Ranking the best NFL Thanksgiving Day games of all time

Football might just be the only thing that will make your drunk uncle cool it with the political speeches at the dinner table this Thanksgiving. Welcome to an election year, folks.

Six NFL teams will be at it on Thanksgiving, with the Detroit Lions hosting the Chicago Bears, the New York Giants visiting the Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Dolphins heading to the Green Bay Packers.

This isn’t Christmas, but allow us to put on our cap and nightgown like Ebenezer Scrooge once did, so we can take a trip back in time to relive some of Turkey’s best games.

5. Minnesota Vikings 46, Dallas Cowboys 36 (1998)

Someone should have suggested putting a body on Randy Moss, right?

Moss finished with just three catches — they all happened to be touchdowns of at least 51 yards for a total of 163 yards on the day.

The only question is, what type of disastrous performance does Dallas have in store for us this year?

4. Indianapolis Colts 41, Detroit Lions 9 (2004)

Six passing touchdowns. Count them. Six.

That’s how many Indianapolis signal caller Peyton Manning had against the Lions matching a Thanksgiving Day record. He didn’t necessarily spread the wealth, though, as three of those scores went to Marvin Harrison and the other three went to Brandon Stokley.

It made the performance that much more impressive that Manning had all of his TD passes in the first three quarters. Surprisingly, the Detroit Colts won 386-356.

3. New England Patriots 49, New York Jets 19 (2012)

Tom Brady threw for 323 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for a fourth, but it was New York quarterback Mark Sanchez who stole the spotlight — for all the wrong reasons.

Early in the second quarter, Sanchez tried to scramble on a broken play and failed miserably, running into his own offensive line. The ball came loose when Sanchez collided with Brandon Moore, and thus the “butt fumble” was born.

New England picked up the ball and scored on the play, adding insult to injury. Bad day to be a Jets fan.

2. Miami Dolphins 55, St. Louis Cardinals 14 (1977)

Before there was Manning, there was Miami’s Bob Griese.

Griese was the first to throw for six touchdowns on Thanksgiving, and he helped the Dolphins post 55 points, a record for the holiday at the time.

Plenty of quarterbacks have come and gone for Miami since Griese was under center. Tua Tagovailoa is now the guy, and six TD passes are never out of the question with playmakers like Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle and De’Von Achane next to him.

1. Chicago Bears 23, Detroit Lions 17 (1980)

No game on Thanksgiving had ever gone to overtime before this one, but fans didn’t end up getting that much extra football.

Dave Williams found the end zone on a 95-yard return on the opening kickoff of OT, with his fellow Bears rushing onto the gridiron as he reached midfield during the play. Chicago trailed 17-3 in the third quarter.

Don’t expect the Bears to make big plays like this today, though.