For 9 Detroit Lions rookies, Thanksgiving football is a new tradition: ‘It’s pretty cool’

Dan Campbell has been a part of 11 Thanksgiving games, six as a player with the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions and five more as a coach.

With his 12th bite of the Thanksgiving turkey on tap Thursday when the Lions host the Green Bay Packers, Campbell said playing and coaching in the game still holds a special allure.

“I still think it’s really something special,” Campbell said. “It’s Detroit and Dallas and it’s always been known for that. I know they’ve got the late game now, but I do think it’s special and it’s a privilege to be able to play on Thanksgiving Day. It’s a privilege for our guys. And everybody’s watching, all your family, all your friends and this is the type of game, man, you come out of and you’ve got somebody you went to school with in second grade who’s texting you and you just — you forgot until he texted you and you’re like, ‘Oh, oh my God.’ And family members, everything. And so, it’s kind of cool like that.”

Campbell said he really did reconnect with an old friend from grade school after a recent Thanksgiving game, and the magnitude of the experience is something he planned to share with players in their team meeting Wednesday night.

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell gestures from the sideline during the first half against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium on November 12, 2023 in Inglewood, California.

Most of the Lions’ 53-man roster has played on Thanksgiving before, but for the team’s nine-man rookie class it will be largely a new experience — one they’re eager to be a part of.

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A new tradition

Trevor Nowaske has spent most of his life in Michigan. He grew up in Canton, went to Plymouth Salem for high school and Saginaw Valley State for college, but the undrafted rookie linebacker has never been to a Lions Thanksgiving game.

“We always have been at home watching it,” Nowaske said. “That’s kind of been the main deal, whether I’m at my cousin’s or we’re at the house, always got the game on watching it. So it’ll be super cool this year to be a part of it.”

Growing up, Nowaske celebrated Thanksgiving with his extended family. His mother has five sisters, four of whom live in Michigan, and the families rotated who hosted the holiday every year.

No matter where they were — Plymouth, Canton, Kalamazoo — dinner would be served with the Lions game on TV. And often, Nowaske would drag his cousins outside to play a game of football.

Detroit Lions linebacker Trevor Nowaske (59) practices during mini camp at Detroit Lions Headquarters and Training Facility in Allen Park on Tuesday, June 6, 2023.

“Obviously, as a young kid you’re always, that’s where you want to be,” Nowaske said. “I don’t know if I ever truly believed it at that age. As I got older, I definitely had the aspirations and committed to the process and obviously we are where we are now. But if you would have told me back then watching the game on Thanksgiving, eventually you’d be playing in that, I would have been like, ‘What? That’s crazy.’ So I’m super excited.”

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This year, Nowaske said his family is moving Thanksgiving dinner to Friday so they can go to Thursday’s game. He told his family they didn’t have to change their holiday plans on his behalf, but now that they did, he’s glad to be a part of a new tradition.

“I’m like, ‘Guys, it’s not a huge deal, don’t change your whole day because of me,’” Nowaske said. “But they’re like, ‘No, we really want to come and all this stuff,’ so it’s been super cool. So I’m excited to kind of experience that with them and I’m glad they’re in the area so they can come to the game and kind of share it with me.”

No gifts

Thanksgiving has always been linebacker Jack Campbell’s favorite holiday.

“It’s a day off. You can be intentional with your time. Don’t have to worry about giving and getting presents. Especially for me, I’m not the best gift giver,” Campbell said.

Detroit Lions linebacker Jack Campbell (46) runs up the tunnel after the 31-26- win against the Chicago Bears at Ford Field Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023.

Mostly, Campbell loves Thanksgiving because it’s about family. In high school, the holiday usually fell between the end of football season and the start of basketball, and Campbell said his extended family — as many as 65 people — would meet somewhere in Iowa, often at his grandparents’ place in Waterloo, for a huge feast.

“My dad’s got two sisters and then my stepmom has seven siblings. And each sibling has like four kids, five kids. And then grandparents,” Campbell said. “If there’s some friends or someone that didn’t have a huge family, they always just joined in so it was like real fun.”

Everyone would bring a crockpot of food or a side dish and put it on one of seven tables set up in his grandparents’ outbuilding, and the adults would make three turkeys to serve everyone.

Football was always on in the background, and inevitably a game of two-hand touch would break out.

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This year, Campbell said his father, stepmother and two brothers are coming to the game, and the rest of his family will be at home watching in Iowa.

“Being a rookie and getting to come into a situation like this and just feeling very fortunate and blessed to be here, but then ultimately get to play on Thanksgiving, it’s going to be a blast,” Campbell said. ‘Kids always have the game on in the background and now I’m getting to be a part of it, it’s cool.”

Lions quarterback Hendon Hooker watches the action during training camp on Wednesday, Aug. 02, 2023, in Allen Park.

Big coats and BBQ

Hendon Hooker had a non-traditional Thanksgiving of sorts, at least when it came to the meal.

“I kind of got to an age that I don’t really want Thanksgiving food, I just want all the things that I would like to eat, so those are always my requests,” he said. “I want ribs. Basically a cookout type of deal.”

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And because he was deep in his high school football season at the time, his mother or grandmother — whoever was in charge of the meal — usually made good on his requests.

Hooker said football has been a part of his Thanksgiving for most of his life. He practiced on the holiday every year while playing for Greensboro, North Carolina’s, Dudley High, in preparation for a Friday playoff game, and had rivalry games Thanksgiving weekend during most of his years in college, against Vanderbilt while he was at Tennessee and Virginia during his time at Virginia Tech.

“Before now being here, Thanksgiving was still football,” Hooker said. “Especially like in our area, me, Emmanuel Moseley, where we went to high school, our high school is expected to be playing that Friday after Thanksgiving. So always going to their games if I’m not playing in them.”

The running joke at Dudley, Hooker said, was for players to show up to Thanksgiving practice wearing big winter coats over their pads, the dawn of cold-weather football in a warm-weather state. This week, he half carried on that tradition, asking teammates if it was OK for him to start wearing his winter jacket.

Detroit Lions quarterback Hendon Hooker passes after rookie minicamp in Allen Park, May 13, 2023.

Though Hooker won’t be playing Thursday — he remains on the nonfootball injury list rehabbing from a college knee injury, but could be activated next week — he said his Thanksgiving this year is still all about football. His parents, brother, sister and some extended family are traveling to Detroit for the game, and on Friday, Hooker will head to Tennessee to watch his good friend Joe Milton play his last game at Neyland Stadium.

“Just to be a part of this tradition, being a kid and watching it on TV every Thursday Thanksgiving Day, it’s a blessing to be here and then to have the teammates that I have that have been just so encouraging through my journey and on my path to getting back, it’s been great,” Hooker said.

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‘Football all day’

Colby Sorsdal has celebrated Thanksgiving all over the country. At various cities in Texas, where he was born. In Pittsburgh, where he grew up. And in New Orleans, where he has family.

No matter where he’s been, Sorsdal has found the customs to be the same.

“It’s really just the environment around you, and the weather,” he said. “Pittsburgh is a little cooler than in New Orleans, right? But the family was consistent, which is definitely the most important part of Thanksgiving.”

Typically, Sorsdal said 20 to 30 family members would get together to celebrate the holiday. They’d always have a turkey in the fryer and football on TV.

“I think we didn’t really have a Thanksgiving dinner. We had a Thanksgiving meal, but it was probably like an early lunch,” Sorsdal said. “And it was just, it was football all day. And whether it was the Lions or whomever was playing, we always watched, so it’s going to be weird now to where I’m actually playing on Thanksgiving. I’m actually a part of the tradition in a very different way, but it’s pretty cool. It’s pretty cool.”

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Lions offensive lineman Colby Sorsdal warms up minicamp at in Allen Park on Wednesday, June 7, 2023.

This year, Sorsdal will celebrate Thanksgiving in Detroit for the first time.

He said some of his extended family is due in town for the game, and the plan is to make Detroit their new Thanksgiving gathering spot.

“I’ve had Thanksgiving with family, I’ve had Thanksgiving with friends and it’s always been football,” he said. “And to be, like I said before, to be a part of that, to be playing in it, to be watched, it’s a whole different level of support and love that you feel from your family and friends.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

Next up: Packers

Matchup: Lions (8-2) vs. Green Bay (4-6).

Kickoff: 12:30 p.m. Thursday; Ford Field, Detroit.

TV/radio: Fox; WXYT-FM (97.1).

Line: Lions by 7½.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Thanksgiving football holds special allure to Detroit Lions rookies