The Lions and Cowboys have long been the NFL’s permanent Thanksgiving Day hosts with the league adding a third game on Thursday night in recent years that has rotated through various NFL stadiums.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh would like to put an end to that by establishing a third annual host for the turkey day extravaganzas. As you could probably glean from his interest in the issue, Harbaugh would like to see Baltimore join Detroit and Dallas as the cities holding football games that interfere with our gravy consumption and give us an excuse to ignore family members.
“At any point in time the NFL and Roger [Goodell, NFL commissioner] want to make this tradition, wouldn’t we all be for that in Baltimore?,” Harbaugh said, via ESPN.com. “That would be pretty amazing. We’d love it.”
The Ravens are hosting the Steelers this Thursday, the second time in three years they’ve been the home team for a Thanksgiving nightcap. There hasn’t been much, if any, chatter about locking in a third home team on an annual basis, but Harbaugh does have options if he wants to work that day each year.
The Lions and Cowboys could have head coaching openings if the rest of the year doesn’t play out as hoped and Harbaugh could decide to head elsewhere for a guaranteed game.