2013 NFL Thanksgiving Games Should Put Stars Before Tradition

The NFL has a fantastic holiday tradition in its annual Thanksgiving Day games. However, this past season football fans’ naps began early as two of the three games weren’t worth watching. Sure, rivalry games are usually among the best in the league week in and week out, but that’s not the case on Thanksgiving. The two rivalry games played on Thanksgiving of 2012 were blowouts, but the lone inter-conference game was the kicker. All the 2013 NFL Thanksgiving games should be that way.

Obviously the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions play on Thanksgiving every year, so deciding their two opponents isn’t hard. Among the Cowboys’ 2013 opponents they’ll play at home, the Denver Broncos are easily the best choice for the Thanksgiving game. Peyton Manning and Tony Romo in a primetime game has explosive TV ratings written all over it.

The Lions will host the AFC champion Baltimore Ravens at some point in 2013, so why not on Thanksgiving? These two teams put on quite a show in their last meeting and the Ravens will be a very hot topic if they win the HarBowl. The Ravens are actually the only AFC team the Lions will host in 2013, but it literally doesn’t get any better than that.

For the other game, the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers will host both the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts in 2013, so either of those two teams would be excellent to schedule on Turkey Day. If I’m picking, I’m taking the Colts, which would pit two hot young quarterbacks against each other one of the game’s biggest days, which would at least make this football fan very thankful this year.

Jeric Griffin is the Director of Content for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JericGriffin, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google