Dry Turkey Day football just got some juice

(Before we get started, I have to say I had nothing to do with the cutline in the photo above. That’s the way it appears on the Detroit Lions Web site. I’m pretty certain, though, that the Bears didn’t help the Lions win, as the cutline suggests. I bet Matt Millen wrote that line.)

The NFL finally is giving its fans a little dressing to go with their Thanksgiving turkeys.

The league announced Saturday that it will broadcast eight Thursday and/or Saturday primetime games on its own NFL Network beginning with the 2006 season.

The two-year-old NFL Network (Or the 212 as we like to call it) will start airing the “Run Up to the Playoffs” package with a Thanksgiving night game Nov. 23 and broadcasts seven more regular season games throughout the remainder of the regular season, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced Saturday.

"The NFL has traditionally been at the forefront of innovation and new technology dating back to starting NFL Films in the ‘60s, and Pete Rozelle and Roone Arledge creating Monday Night Football in 1970," Tagliabue said in a story Saturday on NFL.com. "With NFL Network, we are creating a fresh, innovative programming package that will complement all of our television partners."

Wow. Isn’t this what we fans have been screaming about for years now – a third Thanksgiving Day game? We suffer each year through the Lions in the opener. Then, we have some Tuna with our turkey when the Cowboys game kicks off and the Tryptophen kicks in the late afternoon. Those games are great if you’re a fan on those teams. Plus, it’s a great tradition to have those teams play, and we stick through just because it’s football.

However, for several years now, fans and media have been calling for some sort of Thanksgiving football reform. Some have even called for drastic measures such as dumping the traditional Lions and Cowboys games and rotating the leagues 30 other teams each year. No one, though, really wanted to break tradition, even though the Lions are perennial stinkers.

Saturday’s announcement brings the perfect solution in the form of a Thanksgiving Day tripleheader. So not only do they get to keep tradition, if not hope, alive in Detroit, and Dallas too, but there’s now an extra game to watch. And the cool thing is the game will be in primetime when all your annoying family members have split from your house and are passing gas in their own living rooms.

The 2006 schedule has yet to be set, so it is not known which teams will play in the inaugural Thanksgiving night contest. The scheduling, however, presents numerous exciting scenarios.

Imagine this broadcast slate: The Lions host the rival Packers in the noon opener, followed by the NFL’s best rivalry when the Redskins play the Cowboys in Texas Stadium. Then, for the primetimer, we get another great rivalry game like the Chiefs/Raiders or Patriots/Colts or a Super Bowl XL rematch between the Seahawks and Steelers.

One thing is for certain, however. Creating the third game will bring more excitement to more fans since rooters for six teams instead of two will feel the excitement of having their teams play on Thanksgiving. It’s that excitement, more than simply doing things for the sake of tradition, that makes the NFL the best and most popular sports league in the world.