I Like Turkey With My Football! Quiz

Answer: Rochester Jeffersons

The All-Tonawanda Lumberjacks took on the Rochester Jeffersons in a battle for supremacy in western New York State. The Lumberjacks won the game 14-3, in the only game of the day in which both teams scored, and advanced their record in the league that season to 7-1.

All the teams listed here were defunct by 1930. In fact, only two of the 12 teams that played that day still exist in some form. The Decatur Staleys, who beat the now-defunct Chicago Tigers 6-0, became the Chicago Bears. And the Dayton Triangles, who defeated the now-defunct Detroit Heralds 28-0, ultimately became part of the Indianapolis Colts.

Answer: Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals spent their first 40 seasons (1920-1959) in Chicago, and rivaled the Bears much of that time. That includes the 1944 season, during which the Cardinals merged with the Pittsburgh Steelers, to account for loss of personnel to fight in World War II.

The Cardinals and the Bears played each other every Thanksgiving between 1922 and 1933, and they each played other teams on Thanksgiving in 1934 and 1935.

Answer: Chicago Bears

The Lions hosted the Bears in five straight Thanksgiving games between 1934 and 1938. The Lions won three of the five contests. The Bears' other victory in the short series occurred Thanksgiving, 1937, when Chicago won 13-0.

In 1939 and 1940, the NFL only had one Thanksgiving game, a rivalry game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Philadelphia won both games (17-14 in 1939, 7-0 in 1940). Due to World War II, the next Thanksgiving game wouldn't be played until 1945.

Answer: New York Yanks

The year 1950 marked the first season for the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers as members of the NFL. Each team previously played in the now-defunct All-American Football Conference and joined the NFL once that league folded. None of those three teams was in action that Thanksgiving, though, as the Lions defeated the Yanks 49-14. After that game, the Lions hosted the Green Bay Packers every Thanksgiving from 1951 to 1963.

The Colts and the Yanks do have some history between them. The Colts from the old AAFC were dissolved after the 1950 season, and the Yanks, which had started life in Boston in 1944, folded in 1952, after they moved to Dallas and became the Texans. The NFL moved the Texans to Baltimore for the 1953 season, and keeping the blue and white of the Texans, they became the second incarnation of the Colts, playing in Indianapolis.

Answer: New York Titans

The AFL was known for high-scoring, free-wheeling football, and the first Thanksgiving game the league staged didn't disappoint. The Titans, today known as the New York Jets, were the home team in a 41-35 thriller against the Dallas Texans, who later moved and became the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Titans also won on Thanksgiving in 1961, a 21-14 win over the Buffalo Bills. Their third and final Thanksgiving game was a 46-45 win at Denver in 1962. Their first Thanksgiving game as the Jets occurred in 1972, a 37-20 loss to the Lions.

Answer: Cleveland Browns

The year 1966 turned out to be a watershed year for the Cowboys. Dallas finished with a 10-3-1 record, the first time since the team started play in 1961 that it finished with a winning record, and good enough to win the NFL's Eastern Conference. The Cowboys hosted the NFL Championship Game, but lost to Green Bay 34-27 and, consequently, didn't get to play in Super Bowl I. Since 1966, Dallas has hosted a Thanksgiving game every year except for 1975 and 1977. Those years, the St. Louis Cardinals served as hosts.

Answer: They each lost to a team in the Super Bowl the previous year

The Miami Dolphins and the Washington Redskins went toe to toe in Super Bowl VII at the end of the 1972 season. The Dolphins beat Dallas 14-7, the same score that they beat Washington by in Super Bowl VII to clinch their perfect season. The Redskins shut out the Lions 20-0. Dallas, Miami and Washington all made the playoffs in 1973.

The Redskins, the NFCs wildcard team, lost to Minnesota in the Divisional Playoffs. The Cowboys, the NFC East champions, lost to the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game.

The Dolphins got past both Cincinnati and Oakland to win their third straight AFC championship, then beat the Vikings in Super Bowl VIII.

Answer: Philadelphia Eagles

In the midst of a dreadful 1-15 season, the Cowboys faced the Eagles in the first of two divisional match-ups that season. The Cowboys accused the Eagles of putting a bounty out on placekicker Luis Zendejas, whom Philadelphia had cut earlier in the season - an accusation that gained steam when Zendejas was knocked out of the game with a concussion.

When the two teams played each other a couple weeks later in Philadelphia, the game was hyped up as Bounty Bowl II. Philadelphia won that game, too, 20-10, en route to a wildcard appearance in the playoffs.

Answer: Phil Luckett

An official with 16 seasons of NFL service (9 as a referee), Phil Luckett was involved in several controversial calls during his career. At the time the Steelers met the Lions, a captain from the visiting team would call the coin toss as the coin was in the air. Jerome Bettis started to call "heads" before switching it to "tails". Because Luckett heard the beginning of "heads" first, he had to go with Bettis's first choice.

As a result, the coin toss rules were changed so that the visiting captain calls the toss before it happens, and the referee announces the choice to confirm it.

Answer: Denver and Kansas City

Had the Broncos defeated the Chiefs in Kansas City that night, they would've made the playoffs that season as a wildcard. They had already defeated Kansas City earlier in the season, and would have essentially had a two-game lead at season's end. But a 19-10 loss to the Chiefs was a factor in leading Denver into a tie at 9-7. Because Kansas City had a better record than Denver did against its divisional opponents in the AFC West, they made the playoffs and the Broncos didn't.