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The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT November 27, 2010

| November 27, 2010 8:00 PM

Thanksgiving Day.

A day for spending time with family, friends and remembering all those things that make you thankful for what you have.

For a football fan, it's no different with three marquee games in the NFL and another couple in college football - you'd be hard pressed to turn away from morning until night.

That is, unless you're growing tired of one-sided games and blowouts.

FORTUNATELY FOR fans, games were a little closer than in years past, or so they started it seemed at times.

Both Detroit and Dallas, who will be in the top 10 in the NFL Draft in April, seemed at times like they'd pull off some memorable Thanksgiving Day upsets.

That didn't happen.

Detroit, which led the New England Patriots in the second half, got outscored 28-0 in the final 20 minutes of the game to lose its sixth straight on Thanksgiving.

Dallas fell behind 17-0 to New Orleans before the first quarter and the game looked as if it was going to be over by halftime.

The Cowboys used some trick plays to get back into the game in the second half, eventually taking a lead, but the Saints came back and won the game late.

Throw in the late game on the NFL Network won by the New York Jets and most football fans got their fill of great games on Thursday.

SOMETHING ABOUT watching the Lions and Cowboys on Thanksgiving has been different in the past few years.

In that span, the Cowboys had beat up on teams like Oakland and Seattle when they'd been pretty bad the past two years.

I get that traditions are something that are sacred in sports, whether it is in basketball or baseball, but at some point those traditions need to change.

For example, the traditional game between Idaho and Boise State won't be played for awhile after the Broncos leave for the Mountain West Conference next season.

Games played on the holidays are one of the biggest showcases they've got the entire year - but why continue to put games that have no impact on the playoffs in those spots?

At the start of the year, the game between New Orleans and Dallas looked like a possible playoff matchup, but not anymore.

WHEN THEY went to a flex schedule a couple years ago, it was to create better matchups in prime-time games, but those played on Thursday, Saturday and Monday nights are not affected by the flex scheduling.

Hopefully the league takes another look at the flex scheduling after the season concludes, or at least feed us something other than turkey in those holiday showdowns.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via e-mail at jelliott@cdapress.com.