What is the Cowboys' record on Thanksgiving? 

The Dallas Cowboys are one of the longest-standing franchises in NFL history, starting as an expansion team back in 1960 with Hall of Famer Tom Landry as their first head coach. They were the league’s first thriving new team since the shutdown of the All-America Football Conference that happened back in 1950.

Six years later, in 1966, a tradition came about that still stands to the day: playing on Thanksgiving Day.

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The Cowboys' Thanksgiving record: not so good lately

The Cowboys have played in 55 games on Turkey Day with a record of 32-22-1. Back in 1969, the team tied with the San Francisco 49ers 24-24; Cowboys quarterback Craig Morton threw for 206 yards on 16 of 37 with two TDs and three INTs.

Since the 1960s, the Cowboys have had two decades where they had a losing record on Thanksgiving: the 2010s: 4-6 and the 2020s: 0-2. Including their 36-33 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, the Cowboys have lost four of their last six games on Thanksgiving.

The Cowboys snapped their three-straight losing streak against the Giants last year 28-20.

Dallas will face the Commanders on Thursday on this Thanksgiving.

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How did the Cowboys' tradition of playing on Thanksgiving start?

The Cowboys' yearly tradition of playing on the fourth Thursday of November started six years after they became an NFL franchise. Playing games on Turkey Day was motivated by the urge to draw media attention towards the Dallas Cowboys.

After following in the footsteps of the Detroit Lions who started playing on Thanksgiving in 1934, the concept became a rapid success. The Cowboys, who followed the trend, became exponents of the Thanksgiving Day tradition with only a few special cases where they did not play on the holiday.

America’s Team has played on Thanksgiving every single year with the exception of two years: 1975 and 1977. In those two years, the league gave the Cowboys' spot in the annual game to the Cardinals, who were situated in St. Louis. Then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle decided to place the Cardinals in the Cowboys' slot in an attempt to elevate the franchise's exposure on a bigger stage.

In the 1970s, the Cowboys were constant Super Bowl contenders, playing in five Super Bowls and winning two of them. So the NFL wanted to allow another franchise to be seen on a national level by a greater number of people.

The Cowboys reclaimed their annual spot back in 1978 and have been there ever since.