It’s Thanksgiving Day and traditionally, that has meant a lot of great food and a lot of football.
The NFL now helps celebrate Thanksgiving with a triple-header of action on the field, making sure that football fans get a full serving of football to go along with the Thanksgiving feast.
The Denver Broncos won’t play on Thanksgiving and in fact, have not appeared in a Thanksgiving Day game since the 2009 season. The team has played in 11 games on Thanksgiving across its history, carrying just a 4-7 record in those games.
Unlike fans of the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys, who are able to see their team play every year on Thanksgiving, Broncos fans have only witnessed it a handful of times, though they have been treated to some great performances.
As we delve into food and football on this day, we are also going to look back at each of those four wins the Broncos have had on Thanksgiving.
November 22, 2001 vs. Dallas Cowboys
It’s always good to beat the Cowboys, something the Broncos have done every time the two teams have played since 1995, but in 2001, the Cowboys were a poor football team.
The Broncos were able to come away with a 26-24 victory, but they struggled with a team that was just 2-7 going into that game.
The Broncos were a team fighting for playoff position at the time and the Cowboys’ starting quarterback in the game was Ryan Leaf. It should have been an easy Denver win, but the Cowboys were able to score two late touchdowns in the fourth quarter to make things interesting.
The Broncos rode Mike Anderson, who carried the ball 33 times for 118 yards and a touchdown, to the victory.