Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Week 1 is obviously huge in the NFL because it’s the start of the season, and Week 17 is when playoff spots can be decided and the season ends for many teams, but in the United States no day of the regular season compares from a football perspective to Thanksgiving, which is this Thursday. Turkey and football – and perhaps a nap in between – are a match made in heaven.

For decades, there were just two games on the holiday, with the Detroit Lions hosting the early game and the Dallas Cowboys the mid-afternoon matchup. In 2006 in an effort to boost interest in the relatively new NFL Network, the league added a prime-time game on the holiday and it has been played ever since. It’s no longer on the NFL Network and there are no set teams for that game.

No club has played more on Thanksgiving than the Lions, and they kick things off as 3-point underdogs against the NFC North rival Chicago Bears. Detroit hasn’t had starting quarterback Matthew Stafford the past three games, all losses, due to fractured bones in his back and probably won’t the rest of the season. The first game Stafford missed was Week 10 in Chicago, a 20-13 Bears win. Jeff Driskel started that and will again Thursday. Detroit has failed to cover its past six games overall.