Why NFL Decided to Change Traditional Thanksgiving Kickoff Time for Lions-Packers

Liam McKeone | Nov 26, 2025

The Lions have played on Thanksgiving annually since 1934. / Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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.

And so, for the last 42 years, the Lions have begun to play at 12:30 p.m. ET. But not this year. Fans sitting down at the usual start time for the first game of the day will be disappointed. The NFL instead has Detroit starting its game at 1 p.m. ET—a small but fundamental change to the Thanksgiving tradition of families around the country.

Why would they do this? Goodell gave a brief explanation for the change ahead of the official schedule release in April of this year.

“One little small change, we’re probably going to move from a 12:30 Eastern start to 1:00. We’ll go back to the traditional windows,” Goodell said on the Pat McAfee Show. “So they’ll be 1, roll right into Dallas, and then roll into the primetime.”

As noted by the commissioner the NFL’s “traditional window” to broadcast a game begins no earlier than 1 p.m. ET. It seems the league wanted to change the Thanksgiving Day timing to more closely resemble a standard slate of football games. The alteration will be especially beneficial to West Coast NFL fans who will likely be excited about the first Thanksgiving game kicking off at 10 a.m. PT rather than 9:30 a.m. PT.

Moreover, the change will make for a more natural flow to the rest of the afternoon. Previously the Lions’ game would often end a full hour before the 4:30 p.m. ET game (usually the Cowboys) kicked off. Many fans would contend it’s a perfect spot for that sort of break, but other fans will counter with the appeal of, essentially, non-stop football from 1 p.m. ET until the 8:20 p.m. ET game concludes.

Whatever side you fall upon, it’s a big change for Thanksgiving schedules in football families.

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