Detroit has played on Thanksgiving Day on 70 separate occasions and it is a tradition new head coach Jim Schwartz has a special reverence for.
"This isn't just another game," Schwartz said. "This isn't just one of 16 for us. This is a special tradition and something we need to embrace and uphold."
There were murmurs around the NFL that the Lions should stop automatically playing on Thanksgiving.
Schwartz told season-ticket holders at a town-hall meeting that he wanted to put "barbed wire" around the game and not give anyone reason to talk about taking it away.
Schwartz Has Special Reverence For Traditional Lions T-Day Game