Conference Champs Should Host Thanksgiving Day Games

For our Monday entry at SportingNews.com, we offered up ten proposed changes for consideration by the NFL powers-that-be during their current league meetings in California. One proposed change turned out to be particularly relevant, given that the league announced on Monday afternoon the participants in the Thanksgiving afternoon contests hosted by the Lions and the Cowboys. For the early game, it’ll be the Packers and the Lions in a matchup that likely will induce slumber even before the ingestion of tryptophan. For the late game, to be aired this year by CBS, there were two choices in visiting teams -- the Chargers and the Raiders. And the league chose the Raiders. As reasoned in our SportingNews.com piece, the league doesn’t have to trot out good games on Turkey Day, since we’ll watch whatever the NFL serves up -- even if it’s a game of over-60 celebrity flag football. But why not make Thanksgiving truly special? Just as the first game of the regular season now gives the defending champs a home game in prime time, why not give the two teams that make it to the Super Bowl the pair of home games during Thanksgiving afternoon? The move instantly would make Thanksgiving football far more compelling, and it would send a message to the fans that the NFL is sufficiently thankful for its audience to not take it for granted.