Rest of the country to NFL: Please remove Detroit from Thanksgiving menu

Enough about those guys.  How 'bout the three lame games that the NFL presented a hungry (for quality football) audience yesterday?  When was the last good game you saw on Thanksgiving?

Sure my Raiders were humiliated losing to Dallas, 24-7, where the only drama in the late going was about whether the Bruce Gradowski led pride and poise boys would beat the point spread (They did not).  But having to watch Detroit (again) play a predictably horrific game yesterday cries out for some serious changes by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Look, we know the city (and state of Michigan) is struggling.  Things are so bad in the Motor City that Time Magazine and some of its  sister publications (Sports Illustrated, Money and Fortune) have taken up stakes for an entire year to report on the situation in perhaps the worst off American city economically speaking, a noble journalistic effort.

So we know Detroit is hurting.  Which is why it might be too painful for the city to weather having their traditional Turkey Day game (that has been happening since 1934) removed as the early game this time of the year.

But what about the rest of the country, Commissioner?

Detroit was 0-16 last year.  Only Tampa Bay Buc fans can appreciate how horrible that is. The Lions are now 2-9, and again going nowhere, as is their wont (The team has  not won a playoff game since 1957, and has had exactly one winning season in the past decade).

This became a hot controversy last year, before Goodell quashed that talk, saying in Tampa before the Super Bowl that nothing would change in terms of scheduling on one of the country's most revered holidays.

But the tradition vote is tired.  The NFL has the capability of "flex" scheduling several games the last six weeks of the year on their Sunday night package, because they know that certain games that looked exciting when the national television schedule was prepared in April may turn out differently in December.

Look, non-football fans out there of course are saying , "turn off the set, and try talking to your family, for heaven sakes!"

I agree.  But the fact of the matter is that televised professional sports, especially during the holidays, are an essential glue that bonds people together in ways they normally wouldn't.  And it can be great drama, and a lot of fun.

Just not when the Detroit Lions are on the menu.