Thanksgiving Day will bring football fans the usual slate of appetizing games to ingest while their bodies digest boatloads of turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes. However, this year will feel just a little bit different—thanks to a key change the NFL made to the schedule for Turkey Day.
Back in the spring, when the 2025 schedule was released, commissioner Roger Goodell revealed the league was changing the kickoff time for the first Thanksgiving game on the schedule. As is tradition, that game always features the Lions. Detroit has suited up for the Thanksgiving audiences every Turkey Day for nearly 100 years. For a long time the Lions were the only game on during Thanksgiving. Once the league started introducing additional contests to the day’s slate, though, the Lions were routinely handed the earliest possible time slot of a 12:30 p.m. ET kickoff.
