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The History Thanksgiving Day Games · NFL explained.

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Speaker 1: the ball is loose and It's alive and then going
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Speaker 1: into the inch on to Steve's Gregory, I have never
1:18
Speaker 1: seen this before in my life. Watch this Vince Wilford
1:21
Speaker 1: is gonna throw Brandon Moore back into his quarterback He's
1:25
Speaker 1: gonna fumble of football. Mark Sanchez not expecting it, and
1:29
Speaker 1: it was the backside of Brandon Moore to knock the
1:32
Speaker 1: ball out of Wow. Yeah, the backside of Brandon More Sanchez.
1:40
Speaker 1: I can close my eyes and still picture one of
1:44
Speaker 1: the weirdest moments. I didn't necessarily shake the tail feather there,
1:47
Speaker 1: but it is the butt fumble adity. That's one of
1:51
Speaker 1: those moments that just lives in Thanksgiving football lore well,
1:54
Speaker 1: and especially because it did indeed happen on Thanksgiving, Mike,
1:58
Speaker 1: so everybody was watching it, and that, of course is
2:03
Speaker 1: the topic of this episode of NFL Explained, not but
2:07
Speaker 1: Fumbles Thanksgiving Football. I'm a Jedy Kinkabwala joined us always
2:12
Speaker 1: by Mike. Yeah, you just gave our entire team a
2:16
Speaker 1: great idea for a podcast down the road the weirdest
2:19
Speaker 1: types of fumbles, and the butt one would certainly be
2:21
Speaker 1: very high on the list. But you know, it's crazy
2:24
Speaker 1: to me because you know, obviously it's Thanksgiving, people are
2:26
Speaker 1: thinking about the family traditions, and it's hard for me
2:30
Speaker 1: to not associate NFL football with Thanksgiving. I mean they
2:34
Speaker 1: really do go completely hand in handed. Well, of course,
2:37
Speaker 1: whether you're cooking or you're waiting for the food to
2:39
Speaker 1: be put on the table, or you're just taking a
2:41
Speaker 1: break between meal one and meal two. Of course it's
2:45
Speaker 1: football that's on. You have the parade on in the morning,
2:48
Speaker 1: and then it's all day of football, and we really
2:50
Speaker 1: can't do Turkey Day without that celebratory Turkey leg at
2:54
Speaker 1: the end of of course, the Lions game. But you
2:56
Speaker 1: know that does actually beg the question as we get
2:59
Speaker 1: started here, Mike, why is it the Lions and the
3:02
Speaker 1: Cowboys who always play on Thanksgiving? Well, the rivalry games,
3:07
Speaker 1: you actually have to it's not an NFL thing. It
3:09
Speaker 1: was actually a high school and a college situation going
3:12
Speaker 1: well back into the early nineteen hundreds. Because the league
3:15
Speaker 1: started back in nineteen twenty, they just sort of followed suit.
3:19
Speaker 1: And you asked the question about the Lions and the Cowboys,
3:23
Speaker 1: and I think starting with the Lions is probably really important. Portsmith, Ohio,
3:27
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty four. The legend goes you had a group
3:30
Speaker 1: led by a radio station owner in George Richards, who
3:33
Speaker 1: actually purchased the NFL's Ports Smith Spartans and actually moved
3:37
Speaker 1: the franchise to Detroit and rename them the lines. If
3:40
Speaker 1: it sounds familiar, it should because you are a loyal
3:42
Speaker 1: listener of the NFL Explained podcast when we went through
3:45
Speaker 1: some of those names. But at the time Adity and
3:47
Speaker 1: I think this might have been your team that you
3:49
Speaker 1: had discussed. Major League Baseball had their Detroit Tigers and
3:53
Speaker 1: they were kind of the main attraction in the city. Remember,
3:56
Speaker 1: back in the day, baseball was the national pastime at
3:59
Speaker 1: that point. But Richards try to get a little bit
4:02
Speaker 1: of a splashy draw for fans. Other NFL teams they
4:05
Speaker 1: had played eat on Thanksgiving before ninety four, but the
4:09
Speaker 1: Lions had a little bit of an edge, and for
4:12
Speaker 1: a younger audience that's used to consuming a lot of
4:14
Speaker 1: content on their phones and streaming services and multiple channels,
4:18
Speaker 1: that wasn't necessarily the case. Back in the early nineteen thirties.
4:22
Speaker 1: Richards actually owned a radio station and made a deal
4:26
Speaker 1: with NBC to broadcast the Thanksgiving game on ninety four
4:30
Speaker 1: stations across the country. And here we go a d D. Now,
4:34
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we got a new tradition that
4:35
Speaker 1: just continued to last for a significantly long period of time,
4:38
Speaker 1: which by the way, still goes on to this day.
4:40
Speaker 1: And a part of launching that tradition is probably that
4:43
Speaker 1: that first game was so amazing, Mike. The Lions sold
4:47
Speaker 1: out their stadium, they turned people away at the gates,
4:49
Speaker 1: and part of it is because the Lions were ten
4:53
Speaker 1: and one and they were hosting the eleven and oh
4:56
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears, and so that was a matchup that to
5:00
Speaker 1: this day features the most combined wins by two teams
5:03
Speaker 1: heading into a Thanksgiving Day game. The Bears ultimately were
5:06
Speaker 1: the ones that won. They stayed undefeated, and they did
5:09
Speaker 1: win nineteen sixteen, and the Lines have played on Thanksgiving
5:13
Speaker 1: every single year since then except for from nineteen thirty
5:18
Speaker 1: nine to nineteen forty four. And part of that is
5:21
Speaker 1: because there were no Thanksgiving Day games during World War Two,
5:25
Speaker 1: which was nineteen one to nineteen. But do you know
5:28
Speaker 1: this you talked about radio. The very first televised Thanksgiving
5:33
Speaker 1: game was broadcast in nineteen fifty three. Originally it was
5:37
Speaker 1: the Dumont Television Network and then three years later CBS
5:41
Speaker 1: took over the broadcasts. You just mentioned Dumont Television Network, which,
5:44
Speaker 1: by the way, I did not know existed at any point.
5:47
Speaker 1: I actually grew up in Dumont, New Jersey, So if
5:50
Speaker 1: we're talking about Thanksgiving Day traditions, I do have a
5:53
Speaker 1: little bit of a flashback. Now it's becoming a little
5:55
Speaker 1: bit of a full circle conversation as we're discussing this
5:58
Speaker 1: Lions team. But it's interesting. Marketing once again a major
6:02
Speaker 1: theme when it comes to pushing the NFL even its
6:06
Speaker 1: early stages as a league, and certainly on Thanksgiving Day.
6:09
Speaker 1: But while we covered the Lions, I think there's still
6:12
Speaker 1: some questions about the Cowboys, America's team right, sort of
6:15
Speaker 1: fitting that they would be playing on Thanksgiving Day. But
6:18
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty six, the general manager Tech Tram actually
6:22
Speaker 1: saw an opportunity once again national spotlight to play on Thanksgiving. Yes,
6:27
Speaker 1: the Lions had filled their stadiums, but for Dallas kind
6:30
Speaker 1: of wondering like, hey, are you gonna be able to
6:31
Speaker 1: do the same thing in the sixties. So Tram actually
6:34
Speaker 1: signed the Cowboys up, saying, you know what, we'll roll
6:36
Speaker 1: the dice will figure this thing out, and hopefully the
6:38
Speaker 1: fans will show up a d D no surprise to
6:40
Speaker 1: any of us, Yes they did. The team actually broke
6:44
Speaker 1: it's attendance record over eighty thousand people. Cotton Bowl. Here
6:47
Speaker 1: we go, Cowboys. They took out the Browns to four
6:51
Speaker 1: team and then all of a sudden, you get a
6:52
Speaker 1: second Thanksgiving tradition that is born. So since nineteen sixty six,
6:57
Speaker 1: the Cowboys they've missed hosting Thanksgiving games only twice. That
7:01
Speaker 1: was in nineteen seventy seven the NFL. They chose the
7:05
Speaker 1: Louis Cardinals as the second host. That didn't necessarily go well.
7:10
Speaker 1: They got taken out by Buffalo in v five and
7:13
Speaker 1: then in seventy six they faced the Cowboys and Dallas
7:16
Speaker 1: they lost that one again, so in seven it was
7:20
Speaker 1: sort of a rap. At that point, Dallas was able
7:22
Speaker 1: to continue to host the Cardinals. By the way, they
7:25
Speaker 1: all had six touchdown passes to Dolphin's quarterback Bob Greasy
7:29
Speaker 1: in a loss. Greasy's six scores are matched only by
7:33
Speaker 1: Peyton Manning, who's pretty good. Last time I checked, tied
7:36
Speaker 1: the Thanksgiving record in two thousand four. By the way,
7:39
Speaker 1: as I'm mentioning Greasy's name, I'm starting to think about
7:42
Speaker 1: his son who's now calling Monday night games, and thinking
7:44
Speaker 1: back to our Monday night football episode the history of
7:47
Speaker 1: that game, So if you've missed that on NFL Explained,
7:50
Speaker 1: feel free to go back and check that one out.
7:51
Speaker 1: Still one of my favorite episodes that we've done so far,
7:54
Speaker 1: but those six touchdowns certainly impressed it by Greasy matched
7:57
Speaker 1: by Manning. And while that was happening in the mid seventies,
8:00
Speaker 1: a guy named O. J. Simpson actually broke the NFL
8:03
Speaker 1: single game rushing record against the Lion in nineteen seventy six.
8:08
Speaker 1: And if you don't necessarily believe this, trust me that
8:11
Speaker 1: this is true. Buffalo actually lost that game to fourteen
8:15
Speaker 1: quarterback Gary Moran. She actually went four for one with
8:19
Speaker 1: twenty nine passing yards, a d D. That is not
8:24
Speaker 1: going to get it done if you want to win
8:25
Speaker 1: a football game, Crazy Mike, because you'd sort of think
8:28
Speaker 1: that O. J. Simpson's two hundred and seventy three yards
8:32
Speaker 1: could have gotten a ton in any case. From nineteen
8:35
Speaker 1: seventy to two thousand five, three NFC teams and one
8:39
Speaker 1: a f C team played every single Thanksgiving. Detroit has
8:44
Speaker 1: always played the early game, followed by Dallas in the
8:47
Speaker 1: late afternoon, and the Lions get the only game because
8:50
Speaker 1: of course of time zones, a twelve thirty pm Eastern
8:52
Speaker 1: kickoff time would be eleven thirty in Dallas, and you
8:55
Speaker 1: don't want to kick off before noon on a holiday
8:57
Speaker 1: in Dallas. And the first game starts at that special
9:01
Speaker 1: time of twelve thirty instead of the usual one pm,
9:04
Speaker 1: just because it gives an extra thirty minutes to prevent
9:07
Speaker 1: any sort of overlap into the late game in case
9:10
Speaker 1: there is indeed overtime. I love, from a TV perspective,
9:13
Speaker 1: how we plan accordingly, but we are just getting underway
9:17
Speaker 1: here a d D on the NFL Explained podcast. In fact,
9:20
Speaker 1: when you think about traditions, yeah, football on Thanksgiving is
9:23
Speaker 1: certainly a part of that. But there's some voices and
9:25
Speaker 1: some moments that I think resonate for all of us
9:28
Speaker 1: who have watched these games over the years. We relive
9:30
Speaker 1: some of those moments coming up next. Build the team
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Speaker 1: conditions and five G content optimization again, a happy Thanksgiving.
11:03
Speaker 1: We got we've got a fan back there, but we
11:05
Speaker 1: got today right yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. This is a
11:07
Speaker 1: tur ducan right here where we got you know what
11:10
Speaker 1: a tur ducan is a tur ducan? This thing here
11:13
Speaker 1: is a dbone duck stuffed in a debone chicken stuffed
11:17
Speaker 1: in a debone turkey we're stuffing now you're talking. And
11:20
Speaker 1: that has eight legs. Sam, you just kind of cut
11:23
Speaker 1: this right down in the middle and then you cut
11:25
Speaker 1: sideways and you get a little turkey and a little
11:27
Speaker 1: chicken and a little duck. Now that's there. That that's
11:29
Speaker 1: tur ducan. Then over there we have the turkeys. You know,
11:32
Speaker 1: here's a turkey. We got one leg, two legs, three legs,
11:35
Speaker 1: four legs, five leg six legs, so six of these
11:39
Speaker 1: legs are one of these legs are two of these
11:40
Speaker 1: six legs are going to be given to someone. I mean,
11:43
Speaker 1: whoever you want to give them to. What do you want?
11:45
Speaker 1: It's a voice that every football fan knows very well,
11:48
Speaker 1: John Madden giving us some of those lighthearted moments as
11:52
Speaker 1: a broadcaster a d D. I am thinking back to
11:55
Speaker 1: that episode about Monday Night Football, and you would ask
11:58
Speaker 1: me a question about the big time broadcasters and who
12:00
Speaker 1: you think about. Madden for me is still sort of
12:02
Speaker 1: the football soundtrack for me as a kid, and I
12:05
Speaker 1: still think about some of those moments he had on
12:08
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving Day and and really just sort of the fun
12:10
Speaker 1: that they had even after games because in nine d
12:14
Speaker 1: D and you probably remember this really well, just like
12:16
Speaker 1: I do. You just kind of watching this thing unfold
12:17
Speaker 1: over the years. But Madam actually awarded the first Turkey
12:21
Speaker 1: Leg Award for the game's most valuable player. It was
12:24
Speaker 1: an actual cook turkey leg. Um. These dudes are big guys, man.
12:28
Speaker 1: I remember Eagles defensive end Reggie White. He won the
12:30
Speaker 1: award and just was kind of a start about it,
12:33
Speaker 1: like just chopping away at these massive legs. Is just
12:36
Speaker 1: an image that I think every football fan thinks about
12:38
Speaker 1: when it comes to Turkey Day football. Well, I can
12:41
Speaker 1: tell you this. Every Thanksgiving Day game I've done, there
12:44
Speaker 1: have indeed been turkey legs. And I'll tell you this twice.
12:48
Speaker 1: I covered the third Thanksgiving Day game that was introduced
12:53
Speaker 1: in two thousand six and it is still played today. Initially,
12:56
Speaker 1: it was our very own NFL network that aired those
12:59
Speaker 1: primetime games. They did so from two thousand six to
13:01
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven, but NBC bought the rights to the
13:05
Speaker 1: third game of the day beginning in two thousand and twelve.
13:08
Speaker 1: That was just in time for about thirty million people
13:11
Speaker 1: to see Mark Sanchez run into his teammates. But that
13:16
Speaker 1: same year, but fumble. Now, having said that, Mike, there's
13:21
Speaker 1: only one team that's never played on Thanksgiving, Go ahead,
13:25
Speaker 1: give it a guess. I'm gonna say it's probably a
13:27
Speaker 1: team that's played a whole lot of international games, just
13:29
Speaker 1: kind of you looked at Chancer, Mike, cheating, cheating, cheating. Yes,
13:34
Speaker 1: that is correct, it's the Jaguars that have never played
13:37
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving. Hey, since you've covered a lot of these
13:39
Speaker 1: games on Thanksgiving Day, what's the vibe with some of
13:42
Speaker 1: these players, Because we take for granted we're spending time
13:45
Speaker 1: with our families watching these games, and here it is
13:47
Speaker 1: they're preparing for their actual work and working on a holiday.
13:51
Speaker 1: Do the players themselves sort of enjoy the eyeballs on
13:54
Speaker 1: on their games and knowing it's a holiday game, or
13:56
Speaker 1: do you think that they would rather kind of be
13:58
Speaker 1: at home just watching. I think football season is so
14:02
Speaker 1: unusual in the sense that you have to sort of
14:06
Speaker 1: fake days all the time. You know, when Christmas falls
14:10
Speaker 1: on a Sunday, or for instance, this year, Christmas is
14:13
Speaker 1: a Saturday, so half the teams will be traveling on
14:15
Speaker 1: Christmas Day or busy in meetings. You do Christmas on Friday,
14:19
Speaker 1: or you do Christmas on Monday, something like that. So
14:22
Speaker 1: I think it's a bigger deal to play in front
14:26
Speaker 1: of everybody. It's just like everybody told us in our
14:28
Speaker 1: Monday Night Football episode, right Mike, that all of the
14:31
Speaker 1: eyeballs in the country are on you, your peers, your colleagues,
14:34
Speaker 1: your competitors, and there's is, indeed something special in that,
14:39
Speaker 1: and those games definitely have a different energy. It's almost
14:41
Speaker 1: like a playoff feel, simply because not everybody's playing at
14:45
Speaker 1: the same time. You know, we started the show hearing
14:48
Speaker 1: the call for the butt fumble, we heard John Madden.
14:51
Speaker 1: Anything that resonates for you, these moments, these big time
14:55
Speaker 1: epic moments on Thanksgiving Day that sort of stand out
14:58
Speaker 1: to you over the years. Well, of course, the leon
15:00
Speaker 1: let goof. I mean, doesn't that have to actually be
15:02
Speaker 1: number one? Fifteen seconds left, the Cowboys lead when the
15:07
Speaker 1: Dolphins kicker lines up for a forty one yard field
15:11
Speaker 1: goal and it's blocked. Leon Lett thought that he needed
15:16
Speaker 1: to recover the ball, so he goes chasing after it.
15:19
Speaker 1: He slips, he falls into it. He makes it a
15:22
Speaker 1: live ball, and then Miami ends up recovering it on
15:26
Speaker 1: the one yard line. The Dolphins get another chance at
15:30
Speaker 1: a field goal. This time it works. The Dolphins win,
15:34
Speaker 1: the Cowboys lose, and Mike Thanksgiving history is made. The
15:40
Speaker 1: whole What the Cowboys wind about a world of a
15:51
Speaker 1: collage player touched the ball and the dwindle and recovered it.
15:56
Speaker 1: It's on the one yard line. It's not in the
15:58
Speaker 1: end zone. It's in the one yard line. They're gonna
16:01
Speaker 1: and there's three seconds left on the car ninety two. Joel,
16:05
Speaker 1: We're Getcher's hand up in the air optab seven. J
16:10
Speaker 1: Jones somewhat touches a football here. What's what happens? It's
16:14
Speaker 1: Leon left no who was haunted by a Super bowls play?
16:22
Speaker 1: What Leon let down? Wamp wamp just like the butt fumble, Mike,
16:29
Speaker 1: a very very memorable moment. And Mike, part of why
16:32
Speaker 1: they are going so crazy is because just ten or
16:37
Speaker 1: eleven months before, in January, in the Super Bowl, Leon
16:42
Speaker 1: Lett had recovered a fumble on the Dallas thirty five
16:45
Speaker 1: yard line. He ran it all the way back towards
16:48
Speaker 1: the end zone. When he reached the ten yard line,
16:51
Speaker 1: he slowed down, he started showboating, and Don Biby knocked
16:58
Speaker 1: the ball out. It was basically one of the biggest
17:01
Speaker 1: gaffs in the Super Bowl, and so here he was
17:05
Speaker 1: having another their moment just like that. Yeah, the fans
17:09
Speaker 1: certainly getting on him a little bit. They did win
17:11
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, so I guess all ends well and
17:14
Speaker 1: what could have been a disastrous moment. But for as
17:16
Speaker 1: much as that's kind of a low light, I think
17:19
Speaker 1: there's been some highlights that we can focus in on
17:21
Speaker 1: from Thanksgiving days well. And if we're going to talk highlights,
17:24
Speaker 1: then we definitely have to talk Randy Moss. In the
17:26
Speaker 1: revenge game, right, Cowboys showing glitz Minnesota, Randy Moss recks
17:34
Speaker 1: a tackle and Randy Moss races down the sideline and
17:37
Speaker 1: Randy Boss just outruns everybody into the end zone. It
17:40
Speaker 1: is incredible. Randy Moss has three catches today and three touchdowns.
17:45
Speaker 1: I'm happy Thanksgiving spectacular. Randy Moss was a highlight every
17:52
Speaker 1: time he touched that ball. And that actually was his
17:53
Speaker 1: rookie season. Are you kidding me? On a Thanksgiving Day
17:58
Speaker 1: to be able to put up a performance like that?
18:00
Speaker 1: Three catches a buck sixty three, the three scores that
18:03
Speaker 1: you heard John Madden make reference to against a Dallas
18:07
Speaker 1: team who, by the way, passed on him in the
18:10
Speaker 1: draft a DD There was a buzz surrounding Randy Moss
18:13
Speaker 1: around the draft about some off field issues and the
18:16
Speaker 1: Cowboys that you know what, let's pump the brakes. We're
18:18
Speaker 1: not going to go in draft Moss, and at least
18:21
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving Day, that ended up being not the best situation,
18:24
Speaker 1: clearly not you know what else was not a great
18:26
Speaker 1: situation on Thanksgiving Day. The very first Thanksgiving Day game
18:31
Speaker 1: that I ever covered two thousand thirteen a f C
18:35
Speaker 1: North rivals Pittsburgh at Baltimore Standard. Incredibly close game, all
18:41
Speaker 1: sorts of intrigue, especially when Baltimore kick returner Jacoby Jones
18:48
Speaker 1: gets the kick, seemingly has a pass to the end
18:51
Speaker 1: zone and Mike Tomlins slides just a lit little too
18:56
Speaker 1: close to the sideline, es its drift at the goal
19:00
Speaker 1: one by Jones. Coby Jones gets by season and taken
19:08
Speaker 1: down at the twenty seven yard line only courked Is
19:11
Speaker 1: Alan stood between Jones and the goal line touched a
19:18
Speaker 1: saving tackle. Well, here we go. Here's tom went over here. Obviously,
19:22
Speaker 1: Kobe Jones there and Tomlin is essentially on the field
19:26
Speaker 1: here and you just wonder he's trying to get out
19:29
Speaker 1: of the way there. But did that force Jacobe Jones
19:33
Speaker 1: the lean back into the tackle by Cortes Alan. I
19:37
Speaker 1: don't want to in any way say that was something intentional,
19:40
Speaker 1: but if he had picked off the official on that
19:42
Speaker 1: play or touched the player either way, that's a big penalty.
19:45
Speaker 1: You can see he kind of did forced Jacoby Jones
19:49
Speaker 1: back into the field a little mission accomplished almost and
19:53
Speaker 1: Mike Tomlin did indeed get fined for that. He claimed
19:57
Speaker 1: he was just looking at the video board, but um,
20:01
Speaker 1: you know you can see the video. Que it up. Uh,
20:05
Speaker 1: go to YouTube to check that one out. Really nice
20:07
Speaker 1: to kind of go down memory lane. There is one
20:09
Speaker 1: other moment that sort of stands out to me. Tom Brady,
20:12
Speaker 1: for all the things that he's been able to accomplish,
20:15
Speaker 1: a perfect passer rating is something that he's done multiple times,
20:18
Speaker 1: in fact, just two times in his career, but one
20:21
Speaker 1: of those actually happened on a Thanksgiving Day was twenty
20:24
Speaker 1: one yards and four touchdowns, a one fifty eight point
20:29
Speaker 1: three Patriots win. That was the rating of Patriots win
20:34
Speaker 1: over the Lions. And when I think about numbers like
20:37
Speaker 1: that a d D, I start thinking about records that
20:40
Speaker 1: have occurred on a Thanksgiving Day game. They're sub that
20:44
Speaker 1: are just so spectacular, so eye opening. We have to
20:48
Speaker 1: share them with you. That's coming up next on the
20:50
Speaker 1: NFL Explained podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Kindrel. Kindrel
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Speaker 1: the heart of progress. Mike cam In and d D
21:53
Speaker 1: kick Kawala with you. We heard some of the memorable
21:56
Speaker 1: moments that happened on Thanksgiving Day. There were some records
21:59
Speaker 1: that to me stood out. Earning Nevers is one of
22:02
Speaker 1: the guys that accumulated just some ridiculous numbers and act
22:05
Speaker 1: in one game in particular, nineteen forty nine, I think
22:09
Speaker 1: this is a record that's never gonna get touched again.
22:11
Speaker 1: He accounted for all forty points in a Chicago Cardinals
22:15
Speaker 1: victory over the Chicago Bears. Forty points. The dude scored
22:18
Speaker 1: six touchdowns and kicked four p e t s And
22:22
Speaker 1: at this point it is still a record that I
22:26
Speaker 1: think is just insanely impressive. What happened to the other
22:29
Speaker 1: two p s. It's a good call. I don't know
22:31
Speaker 1: what happened, um right, I know, I was just gonna say, like,
22:35
Speaker 1: why was the two to count for forty points? It's
22:39
Speaker 1: the most points ever scored by one player in a
22:42
Speaker 1: team's victory in a single game. To me, that just
22:44
Speaker 1: sort of stands out. We won't have to talk about
22:46
Speaker 1: some of those other p e T s that he missed. Uh.
22:48
Speaker 1: We mentioned Randy Moss and we heard the calls and
22:50
Speaker 1: the fact that he had a buck sixty three and
22:53
Speaker 1: three touchdowns for the Vikings. Troy Aikman, it was in
22:56
Speaker 1: that game for the Cowboys. He actually threw for the
22:59
Speaker 1: most passing yards on a Thanksgiving Day game, four hundred
23:02
Speaker 1: and fifty five. His Cowboys lost that matchup, and the
23:06
Speaker 1: most receiving guards on a Thanksgiving Day game. Just in
23:09
Speaker 1: case you're wondering, Jim Benton three hundred and three against
23:14
Speaker 1: the lines as a member of the Rams. Add you've
23:18
Speaker 1: mentioned this a couple of times in this podcast. You've
23:20
Speaker 1: talked about covering some of these Thanksgiving Day games. Any
23:23
Speaker 1: memory that stands out the most, Well, the first one,
23:25
Speaker 1: I'll go back to that the we talked about it
23:27
Speaker 1: in terms of Mike Tomlin and Jacobe Jones. That was
23:30
Speaker 1: two thirteen. It was my first Thanksgiving as a married woman,
23:35
Speaker 1: and the Baltimore Ravens, unbelievably generously of them credentialed my husband,
23:42
Speaker 1: who became a tech on our crew. So Lisa Edwards,
23:45
Speaker 1: our producer, did indeed put my husband Matt to work.
23:48
Speaker 1: But the backstory here, Mike, is that Matt is a
23:53
Speaker 1: lifelong Steelers fan. He put himself on the season ticket
23:57
Speaker 1: waitlist when he was eleven years old, sat on that
24:00
Speaker 1: wait list for twenty one years. You know, he's the
24:03
Speaker 1: guy who goes sits in a dark corner when the
24:05
Speaker 1: Steelers is whatever, and now here it is Steelers at Ravens,
24:08
Speaker 1: unbelievably close game. At the very end of the game,
24:12
Speaker 1: he is on the field with our cameraman and our
24:16
Speaker 1: audio person and our producer pulling cable doing whatever it
24:19
Speaker 1: is a tech does, which are of course valuable things,
24:22
Speaker 1: but helping out. And the Steelers are down eight. They
24:27
Speaker 1: need a touchdown and they need a two point conversion.
24:29
Speaker 1: So Ben Roethlisberger leads the Steelers down in a drive.
24:32
Speaker 1: They've got a you know, I think at that point
24:35
Speaker 1: it was like a second intent. Maybe I think it
24:37
Speaker 1: was second town on the Baltimore twenty. And Ben Roethlisberger
24:41
Speaker 1: hits Heath Miller for what everybody thinks is a touchdown,
24:45
Speaker 1: and Matt's like, oh my gosh. Remember he's a fan,
24:48
Speaker 1: but he's supposed to be a member of the working press,
24:51
Speaker 1: so he's not allowed to be excited. Only that Heath
24:54
Speaker 1: Miller touchdown was deemed not a touchdown. So the Steelers
24:56
Speaker 1: have a first and goal at the Baltimore one. Levy
24:59
Speaker 1: on Bell runs, he doesn't get in. Levy on Bell
25:01
Speaker 1: runs again he seemingly does score, but then the replay
25:04
Speaker 1: assistant reverses it. Then on third down, Ben Roethlisberger throws
25:07
Speaker 1: the past two I believe the fullback that fall short.
25:10
Speaker 1: Then Ben Roethlisberger on fourth and goal from the Baltimore
25:14
Speaker 1: one down eight hits Jericho Cotchery for a touchdown. And
25:19
Speaker 1: it's a classic Raven Steelers game where it didn't matter
25:22
Speaker 1: anything that happened before you knew. It was like a
25:24
Speaker 1: basketball game. It was going to come down to the
25:25
Speaker 1: last few minutes and then ultimately the Steelers didn't get
25:30
Speaker 1: the two point conversion. But it was just this insane
25:33
Speaker 1: end to a game. And like I said, my husband
25:36
Speaker 1: got to be a part of the crew and be
25:39
Speaker 1: on the field for that, and it was kind of
25:41
Speaker 1: a very very neat, professional, personal, amazing game, great energy
25:47
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving night, and also personal. My husband got to experience
25:51
Speaker 1: that and see what my job is like. And one
25:54
Speaker 1: other little footnote to that Jacoby Jones was my postgame interview.
26:00
Speaker 1: He had been handed a turkey leg by the NBC
26:04
Speaker 1: crew and he offered me a bite, and I'm a vegetarian,
26:08
Speaker 1: so I recoiled and I said no, thank you. And
26:13
Speaker 1: someone from the Associated Press got a photo of that
26:15
Speaker 1: of me making a nasty face at the turkey leg
26:18
Speaker 1: that Jacoby Jones was devouring. I did see the photo.
26:21
Speaker 1: It is spectacular, and I'm glad you were able to
26:25
Speaker 1: weave in the personal with the professional because earlier in
26:28
Speaker 1: this episode, I had asked you what the players think
26:31
Speaker 1: about playing on Thanksgiving when all of us are with
26:33
Speaker 1: our families, and you said, hey, you know a lot
26:35
Speaker 1: of buyeballs on the game, and they certainly know that
26:37
Speaker 1: it's really big. And you had said something that really
26:40
Speaker 1: struck me, and it reminds me of some of the
26:41
Speaker 1: Thanksgivings that I've had when you are fortunate enough to
26:44
Speaker 1: have family members that are caring and understand the schedules
26:48
Speaker 1: that come with working in sports, and sometimes you don't
26:50
Speaker 1: do Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day, you don't do Christmas sometimes
26:54
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day. And for all those years that I
26:57
Speaker 1: had worked at ESPM, I'm a studio guy, like you're
27:00
Speaker 1: an ACE reporter, You're always out in the field, you're
27:01
Speaker 1: covering these games. I was always sort of chained to
27:04
Speaker 1: the desk in the studio and I always work Thanksgiving,
27:06
Speaker 1: And it's like having two different families because my my
27:10
Speaker 1: family like family, we would always do Thanksgiving on a
27:13
Speaker 1: day when I was working at ESPAN that was just
27:15
Speaker 1: not Thanksgiving. Wherever it kind of fit in. It might
27:17
Speaker 1: be earlier, it might be a day or two late,
27:19
Speaker 1: but we would always have Thanksgiving at the office with
27:22
Speaker 1: our studio crew together. So those moments always resonate with me.
27:26
Speaker 1: But you know, we relived some of those moments from
27:28
Speaker 1: my childhood, like games in the eighties and the early nineties,
27:30
Speaker 1: like I wasn't working at the time, and I do
27:33
Speaker 1: think back. My mom is a casual sports fan or
27:36
Speaker 1: on the baseball side. My dad is not a sports fan,
27:38
Speaker 1: but my grandfather was a die hard sports fan. So
27:41
Speaker 1: I can remember all of these games. We mentioned, some
27:43
Speaker 1: of the records, We talked about some of the you know,
27:46
Speaker 1: the John Madden and the turkey legs and the extra
27:48
Speaker 1: legs that were on that turkey, which I was thought
27:50
Speaker 1: was kind of freaky. When I was a kid watching
27:52
Speaker 1: them being rolled out. But I do think about some
27:54
Speaker 1: of those moments with my family, specifically my grandfather. I
27:57
Speaker 1: was a huge sports fan, and I think on a
28:00
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving episode, I think anyone who's listening that is a
28:03
Speaker 1: football fan, hopefully you're going to have some of those
28:05
Speaker 1: same experiences a d D that you and I have
28:07
Speaker 1: been able to have over the course of our lives,
28:10
Speaker 1: and hopefully a lot more of those as well. But
28:12
Speaker 1: it's always awesome to kind of weave in sports with
28:15
Speaker 1: family because a sports fans, we obviously appreciate some of that,
28:18
Speaker 1: and I think if you're listening to this podcast you
28:20
Speaker 1: probably do as well. It's been a fun one, Mike,
28:23
Speaker 1: I have to say, it's fun to think about Thanksgiving, right.
28:26
Speaker 1: You can a d D for you who doesn't eat turkey,
28:28
Speaker 1: You can never go wrong with a whole lot of ams.
28:31
Speaker 1: Just letting you know, Oh you've been waiting all episode
28:35
Speaker 1: for that one. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us.
28:38
Speaker 1: Find us wherever you find your podcast, rate review, send
28:43
Speaker 1: us messages on what else you'd like us to hit,
28:45
Speaker 1: and Mike, that is Thanksgiving Football explained. America's most reliable
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