{"id":795860,"date":"2026-05-14T13:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/795860\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T13:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:07:09","slug":"2026-nfl-schedule-release-lions-to-host-bears-to-kick-off-thanksgiving-day-slate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/795860\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NFL schedule release: Lions to host Bears to kick off Thanksgiving Day slate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though the Lions are coming off an unsettling 9-8 playoff-less season, it was their fourth consecutive winning campaign. Indeed much has changed for the better since head coach Dan Campbell took over in 2021, including a 23-20 victory<\/a> over Williams and the Bears in the 2024 Thanksgiving Game. Chicago trailed, 23-7, before the Bears rallied, only for a clock management gaffe by Williams and Bears coaches to wrap up the defeat. The next day, head coach Matt Eberflus was fired<\/a>, opening the door for Johnson’s eventual arrival. The triumph was the Lions’ first on Thanksgiving since 2016.<\/p>\n

Following that turkey day travesty for Williams and the Bears, the stage for more rivalry drama is set.<\/p>\n

Only the Lions and Green Bay Packers have met on Thanksgiving more than Detroit and Chicago. The Bears own the holiday edge, 11-9. Detroit is 38-46-2 all time on Thanksgiving, having first played on the holiday in 1934 and annually since 1945.<\/p>\n

It was the Bears who played — and defeated — the Lions in the latter’s first-ever Turkey Day tussle, prevailing, 19-16, on Nov. 29, 1934, when Hall of Famer Bill Hewitt caught a 2-yard, game-winning touchdown from Hall of Famer Bronko Nagurski.<\/p>\n

More than 90 years later, the two long-time rivals will battle once more, continuing one of the NFL’s longest-standing and most celebrated traditions: Thanksgiving Day football in Detroit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though the Lions are coming off an unsettling 9-8 playoff-less season, it was their fourth consecutive winning campaign.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":795861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[39],"tags":[43574,531,9000,50,1232,530,59472,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-795860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-around-the-nfl","tag-chicago-bears","tag-detroit-lions","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-no-minute","tag-schedule-release","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116573087191493196","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}