Thanksgiving Football Menu

Greetings on Thanksgiving. May peace rule your dinner table. Best wishes for moist turkey, tasty dressing and leftovers for Friday. Enjoy.

The feast for your eyeballs is on the TV. The NFL owns us on Thanksgiving and always has. Remember those benighted times when there were only two games on? Now we get three. No reason to move at all. Except, of course, when dinner is served.

Here’s your menu:

CBS, 12:30 p.m. ET. Minnesota Vikings (6-4) at Detroit Lions (6-4). This will dictate which way the NFC North is going, with the Green Bay Packers crumbling like dry cheddar. The Vikings come off a big win against the Arizona Cardinals that snapped a four-game losing streak; the Lions are come-from-behind kings.

Fox, 4:30 p.m. ET. Washington Redskins (6-3-1) at Dallas Cowboys (9-1). The NFC East was a joke last year but it’s pretty serious now, with the New York Giants also lurking at 7-3. The Redskins ripped the Packers 42-24 Sunday night and had a very short week to get ready for this rivalry game. The Cowboys have won a single-season franchise record of nine games in a row (only loss to the Giants). This is the game of the day. Eat early or eat late, but do not miss (I do not recommend eating in front of the TV because your family will hate you).

NBC, 8:30 p.m. Pittsburgh Steelers (5-5) at Indianapolis Colts (Colts). The Steelers are a good 5-5 because they’re in a suddenly not-too-good AFC North. They’re tied for first place with the Baltimore Ravens. Indy might have put its early-season problems behind it, having won in a row.

Bon appetit.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman