Classic uniforms, football on tap for Thanksgiving.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Along with turkey, football has always been part of Thanksgiving. But now, the NFL is working to make the game experience even more of an event.
That means when families turn on their televisions Thursday to watch the Thanksgiving Classics games, “they’ll immediately be getting the sense that something special is happening,” says NFL director of marketing Ty Stewart.
This is the third year the league is ramping up its Thanksgiving Classics games, which Stewart considers akin to a “midseason Super Bowl.” It’s all part of the NFL’s year-round marketing calendar, aimed at encouraging fans to think about football all year.
Holiday logos will appear on the fields in Detroit and Dallas, where the Lions face the Green Bay Packers at 12:30 p.m. EST and the Cowboys play the Dolphins at 4:05 p.m. The Dolphins will wear replicas of their 1973 uniforms; the Cowboys will sport double-star Thanksgiving uniforms from 1995. The Lions uniforms’ date to 1952; the Packers’ to 1967.
The teams will even play with a different football. Wilson has made a replica of the football that was used in games from the 1930s through the 1969 Super Bowl.
A darker version of the current football, this one is known as “The Duke,” after the nickname of New York Giants owner Wellington Mara.
“We recognize Thanksgiving is about food, family, football,” Stewart said. “Thanksgiving Classics is our way of celebrating football’s role of bringing people together for the holidays, whether it be a back yard football game, a high school game or hopefully to watch the big football games in Dallas and Detroit.”
Advertisements for the games will be run on NFL broadcast partners CBS, ABC, ESPN and Fox.
At nflshop.com, fans can buy the Reebok Gridiron Classics retro merchandise and “The Duke” football.
They can download players’ recipes at a Thanksgiving area on nfl.com. …
Coors Original has launched an NFL trivia game on the back of 8 million bottles and boosted that with coasters and table cards that provide answers or direct fans to coorsoriginal.com.
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AP-NY-11-24-03 1953EST
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