pro left tackle Walter Jones for sacks in the first half, and then collecting a third in the second half. For the game, Ware had four tackles and he and linebacker Bradie James combined for five sacks. Just because Jones looks like he's not playing on all cylinders is no reason to think Ware's numbers should be tarnished; no one in Seattle can remember the last time, if ever, Jones allowed two sacks in a half.

Ten Things I Think I Think

5. I think this isn't going to please the folks in Detroit and Dallas, but you should expect the league to discuss opening up the Thanksgiving Day games to all 32 teams when a new schedule is discussed for 2010. This will be a battle of tradition. Some owners like the system as is because the league retains few real traditions. But some owners and football people think it's too much of an advantage for Detroit and Dallas -- especially Dallas -- to play at home every Thanksgiving while foes have to travel on a short week. And there is grousing that the games are not spread around to all 32 teams.

It obviously hasn't been enough of a home-field advantage to matter for Detroit, but Dallas gets the short week at home, then the weekend off. When the league goes to 17 or 18 games in 2010 (assuming that's the year the schedule expansion happens), there's a chance the Thanksgiving Day games could rotate as well, with every franchise getting a home game on Thanksgiving every 10 or 11 years.

 

[Dayton Cowboy]

The Thursday games aren't that big a deal any more. With the creation of the NFL Network there are a lot of Thursday games starting this year on November 20. So I don't know that this will really get much traction. Though I could see them wanting to pull the Lions out, they really never put out a good product to represent the NFL.

 

[sacase]

The Fine Fifteen

4. Dallas (8-4). I understand the consternation of you who follow "The Fine Fifteen'' rankings, who set your watches by them, who believe in them the way you believe in everything your mother ever told you. And you wonder how I can be jumping the Cowboys over teams more consistently better. Simple. They're better than Carolina, better than Tampa Bay, better than Atlanta, better than Washington.

The Award Section

Defensive Players of the Week
DeMarcus Ware, LB, Dallas. Ware leaped to the top spot on my AP Defensive Player of the Year ballot by twice beating oft-All Pro left tackle Walter Jones for sacks in the first half, and then collecting a third in the second half. For the game, Ware had four tackles and he and linebacker Bradie James combined for five sacks. Just because Jones looks like he's not playing on all cylinders is no reason to think Ware's numbers should be tarnished; no one in Seattle can remember the last time, if ever, Jones allowed two sacks in a half.

Ten Things I Think I Think

5. I think this isn't going to please the folks in Detroit and Dallas, but you should expect the league to discuss opening up the Thanksgiving Day games to all 32 teams when a new schedule is discussed for 2010. This will be a battle of tradition. Some owners like the system as is because the league retains few real traditions. But some owners and football people think it's too much of an advantage for Detroit and Dallas -- especially Dallas -- to play at home every Thanksgiving while foes have to travel on a short week. And there is grousing that the games are not spread around to all 32 teams.

It obviously hasn't been enough of a home-field advantage to matter for Detroit, but Dallas gets the short week at home, then the weekend off. When the league goes to 17 or 18 games in 2010 (assuming that's the year the schedule expansion happens), there's a chance the Thanksgiving Day games could rotate as well, with every franchise getting a home game on Thanksgiving every 10 or 11 years.

I don't think the NFL can just change the thanksgiving games around. I think one of the stipulations when Dallas originially tookt he thanksgiving game was that they would have it permenently (Although I could be wrong). Now that the Thanksgiving game is a high profile game everyone wants to get in on the action. Tough crap I say.

 

[Yeagermeister]

The Fine Fifteen

4. Dallas (8-4). I understand the consternation of you who follow "The Fine Fifteen'' rankings, who set your watches by them, who believe in them the way you believe in everything your mother ever told you. And you wonder how I can be jumping the Cowboys over teams more consistently better. Simple. They're better than Carolina, better than Tampa Bay, better than Atlanta, better than Washington.

The Award Section

Defensive Players of the Week
DeMarcus Ware, LB, Dallas. Ware leaped to the top spot on my AP Defensive Player of the Year ballot by twice beating oft-All Pro left tackle Walter Jones for sacks in the first half, and then collecting a third in the second half. For the game, Ware had four tackles and he and linebacker Bradie James combined for five sacks. Just because Jones looks like he's not playing on all cylinders is no reason to think Ware's numbers should be tarnished; no one in Seattle can remember the last time, if ever, Jones allowed two sacks in a half.

Ten Things I Think I Think

5. I think this isn't going to please the folks in Detroit and Dallas, but you should expect the league to discuss opening up the Thanksgiving Day games to all 32 teams when a new schedule is discussed for 2010. This will be a battle of tradition. Some owners like the system as is because the league retains few real traditions. But some owners and football people think it's too much of an advantage for Detroit and Dallas -- especially Dallas -- to play at home every Thanksgiving while foes have to travel on a short week. And there is grousing that the games are not spread around to all 32 teams.

It obviously hasn't been enough of a home-field advantage to matter for Detroit, but Dallas gets the short week at home, then the weekend off. When the league goes to 17 or 18 games in 2010 (assuming that's the year the schedule expansion happens), there's a chance the Thanksgiving Day games could rotate as well, with every franchise getting a home game on Thanksgiving every 10 or 11 years.[/QUOTE]

Well that would really suck. I can see doing it to Det but at least the Dallas games are worth watching.

 

[Hostile]

The Lions are riding a 5 game losing streak on Thanksgiving. Some advantage.

 

[superpunk]

It's never going to happen - they're never going to take Thanksgiving away from Dallas. Jerry Jones wouldn't allow it.

 

[Yeagermeister]

It's never going to happen - they're never going to take Thanksgiving away from Dallas. Jerry Jones wouldn't allow it.

Or Lemmy will have to get involved :laugh2:

 

[lurkercowboy]

The usual stuff we hear every year. If it is such an advantage, what about the Lions? And good point about the plethora of Thursday games these days. Dallas had two of them last year.

 

[AdamJT13]

The Lions are riding a 5 game losing streak on Thanksgiving

... with the losses by an AVERAGE of 23.4 points.

 

[reddyuta]

that is blasphemy-the cowboy fandom is going to revolt if that happens.

 

[WoodysGirl]

LION-LESS THANKSGIVING PRESENTS DELICATE ISSUE FOR COMMISHPosted by Mike Florio on December 1, 2008, 8:30 a.m.

In response to Adam Schefter’s report from Sunday that the league will take up at the annual meetings in March the question of whether the Lions should continue to host a Thanksgiving Day game, we’ve tried to do some digging as to the rules for determining this specific aspect of the schedule.

Here’s what we’ve learned.

Scheduling falls squarely within the jurisdiction of the Commissioner’s office. So, in theory, it’s up to the Commissioner to determine who plays on any given Sunday (or, as the case may be, Thursday).

But, as a practical matter, the fact that the Commissioner has complete authority over a certain issue doesn’t mean that he should exercise it imprudently. In the end, he answers to the owners of the 32 member clubs, and if they think he’s abusing his power, they could possibly go Fay Vincent on him. (If you’re too young to know what we’re talking about, Google the guy’s name. And, yeah, there’s a guy named “Fay.&#8221

When it comes to the Thanksgiving Day schedule, this is clearly an area where the Commish would be wise to tread lightly. The Lions don’t want to lose the game; if the Commissioner would unilaterally take it away from the franchise, he would acquire a motivated and hostile enemy. Moreover, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, one of the most powerful and influential men in the sport, would potentially regard a change in the Turkey Day lineup as a too-close-for-comfort move against his own team’s supposedly permanent spot on the schedule.

So, if it’s going to happen, it needs to be something that originates with one of the owners, and that a sufficient number of other owners ultimately will support.

Several years ago, late Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt made a run at introducing a measure requiring the Thanksgiving games to rotate. Hunt’s resolution did not pass. (Since then, the league has added a Thankgiving game in the evening, which rotates. To date, the Chiefs, Falcons, and Eagles have hosted it.)

Surely, the Ford family would respond to any effort to strip their franchise of the annual game by arguing that it should be a rotation for every game or none of them, which would pull the Cowboys onto the Lions’ side of the issue. Whether the other owners would vote to rotate the early game or every game played on Thanksgiving remains to be seen.

For now, though, the only thing that seems to be reasonably clear in this regard is that Commissioner Roger Goodell will not simply invoke his inherent authority over the schedule to take the long-standing Thanksgiving Day home games away from the Lions or the Cowboys. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen as a result of a sufficient consensus among ownership of all of the league’s 32 franchises.

 

[panchucko]

This article explains it pretty good.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/438688/a_brief_history_of_the_dallas_cowboys.html?cat=14

The Cowboys' inaugural Thanksgiving Day game was held in the Cotton Bowl on November 24, 1966. The Cowboys - with an impressive record of 7-2-1 - squared off against the Cleveland Browns, whose record was 7-3. At halftime, the Cowboys were down 14-13. The Cowboys pulled it together during the second half, however, and won the game 26-14. Indeed, 1966 marked an important turning point for the Cowboys. Not only was it the year in which they hosted their first Thanksgiving Day game, but also it was the beginning of a phenomenal - and record-shattering - 20 consecutive winning seasons (between 1966 and 1985).
There are only two teams in the NFL with established traditions of hosting an annual Thanksgiving Day game: The Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys. The Lions' tradition is much older, but one could argue that the Cowboys' annual Thanksgiving Day classic is more significant because, unlike Detroit (Lions fans are no doubt hopeful that this will soon change), so many of the Cowboys' Thanksgiving Day games have been instrumental in advancing them to the playoffs. What's more, the Cowboys are arguably the most successful and storied team in NFL history. Among other astonishing successes, they have played in more Super Bowls (8) than any other NFL team, and have won 5 of them (a record matched only by the San Francisco 49ers and the Pittsburgh Steelers). Here, then, is a brief history of what has understandably become one of the country's - and the National Football League's - most enduring Thanksgiving traditions.

During the first half of the 1960s, televised NFL games grew exponentially in popularity. In an effort to capitalize on this success, the league began shopping around for a team to host an annual Thanksgiving Day game in addition to the game hosted by the Detroit Lions. Every single team turned down the offer on the grounds that scheduling a Thursday game so late in the season would be too disruptive. Every team, that is, except for the Dallas Cowboys. General Manager Tex Schram recognized this as a golden opportunity for the Cowboys to establish their own Thanksgiving Day game tradition. Clearly, his decision was a prescient one. The game caught on and has become wildly popular.

One of the most memorable Thanksgiving Day games was played on November 28, 1974. It pitted the Cowboys against their fiercest rival, the Washington Commanders. With 9:57 left to play in the third quarter, Commanders linebacker Dave Robinson knocked Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach out of the game with a ferocious tackle. Twenty-two-year-old rookie quarterback Clint Longley filled in for the injured Staubach. With 28 seconds left to play, Longley hurled a 50-yard bomb to Drew Pearson for a touchdown, giving the Cowboys a 24 to 23 victory.

Since the inaugural game in 1966, the Cowboys have hosted a Thanksgiving Day game every year except for 1975 and 1977. The '75 and '77 Thanksgiving Day games were both hosted by the St. Louis Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals). This was done as a result of complaints issued by the other NFL teams. They felt that Dallas enjoyed an unfair advantage by hosting the Thanksgiving Day game because it gave them a 10-day break before their next game (as opposed to 7 days for the rest of the league). The ratings for the Cardinals-hosted games, however, were poor. As a result, the NFL (no doubt at the urging of CBS, the league's official network at the time) invited Dallas to resume their duties as host of the game. Tex Shramm accepted the offer, but only on the condition that the game never again be moved out of Dallas. And so the much-loved, much-anticipated Turkey Day classic resumed in Dallas and continues to delight fans to this day.

 

[viman96]

Including Thanksgiving week, there is a Thrusday game scheduled six different weeks this year. The same mythical advantage exists the other weeks and I do not hear anyone complaining about them.

 

[joseephuss]

The Lions are riding a 5 game losing streak on Thanksgiving. Some advantage.

There also is not an advantage for Detroit in having 10 days after their Thanksgiving game to prepare for their next game. They currently have a 3 game losing streak the game after Thanksgiving.

If they cared so much about giving a team an unfair advantage then they need to stop giving the Superbowl winning team a home game on the opening Thursday night of the season. They get a home game and then 10 days to prepare for their second game of the season. When Dallas won their Superbowls in the 90s they opened on the road the following season all 3 times. I don't think any SB winner has opened on the road since then.

 

[theogt]

Defensive Players of the Week
DeMarcus Ware, LB, Dallas. Ware leaped to the top spot on my AP Defensive Player of the Year ballot by twice beating oft-All Pro left tackle Walter Jones for sacks in the first half

What? Last I heard it was only us homer Cowboys fans that thought Ware was DPOY worthy.

 

[theebs]

Good Luck on the owners having enough cajones to pull the turkey game from Jerry, especially now that we have the new stadium.

It will never ever happen to Dallas.

 

[Ren]

Ten Things I Think I Think

5. I think this isn't going to please the folks in Detroit and Dallas, but you should expect the league to discuss opening up the Thanksgiving Day games to all 32 teams when a new schedule is discussed for 2010. This will be a battle of tradition. Some owners like the system as is because the league retains few real traditions. But some owners and football people think it's too much of an advantage for Detroit and Dallas -- especially Dallas -- to play at home every Thanksgiving while foes have to travel on a short week. And there is grousing that the games are not spread around to all 32 teams.

It obviously hasn't been enough of a home-field advantage to matter for Detroit, but Dallas gets the short week at home, then the weekend off. When the league goes to 17 or 18 games in 2010 (assuming that's the year the schedule expansion happens), there's a chance the Thanksgiving Day games could rotate as well, with every franchise getting a home game on Thanksgiving every 10 or 11 years.

No they shouldn't open it up to other teams, other teams had their chance to get these games and they didn't want them now all of a sudden they do and we should give it up? **** that

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

How is it a advantage when the Cowboys have 3 days to prepare before they play their next opponent? Hardly an advantage IMO. What if this was the Seahawks of 2 years ago? Would it also be an advantage? Or is it only an advantage when the team sucks? I just don't see it. Well okay maybe this year facing the 9ers and Seahawks back to back but even then 3 days to prepare isn't very much time coaching wise and physically.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

What? Last I heard it was only us homer Cowboys fans that thought Ware was DPOY worthy.

I'm trying to figure out why Justin Tuck is getting more DPOY recognition than Ware. I mean yea they have a better record than us but aside from that I don't think Tuck should be any higher than Ware on that on the DPOY talk. Then I hear guys on the radio in Dallas say they'd rather have Tuck than Ware. Maybe I overrate him but I see him as potentially one of the best players on defense in the LEAGUE.

 

[theebs]

I'm trying to figure out why Justin Tuck is getting more DPOY recognition than Ware. I mean yea they have a better record than us but aside from that I don't think Tuck should be any higher than Ware on that on the DPOY talk. Then I hear guys on the radio in Dallas say they'd rather have Tuck than Ware. Maybe I overrate him but I see him as potentially one of the best players on defense in the LEAGUE.

what guys on the radio in Dallas have ever said that? I have never heard that.