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A Thanksgiving 2015 NFL football preview

For many people, football is a part of Thanksgiving as much as the turkey, the stuffing, or the pie. For others, it’s a foreign addition to the meal, like corned beef and cabbage or Chinese food (both of which my family has cooked for past Thanksgivings, but that’s another story…) Sometimes, those people sit down at the same table. When that happens, it’s important for the football fans to realize that not everyone shares their passion. Sports fans need to make an effort to talk about other things sometimes. Then again, if those other things are going to be politics, religion, or money… maybe it’s a good idea for the non-sports fans to brush up on their football. For the sake of peace and good will at the Thanksgiving table, here’s what you need to know about the three NFL football games on Thanksgiving Day, 2015.

Philadelphia Eagles at Detroit Lions, 12:30 p.m. ET on Fox

The Lions are one of two teams that traditionally host Thanksgiving games. Most years, their fans have very little to be thankful for. This year was shaping up to be much the same after the team lost seven of its first eight games. Then the Lions went on the road to Green Bay, where they had not won since 1991. They won! Riding that wave of generational positivity, (yes, even for a 2-7 team,) the Lions won their next game against the Oakland Raiders. That was just last weekend. With the playoffs only the most pipey of pipe dreams, this Thanksgiving game will be the biggest game for the Lions for the rest of the year, simply because of the national spotlight playing on Thanksgiving gives the franchise. Their opponents in this game, the Philadelphia Eagles, are in even greater disarray. Unlike the Lions, the Eagles were supposed to be good this year and to challenge seriously for their division title. They’ve only won four games of their first ten and are hanging on to playoff hopes solely because their division is so bad. The best record in the division is only 5-5. The Eagles have lost three of their last four games and they and their egomaniacal, unorthodox, coach and general manager, Chip Kelly seem to be headed toward a sloppy divorce.

So, yes, these teams are not very good. On the other hand, because of that, the game could go in almost any direction. If you care about either of these two teams — for rooting, gambling, or fantasy reasons — then there’s a lot of suspense to be found here. The Lions could win by twenty. The Eagles could win by twenty. The game could be high scoring or low scoring. It could go into overtime or be over by the time your doorbell rings announcing your first guest. No one really knows. And that makes it kind of fun to watch.

Carolina Panthers at Dallas Cowboys, 4:30 p.m. ET on CBS

Alas, the most intriguing game of the day happens in the time least likely to be convenient for watching. 4:30 is pretty much dinner time on Thanksgiving, at least on the East Coast. Both teams, the visiting Carolina Panthers and the host Dallas Cowboys will be trying to do something for the first time ever. The Carolina Panthers have already set a record for the best start to a season their franchise has ever had. At 10-0, they are one of only two remaining undefeated teams in the league. Only 11 teams have ever started a season with 11 straight wins, and the Panthers will be trying to join that group on Thanksgiving. The team is led by three incredible players. Cam Newton is their leader on offense. A 6’5″ 250 lb behemoth, he’s the rare NFL quarterback who has the ability to run the ball almost as well as he can throw it and the build to hold up to the hits he takes when running. On defense, the Panthers are led by two players who are both near the top of their positions: Luke Keuchly at middle linebacker and Josh Norman at corner back. As for the Cowboys, they’re trying to do something which no NFL team has ever done before — make the playoffs after a 2-7 start. There are two things that give them hope in this audacious goal. The first is that all of their losses this season came while quarterback Tony Romo was injured and most while their best wide receiver, Dez Bryant, was injured as well. The second hopeful factor is that they are in the same division as the Eagles — the NFC East — and at 3-7, they are only two wins behind the division leading New York Giants.

One curious feature of this game is that the Cowboys are favored by a point. This means that people betting on the Cowboys need them to win by more than one point in order to make money while people betting on the Carolina Panthers would win even if the teams tied. It’s fairly extraordinary for a 10-0 team to be an underdog against a 3-7 team. This is partially because home teams tend to do a little better than visiting teams and because the Cowboys are notoriously a public team. Whatever the reason for it, you can be sure that the Panthers will use being an underdog as motivation, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they beat the Cowboys soundly.

Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers, 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC

The nightcap of the football schedule is a perfect game for sitting on the couch, enjoying a nightcap of your own or even some leftover pie or turkey sandwiches. The Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers have played against each other more times than any two teams in NFL history. They are two classic franchises, and watching them play, especially late in the season, is like taking a trip back in time. By the time the game starts in Green Bay, the wind will be blowing around 15 mph, it will be right around freezing, and there’s a 90% chance of precipitation. There’s nothing better than watching football in bad weather… from the comfort of your couch.

As for the football game, the jury is out on whether Green Bay is an elite, championship contender this year. In Aaron Rodgers, they have the world’s best quarterback (with the possible exception of Tom Brady) but the question is how much quality he can wring out of the team’s group of less talented wide receivers. At times this season, the Packers offense has looked as good as ever, but in other games it has had periods of profound helplessness. Profound helplessness is pretty much the norm for Chicago Bears fans. Their team seems locked in an endless cycle of almost getting good and then falling apart again. This season has been a microcosm of that experience. The Bears started the season with three wins. Then they clawed their way back to reasonableness with two wins. Then they lost two more games to place them firmly in a bad place. Then, after their fans had given up a second time, they won two more games to go to 4-5 on the year, one game away from .500. A close loss last week to the Denver Broncos makes this game close to a must-win if the Bears have any hope of reaching the playoffs this year.

I fear that this game may get out of hand early if Green Bay gets out to an early lead. That would really be a shame, because this has the potential to be the coziest, most enjoyable football game of the day.

Happy Thanksgiving from Dear Sports Fan

As I’ve said a few times over the past couple weeks, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year! Thanks so much for being a part of it this year. Before I descend full-time into the kitchen (this year, my girlfriend and I are hosting and we’ll be cooking: braised turkey thighs, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, squash au gratin, a mushroom galette, stuffing, creamed onions, cranberry relish, and some more vegetables, steamed and buttered reprehensibly), I wanted to share all of the Thanksgiving themed Dear Sports Fan things from this year.

Our Guide to Football for the Curious

The biggest thing I worked on for Thanksgiving was this ebook beginner’s guide to football. The guide covers why people like football, how football works, what the positions are, and how to begin enjoying football on television. You can take a glimpse at the table of contents and sign up for our newsletter to get a free copy of Dear Sports Fan’s Guide to Football for the Curious here.

Once you’ve read the guide (or at least the game previews below), you’ll be ready to test your football knowledge with our brand new Thanksgiving football crossword puzzle!

Game Previews: Plot and Characters

12:30 – Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions

4:30 – Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys

8:30 – Seattle Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers

Found on the Internet

Thanksgiving gifts

Excerpts from the best stories around the web

Happy Thanksgiving from the sports media

Good morning and happy Thanksgiving! While you’re trying to find the cranberries in the back of the fridge, (where did you put those things?), here are excerpts from the best of the many Thanksgiving and football themed articles from around the web.

Pigskin Pigsplosion NFL Week 13 Preview

by Ryan Glasspiegel for The Big Lead

A special Thanksgiving edition of The Big Lead’s weekly NFL football preview.

If you stop to think about it, it’s pretty rude of the NFL to make all three games on Thanksgiving be compelling ones. Though a motive would be hard to discern, it seems readily apparent that the league is involved in a sinister plan to cause relationship strife around this holiday.

26 (More) Rules of Thanksgiving Touch Football

by Jason Gay for the Wall Street Journal

Rules to live by if your Thanksgiving tradition includes playing touch football.

Remember: It’s not just a game. It’s an opportunity to relieve a year’s worth of pent-up aggression upon the loved ones who don’t return your text messages and never do the dishes.

9. If anybody starts a Thanksgiving family touch-football fantasy league, you can ban them from the family for seven years.

18. This year’s halftime show is explaining to Dad who Katy Perry is.

19. Relationship breakups can be hard on the Thanksgiving touch-football game. It was very sad that your brother Todd and his girlfriend Karen split up, because Todd is family. But mainly because Karen had six touchdowns last year.

Ndamukong Suh and Warren Buffett: The Bruiser and the Billionaire

by Kevin Clark for the Wall Street Journal

Ndamukong Suh is one of the most compelling characters of the early game between the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears. He’s known as a rough and dirty player on the field but off-field he’s a burgeoning businessman.

“Everyone says, ‘Wait til your football career is over.’ Or the biggest saying is always ‘Life after football,’ ” Suh said. “But as an athlete, someone who is bright enough and understands how to compartmentalize, and has time management from already having two jobs at once—playing football and going to class and getting good grades-—you can have 70 to 90% of the focus on your ultimate job but at the same time slowly build to what you are going to be one day.”

Suh’s best memory was an arm-wrestling match between Buffett and Suh at an event. At his Michigan home, Suh has a letter, written by Buffett: “I, Ndamukong Suh, hereby release Warren Buffett from any claims for physical injury that I may suffer in the arm wrestling contest…”

Thanksgiving Football Is Tradition for Chris Borland

by Taylor Price for 49ers.com

Chris Borland is an unlikely new defensive star for the San Francisco 49ers who will be playing on Thanksgiving night versus the Seattle Seahawks. Here’s a story from the team’s site about his background and football upbringing.

Chris, the second-youngest of six boys, played football with his brothers; he also tried to keep pace with them in other ways. Joe, 13 years older than his NFL-playing brother, remembered Chris running around their home with two-pound weights in each hand. The story gets better. Chris used to do that in the winter time… as a 4-year-old.

The next game is on a familiar day for the Borland family: Thanksgiving. Although Chris hasn’t played in a “Turkey Bowl” game since his high school days, he has a pretty good memory of that battle. Just like any other group of family and friends who gather to play recreational football games hours before a Thanksgiving meal, the Borland’s were no different. Only, their game was a little more physical than most neighborhood contests.

In the last “Borland Turkey Bowl,” Chris caught the game-winning touchdown pass from Joe, earning the right to hoist a trophy topped with a plastic turkey head. Chris earned the hardware, too. He collided with a sapling tree and bloodied his forehead as he caught the winning pass. But as Joe tells it, Chris wasn’t even the toughest player in the yard that day. Sarah Borland, the only female sibling of the bunch, suffered a dislocated shoulder in the game. What did she do after the injury? Oh, she just popped her shoulder back into place and kept playing.

Chiefs safety Eric Berry has right attitude for what could be fight of his life

by Sam Mellinger for The Kansas City Star

Not a Thanksgiving story per se, but I thought it was good to include this as a reminder to give thanks for the health of us and our loved ones and for the people who support us when we’re faced with big challenges.

The Chiefs star will see a lymphoma specialist in his hometown of Atlanta this week, trying to find a definitive answer for a mass in the right side of his chest. His season with the Chiefs is over.

Everyone’s fight is their own, of course, but if this becomes Berry’s fight, he will engage it with an incredible amount of support… In high school, Berry volunteered at a dentist’s office. In college, he would sneak into the equipment room the night before games to help the team managers polish the helmets… With the Chiefs, he is constantly thanking the men and women who cook and serve the team meals. He’s the one hugging the flight attendant on the plane and donating backpacks full of school supplies to local kids.

2014 Thanksgiving NFL preview: Seattle Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers

The last of the three Thanksgiving NFL football games this year is between the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers at 8:30 p.m. on NBC. If this game were a Thanksgiving food, it would be the roast pork, baked salmon, or Turducken that someone brings to the meal. It’s not traditional but damn, is it good. Tradition aside, you’re going to grab a few extra servings of it on top of that dried out token piece of Turkey breast you eat out of obligation.

Thanksgiving is the ultimate American holiday. Its focusses are family, food, and football. To celebrate the first two, it helps to know about the third. To that end, we’re offering a free copy of our Guide to Football for the Curious in addition to publishing previews about each of the three Thanksgiving NFL football games.

Plot

Unlike the two day games, this game does not have a set host city and team, so the league is free to pick what they think the most entertaining matchup will be each year. Before this season started, the matchup of the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers must have seemed like a slam dunk. The Seahawks won the Super Bowl last year and the 49ers have been to at least the conference finals (the game right before the Super Bowl) for the last three years. Both teams are in the NFC West division, and if that weren’t enough to create a rivalry, their head coaches, Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh share a mutual disdain from their days coaching in college against each other. Before the season started, this game must have seemed like the perfect choice for Thanksgiving night because it was a heated rivalry of two very excellent teams. The schedule makers lucked out — it is a compelling game but for very different reasons than they thought before the season.

The first half of the NFL season for these two teams has proven that something can always go wrong. Both teams have struggled to win games, largely because their dominating defenses from the previous years have been anything but dominating this year. Nor have things been nice and easy in the dressing room. Seattle traded one of its most explosive players mid-season and as he left the city the team’s leadership spread rumors that he was unmanageable and violent towards his teammates. San Francisco has been beset by rumors that their team can’t stand their coach. It’s fairly common in sports for teams to dislike their coaches, but these rumors have suggested that the situation for the 49ers is worse than normal.

On Thanksgiving, both Seattle and San Francisco find themselves 7-4 (seven wins, four losses) and a full two games behind the Arizona Cardinals for the division lead. Assuming neither team can catch Arizona, these two teams will be fighting with each other and a couple of other extremely good teams for the two available wild card playoff spots. Between real animosity for the opponent and a clear need to win the game for playoff positioning, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if this were the best game of the day.

Characters

Jim Harbaugh, Coach of the San Francisco 49ers

Jim Harbaugh is a pain in the ass. That seems to be the consensus of everyone who has every played with or for him. He’s intense, emotional, almost childlike in his inability or unwillingness to control himself on the sidelines. He also wins. A lot. He’s known as a “quarterback whisperer” or someone who is able to mentor young quarterbacks to make the most of their potential. This year has been an interesting one about him, if not for him. His contract ends after this season and it’s unclear whether the 49ers will want to retain him, despite his winning record. There have been well documented reports of power struggles between him and the general manager of the team as well dissension among the players.

Colin Kaepernick, Quarterback on the San Francisco 49ers

Kaepernick is the young, talented quarterback being whispered to by Harbaugh. Kaepernick is an unusual sight on the football field. He is tall and slender but freakishly fast and strong. Once a well-regarded professional prospect as a baseball pitcher, Kaepernick retains an element of foreignness to his game. His arm strength is second to none and when he decides to run with the ball, he’s a threat to run by, around, or over defenders. For all his talent though, he can look as bad at any moment as he looked good during a previous play. He’s not particularly consistent and his decision making is questionable.

Chris Borland, Linebacker on the San Francisco 49ers

For the past three seasons, the San Francisco 49ers football team’s character was epitomized by its two amazing inside linebackers, Patrick Willis and Navorro Bowman. The 49ers were a strong, no nonsense, physical team and those two guys were their team’s leaders, role models, and muse. This year, they are both out with injuries. Who steps in? This guy, Chris Borland. Borland is a rookie who won Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year last year in his Senior season. He was drafted by the 49ers in the third round of the NFL draft. Since stepping into a starting role, he’s been a defensive leader on the team and has quickly become a rising star.

Pete Carroll, Coach of the Seattle Seahawks

Pete Carroll is a charming trickster of a coach. It’s no surprise that of all the coaches in the NFL, he’s the one who became a robber baron in this .gif. He’s a rogue. He left his last college job at USC right before the school was sanctioned seriously by the NCAA for basically flagrantly paying star running back Reggie Bush. Now that he’s in the NFL, Carroll’s team has been among the league leaders in PED or performance enhancing drug suspensions. No matter where he goes though, he wins. Last year, he took the Seahawks all the way to the Super Bowl where they routed the Broncos early and won easily. He and Harbaugh hate each other as they have since they were rivals in college at USC and Stanford.

Marshawn Lynch, Running Back on the Seattle Seahawks

Marshawn Lynch is an extreme running back. He’s known as Beast Mode for his powerful and unyielding running style. If you want to know what I’m talking about, watch this. He also famously loves Skittles. The Seattle fans love him, so now when he scores at home, Skittles rain down from the stands. He has one year left on his contract after this year but is rumored to be leaving Seattle sooner than that. He has not been happy there this year. One of his friends/allies, Percy Harvin was traded during the year, and Lynch has reportedly been misbehaving behind the scenes. Of course, it’s hard to know the truth because the team has an incentive to sell the misbehavior story if they want to get rid of Lynch without their fans going crazy. What we do know is that last week after the game, Lynch decided to stonewall reporters in a half comic, half tragic way.

Russell Wilson, Quarterback on the Seattle Seahawks

Russell Wilson was the toast of the NFL for his first couple years in the league. He came in as a somewhat unheralded rookie and immediately beat out his competition in training camp so thoroughly that he was given the starting job. He didn’t disappoint. In his first two years, the Seahawks made the playoffs twice and won the Super Bowl once. Wilson became one of the most well respected quarterbacks around, succeeding despite being short for a quarterback. This year, like most of the team, Wilson has struggled a little bit on and off the field. On the field, his quarterback rating has dropped a little compared to his first two years. Off the field, he’s been accused of being both too close to management and “not black enough.”

Richard Sherman, Cornerback on the Seattle Seahawks

Richard Sherman was launched into the broader public consciousness when he allowed (or if you’re more cynical, decided to) his in-game passion to roll over into a post-game interview after last year’s playoff game against (you guessed it), the San Francisco 49ers. Sherman was briefly labeled as some kind of stereotypical football playing mouthful half-wit before people remembered that he’s every bit as much an intellectual achiever as an athletic one. This year, Sherman hasn’t played quite as well as he has in past years but I imagine he will be on top of his game for this one. He certainly has been on the top of his press conference game, as he showed in this light-hearted yet biting satirical rebuttal to the NFL’s fine for Lynch after his “Yeah” conference.

A Thanksgiving crossword puzzle

Thanksgiving is finally upon us!

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been promoting a Guide to Football for the Curious that I put together from the best of my writing about football on this site. In the guide, I cover all the basic elements of football — how scoring works, what the positions are, what fantasy football is and how football betting works, and why people like football. In addition to that, I tried to give some thought to how a beginner or casual fan can begin to enjoy watching football. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and if you haven’t, it’s not too late! Head over to the Thanksgiving Football page and download a copy now.

To celebrate the holiday and as a fun way to quiz your knowledge of football before you see your football loving relatives tomorrow, here’s a Thanksgiving Football crossword puzzle that I created. All of the terms, names, and phrases are explained in the Guide to Football for the Curious, so seek your answers there if you’re stumped.

A couple notes about the puzzle. You know you’ve gotten an answer right when the words (confusingly) are highlighted in a light red. If your answer remains black text on a white background, it’s wrong. To get the answers, click on the little key icon on the top left.

Have fun and Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for being a part of the Dear Sports Fan community!

2014 Thanksgiving NFL preview: Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys

The second of the three Thanksgiving NFL football games this year is between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys at 12:30 p.m. on Fox. This game is the turkey. It’s the main dish, the Pièce de résistance, the FOOTBALL GAME in all capital letters. Like a Thanksgiving Turkey, it can be delicious — tasty and flowing with good football juices — but it’s also just a little overrated. I mean, it’s no coincidence that we, as a culture, basically eat turkey once a year.

Plot

The Dallas Cowboys have the nickname “America’s Team,” which seems to engender more hatred than admiration. They do have an very big, national fanbase, but it seems like every other team’s fans hates their rivals first and the Cowboys second. That’s convenient for fans of the Philadelphia Eagles, who are specialists in sports hate of all kinds. The Dallas Cowboys are simultaneously the Eagles’ division rivals AND the Dallas Cowboys. That’s two times the hate for the price of one.

The Cowboys and Eagles enter this game tied for first place in their division with eight wins and three losses each. Both teams have succeeded in an unusual way — by running the football. The overall shift in football has been to pass more and run less but each of these teams has succeeded by running (literally) against the grain. The Cowboys do this by having a great offensive line and an excellent running back. The Eagles do this by having better designed running plays than anyone else. Not that the Eagles aren’t talented or that the Cowboys coaches haven’t built a good offense, but this game can easily be seen as a battle between great players (the Cowboys) and a great system (the Eagles.) One piece of evidence for this has been the ability of the Eagles to lose their starting quarterback and not miss a beat. When the Cowboys had to go without their starter for a game, they not only missed a beat, they got beat.

Characters

Tony Romo, Quarterback on the Dallas Cowboys

The quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys is one of the most visible and pressure packed jobs in sports. Tony Romo has had that job since 2006. His experience has been mixed. He’s been a very good quarterback but the team, during his career, has had no success in the playoffs whatsoever. The Cowboys have developed a reputation for failing at the most important and pressure packed moments and Romo has been a big part of that. The snap that Romo fumbled while trying to hold for a game winning playoff field goal in January 2007 (so harrowing was this play to the Cowboys fans that it’s still the subject of articles and counter-factual videos) was the beginning of Romo developing the reputation for not being a “clutch” player. His defenders note that he’s actually led lots of game winning drives but they say it with a defensive tone in their voices.

Dez Bryant, Wide Receiver on the Dallas Cowboys

Dez Bryant is the prototypical modern Wide Receiver. He’s big, strong, fast, powerful, and capable of making incredible catches. He also has a reputation for being a diva and for flying completely off the handle. He has a reputation for bad behavior on and off the field. It’s almost an annual tradition to see articles like this recent one from NFL.com with the headline, “Cowboys Concerned about Dez Bryant off the field”. These articles inspire defenses of Bryant, like this one from Cowboys site, Blogging The Boys, and also from less biased sources like Deadspin which ran an article contending that the “Dez Bryant Smear Season is Upon Us”. It’s hard to make any personal conclusions about players like Bryant because the information we get is biased by a combination of team allegiances, financial motives, and cultural, racial, and even positional stereotypes.

DeMarco Murray, Running Back on the Dallas Cowboys

As opposed to Dez Bryant, DeMarco Murray is an interesting figure because of his situation. Like Bryant, Murray is going to be an unrestricted free agent after this season. Like Bryant, Murray is one of the best in the world at his position. Unlike Bryant though, Murray plays Running Back, which is the most physically damaging position, and because of that, it has the shortest expected careers. Running back is now seen as an important position for winning football games but one where the athletes who play the position are interchangeable and expendable. Murray has played wonderfully this year, but he’s also been used more than he’s ever been used before. Some people wonder if the Cowboys are simply planning to use him up and then get rid of him at the end of the year.

Jerry Jones, Owner of the Dallas Cowboys

Most team owners would not be worth profiling but Jerry Jones is different. Jones is not only the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, he’s also the President and General Manager of the team. He takes a wide ranging and important role in almost all the football operations of the team. It’s common to see him down on the field, talking to players or coaches. He’s long been criticized for insufficiently delegating authority throughout his organization and much of the Cowboys’ lack of success has been blamed on him. That’s why there’s no one alive who is enjoying this year’s Cowboys season more than Jones. Jones is a charismatic powerful man, so it’s depressing but not surprising that along with compelling and complementary profiles of him there are also accusations of abuse.

Mark Sanchez, Quarterback on the Philadelphia Eagles

Mark Sanchez took over as the starting quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles at the start of November when incumbent starter, Nick Foles, broke his collarbone in a game. Sanchez was a highly regarded player when he was drafted fifth overall by the New York Jets in the first round of the 2009 draft. His time at the Jets started well with two consecutive successful years in the playoffs but was downhill from there. Things got laughably bad in his last year there, epitomized by the infamous “butt fumble” moment when he dropped the ball after running into one of his own teammates. His attempt to rehabilitate his career is off to a good start but he’s still the object of a disproportionate amount of scorn from fans and media.

Chip Kelly, Coach of the Philadelphia Eagles

People who write about football have a bad habit of overstating the brilliance of football coaches. Not every coach is a genius. In fact, for a sport that rewards innovation as much as football, it’s a surprisingly conservative profession. Most coaches design offenses that are just slightly different from what everyone else is doing. Not Chip Kelly. Kelly has long been a bit different. From his college coaching days in New Hampshire and Oregon to the Philadelphia Eagles, Kelly has been more aggressive and innovative than most coaches. He’s great at finding ways to use simple concepts to create open spaces for his players to run into. The simplicity of his offense plus some innovative play signaling grant his team the ability to run plays faster than any other team. He’s now leading the charge into using sleep and activity monitors to regulate, monitor, and customize every aspect of his players lives during the season. Creepy but effective.

Conner Barwin, Linebacker on the Philadelphia Eagles

Connor Barwin is one of the leaders of the Eagles defense. He plays the outside linebacker position where he has to tackle runners, cover receivers, and attack the quarterback often. He’s also one of the more unique characters in the NFL. At 6’4″, 264 lbs, Barwin may be one of the world’s biggest hipsters. He rides his bike to work, is a regular at music venues, and a proponent of marriage equality.

LeSean McCoy, Running Backs on the Philadelphia Eagles

One of the most fun things about the Eagles is how run-heavy their offense is, even in an era when running has become almost obsolete on most teams. The team’s primary running back is a perfect fit to benefit from Chip Kelly’s ability to create plays that give running backs room to beat defenders in the open field. LeSean McCoy, known as “shady” (a name his mom gave him as a baby due to his quickly changing moods), is the lead back. He’s got an almost unbelievable ability to change direction quickly which he retains, as we saw last year, in deep snow. He also hysterically says his own last name, “McCoy” as he runs by would-be-tacklers. The ESPN article on how he came to believe in coach Chip Kelly is a must read to understand him and Kelly.

2014 Thanksgiving NFL preview: Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions

The first of the three Thanksgiving NFL football games this year is between the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions at 12:30 p.m. on CBS. Despite it being at the start of the day, this game’s Thanksgiving food analog is the classic Thanksgiving pies: pecan and pumpkin. It’s definitely traditional, like pies, the Detroit Lions, are an ever-present part of the day. And, like the pies, if it weren’t Thanksgiving, you might not find this game as tasty. While the other two games on Thanksgiving feature teams battling it out for first place in their divisions and a playoff spot, this game has one team still alive for the playoffs but the other lost its relevance several weeks ago.

Plot

For years and years, the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving game was a bit of a joke. Every year, the Lions would host a game and every year it seemed they would lose. Truthfully, they’ve been a bad team for a long time:

They’ve won one Thanksgiving game since 2003.
They’ve made the playoffs only once since 2000 and haven’t won a playoff game since 1991.
They’ve only had two winning seasons since 2000 and during that time became the only team in history to go winless for an entire 16 game season.

This year, everything is upside-down. The Detroit Lions are having their best season in a long time this year. They are 7-4 (seven wins, four losses) on the season but for the first time all year, find themselves in second place in their division, behind the Green Bay Packers. The Lions have lost two games in a row, so they are reeling a little bit, but they also must be liking their chops in anticipation of facing the Chicago Bears in this game. For years, the Bears have been the big brother that beat up on the Lions but this year the only big they are is a big mess. The Bears may have hit their low-point three weeks ago when they lost 55-14 to the Green Bay Packers on national television and dropped to 3-6. I was, frankly, surprised that their head coach was not fired following that game. Since then, they’ve won two games against sub-par opponents but these wins have not inspired much confidence at all.

Characters

Jay Cutler, Quarterback on the Chicago Bears

The quarterback of an NFL team is supposed to be its leader and moral center. Jay Cutler subverts that expectation publicly by appearing noticeably disinterested and disengaged from the game. He is so expressive in this way that he’s inspired a popular Tumblr blog called “Smokin’ Jay Cutler” that features photos of him with photoshopped cigarettes dangling from his mouth in honor of “the most apathetic looking athlete in the history of sports”. Cutler is a strong-armed quarterback (he once controversially claimed to have a stronger arm than legendary Denver quarterback John Elway) who is prone to making bad decisions with where he chooses to throw the ball.

Brandon Marshall, Wide Receiver on the Chicago Bears

Brandon Marshall is one of my favorite NFL players. He’s an outspoken advocate for mental health and lives his beliefs on the subject by speaking openly about his own struggles with borderline personality disorder. He’s every bit as passionate on the outside as Cutler is apathetic. Marshall plays his heart out on the field and sometimes blows his vocal chords out screaming on the sidelines.

Matt Forte and Alshon Jeffrey, Running Back and Wide Receiver on the Chicago Bears

Matt Forte and Alshon Jeffrey are important figures on the field and quiet ones off the field. Forte, from Louisiana, and Jeffrey, from South Carolina, are both understated stars. They let their play on the field speak for them. Forte is an excellent running back who does a lot of his damage on screen or swing passes. Jeffrey is a tall, powerful receiver, who often overpowers the defenders assigned to guard him. They both represent a type of quiet athletic elegance.

Martellus Bennett, Tight End on the Chicago Bears

Martellus Bennett is a receiving tight end with almost limitless talent. As a member of the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants, he showed tantalizing moments of superb play mixed in with a bunch of mediocrity. This year on the Bears, he seemed like he had finally put it together to play consistently at a high level, but has slid backwards over the past month. His persona slants more towards brash than anything else. His nickname, which he gave himself, is “The Black Unicorn” based on an answer he gave to a reporter who asked him about his conditioning in 2012: “I’m stronger than I’ve ever been, I’m faster than I’ve ever been. I could run all day. I’m kind of like a black unicorn out there”

Calvin Johnson, Wide Receiver on the Detroit Lions

Calvin Johnson’s nickname is Megatron and, over his years playing football, he’s either evolved to fit the name or the name was a perfect fit for him to begin with. He is how you imagine a football playing robot would be designed. He’s tall — 6’5″. He can leap — 43 inch standing vertical jump. He is fast, very fast — 4.35 second 40 yard dash. Yet none of these raw measurements can express his excellence at making amazing catches when his team needs him to do so. He is a fantastic player.

Matthew Stafford, Quarterback on the Detroit Lions

Matthew Stafford is one of those classic enigmas of football. Because football is such an intertwined sport, it’s often hard to isolate the performance of one player from another. This is Stafford’s sixth year in the NFL but each one of them has been with star receiver, Calvin Johsnon. Even after six years, it’s hard to tell if Stafford’s good performances are due to Johnson’s brilliance or whether he would be successful on his own. Stafford plays football like a swashbuckler. He takes risks, throws from all sorts of strange angles, and plays through a lot of big hits.

DeAndre Levy, Linebacker on the Detroit Lions

Finally, we give the defenders some attention. DeAndre Levy is the leader of Detroit’s defense and potentially a prototype for a new breed of NFL linebackers. As the game has slanted more towards passing, a linebacker’s ability to cover tight ends and even wide receivers has become more important. Levy is one of the smallest linebackers in the league, which helps him in pass coverage, and one of the most explosive, which helps him defend the run. According to Robert Klemko in a fun profile of Levy in The MMQB, “Levy is an oddball with a prospector’s beard, a quiet nature and an uncommon zeal for travel.” Sounds like a fun guy to me.

Ndamukong Suh, Defensive Tackle on the Detroit Lions

Ndamukong Suh made his name as one of the NFL’s biggest bad actors, back when being violent ON the field was enough to qualify you for NFL bad boy. Now that we live in the era or Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson, Suh’s offenses seem quaint in comparison. Elizabeth Merrill wrote of Suh in her profile of him for ESPN, “He likes to surprise people, finding immense enjoyment in debunking the notion that he’s a thickheaded hit man… he didn’t get his degree in basket weaving or, say, communications. He matriculated through a rigorous engineering program.” Suh is an enigma, a truly destructive force on the football field who seems to be a righteous dude off the field.

Brothers Fuller? Kyle Fuller, defensive back on the Chicago Bears and Corey Fuller, wide receiver on the Detroit Lions

This game could feature the rare sight of a pair of brothers literally playing against each other on Thanksgiving. If they were both healthy and playing, Kyle might easily be covering Corey, trying to keep him from catching a pass. Alas, Kyle hurt his knee this past weekend and may miss the game and Corey is relatively far back on the Lions’ depth chart.

Marc Trestman, Head Coach of the Chicago Bears

Trestman took an interesting path to become a head coach in the NFL. He made a name for himself as head coach of the Canadian Football League Montreal Alouettes, where he won two championships and became known as an offensive mastermind. That reputation has been sorely tested this year in Chicago where his highly talented offense has sputtered and stalled more than it has excelled. He’s definitely on the hot-seat and could be fired at the end of the year.

Jim Caldwell, Head Coach of the Detroit Lions

Way back in 2010, columnist Bill Simmons and his readers had tagged Caldwell as an almost absurdly unemotional coach. As coach of the Indiannapolis Colts, Caldwell was seen as almost a care-taker thanks to quarterback Peyton Manning’s hands-on domineering nature. As much maligned as he is, Caldwell has the Lions playing as well as they have for more than a decade, so he must be doing something right.