Joe Delaney was a TRUE HERO, he gave his life trying to save children. I wish more people remembered this brave man. RIP Joe Delaney, your in Heaven.

Thank you so much for keeping in the commercials. When football was football....no politics, no big money endorsements or walking billboards...RIP Silverdome...so many memories there

We were younger. Our loved ones were still there. Good times.

Great announcers, great action, great music, and great uniforms! All of these things are missing from the NFL today!

I remember this game, Joe Delaney would have been one of the all-time greats, He was definitely a true hero!! Enberg and Olsen were an awesome announcing team.

I love these old Lions games. The team wasn't always so great, but I remember watching them with family, many of whom have passed on. I like to sit and watch and remember those good days.

Billy Sims. The Barry Sanders before Barry Sanders.

RIP Joe Delaney. One of the most gifted runners ever, gone too soon.

Remember this game like yesterday. .. Memories when I was 11 years old. . Turkey/dressing... the old pontiac silverdome was new.. Billy Sims...

RIP Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen

Awesome seeing this still on YT. Featured two sadly forgotten star RBs in Sims and Delaney. One was gone far too soon, while the same was true about the other’s football career. A true gem of some old-time classic NFL. Some funny commercials in there, too.

Love these games and the old commercials! Man, how times have changed!

Did anybody else notice how well they got the turkey's head lined up with the NBC peacock logo?

That sax in the opening....those old commercials....intelligent players who played with an eye on the team, not themselves....wonderful announcers who are gone now....and memories of watching this with others we never dreamed would also one day be gone. So bitter-sweet.

Love the nostalgic commercials like Atari, Kodak, etc. And the acting stars of the past like Michael Landon and Ricardo Montalban who represented the products. Great post!

True Delaney’s act was that of a true hero. Not the definition thrown around by everyone the last couple of Decades. He couldn’t swim but jumped in to save children. As for great what-ifs in the NFL. Billy Sims was the best back in the league and if he had played later, when modern medical procedures could’ve repaired it or if he had never gotten hurt. He was better than Sanders even imho. Sanders was great but Sims excelled in every category. Running utilizing speed, elusiveness, strength, blocking, and Catching. A truly great talent and person.

Great quality and thanks for keeping the commercials in.

So glad i get to see this game on NBC....plus Billy Sims 👍🔥

If someone told me in 1981 that by 2019 the Lions will still have not won a Super Bowl, or played in a Super Bowl, and will have only one playoff win to their credit I wouldn't have believed it. Maybe I'll live long enough to see their second playoff win.

My stars it's nice to see this. Thanks for posting!

Eric Hipple. I saw him a few years later in Tampa Stadium take the most vicious hit I've ever seen a QB take.

Joe Delaney(RIP) v. Billy Sims!!!

Love this video with all the old commercials and one of our best Presidents ever, Ronald Reagan. Even better to me is, I was at this game!

Even though the Lions have been mediocre at best for almost 65 years, when they had Billy Sims and Barry Sanders, they were exciting to watch on Thanksgiving. Back when they alternated AFC and NFC opponents every Thanksgiving.

Love this Thanksgiving game!!! Thank you for sharing!

I had just turned 2 months old 4 days before this game was played. 😳

Watching in 2020!

The Lions should wear these uniforms as their throwbacks instead of the lame blank ones they wore on Thanksgiving day.

back when a gillette commercial didn't lecture me on being a toxic male

I love the commercials!!!

January that next year Bryant Gumbel would go to the Today Show I Garontee!

I remembered watching this game and I wanted the Chiefs to win...

Those were the best lions uniforms

Bill Kenney. He played his college ball at Northern Colorado. My old school.

Head coaches Marv Levy and Monte Clark both should be familiar with one another. In Super Bowl 7 Monte was the OL coach under Don Shula, and Marv was the special teams coach under George Allen. Monte would win 2 SB rings(7 and 8), and an NFL championship with the 1964 Browns as a player. Marv would later coach the Buffalo Bills to 4 straight Super Bowls.

The woman in the blue Stratos commetcial was smokin'.

I watched many of these game live and love to watch the game played when it was more physical and less dancing. You don't see players celebrating a non scoring play with a choreographed dancing with the stars routine. You do see celebrations of raw emotion.

Another GREAT uniform game! Chiefs in Detroit and Redskins in Dallas invited to Thanksgiving 1981.

Even when years that Detroit Lions had bad 😞 teams. They and the city 🏙️ always makes their Thanksgiving games really special.

I like to see the Chiefs go to red face-masks as shown on the graphics. LOL R.I.P Casey Kareem.

Mr. Dick enberg and mr. Merlin Olsen are very special to me I grew up in Los Angeles watching mr. Merlin Olsen play for the Rams and I have the privilege I'm listening to mr. Dick enberg on the radio he would call the Rams games on kmpc radio station Los Angeles

Great memories of family and football!

Glad this game got commercials

Great theme song from NBC

I remember this game on TV

Stan White finished with 34 career interceptions. That's heady stuff. A great many defensive backs have built successful careers on less.

Rip John madden, many thanksgiving memories!

4 of the nfls best runners played this day. Sims vs delaney and in the 2nd game dorsett vs payton. A very good dallas team beat a mediocre bear team 10-9. Payton ran for 179 yds.

Mike Adamle has CTE that's sad he was a good commentator.

The coolest thing about this broadcast was President Reagan's halftime address to the nation.

Love the use of Alive Again.

Walt Garrison commercial at 2:16:25 is great. “Equipped. Not stripped.”

Monte Clark must have been burned by a reverse once, when it really mattered, because he believed deep in his heart that they would work. At 39:41, it was proven again that trying the play regularly does not make you tricky, you are predictable.

how in the world did NBC's pregame show hang around with CBS's pregame show? CBS's pregame show had still at this point, jimmy the greek, irv cross, brent musberger and phylis george.that was an awesome team

You could call Merlin Olsen & Dick Emburg NBC answer to CBS Pat Summerall & John Madden.

RIP Monte Clark 1937-2009.

always have wondered, were there a ton of people gathered around tv for the first game of the day which at 1230 /1130 central,which was still morning here in the midwest

I was 18 on this day, GREAT TIME to be young growing up in the bay area town of Pittsburg ! When The NFL was REAL !! Classic Thanksgiving football was always great !! I sure miss these " old days "

The Niners and Joe Cool would be 2 months after this game would hoist his 1st of 4 SB trophies.

Doug English was a great player

time machine

I really don't mind 😁 that the pre-game lasted so long. It's a Thanksgiving game 🎮.

I also think that hes incorrect when he says that the silver dome is the newest of the dome stadiums as of 1981. I think the kingdome is newer

Do you the classic 1980 Thanksgiving Day game between the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions? That's a good game you should upload if you have it.

Game starts at 34:58

Forgot to add I uploaded the promo for the game: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rd9yYKen1b_Ihqs.html

I was in Kindergarten!

A time when people knew what a privilege it is to live in this country. Everyone on the sidelines stood for the national anthem. Miss true patriotism. I cannot watch today;s NFL until they start standing for the national anthem.

#RIPJoeDelaney

...and it has COMMERCIALS!

We all miss real football like this instead of the NFL now the NO fun NO football league!

I remember JC Penney---seems like just yesterday that crappy company existed

If Delaney doesn't die young, he'd have had a career worthy of Canton.

Lions will play this same team in the super bowl

With Jared Goff at Quarterback, 🦁 are a year or 2 to finally make it to and win the Super Bowl.

Bryant gumball?

Hipple is not an NFL quality QB.

I have to say that the NFL broadcasts were 1,000% better in the 70's and 80's. Especially Monday Night Football! CBS had the NFL Today with Brent Musberger, Irv Cross, Jimmy the Greek, and oh my Jayne Kennedy! Wowza Wowza! She was a goddess! Those eyes, that hair, and that smile. Sorry, but the 70's had the best pre-game show and post-game shows. It was actually about Football, not some clown act. The 80's had some epic announcers as well. Bryant Gumble was very charismatic and great at calling games! Now they fill the screen with scores, stats, which I normally like, but not constantly during the game! The score, the down, and yards to go, and the time remaining. ⏲ I don't mean to ridicule the NFL broadcasters now but boy they stink! Troy Aikman? 😲😱OMG😱😲 HE IS AWFUL! Joe Buck used to be good, but BEING WITH AIKMAN's biased crap has made him laughable as well!🙄🤣🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂 I remember the games with Pat Summerall and John Madden. Both KNEW the players, the plays, and the defenses. They talked actual football and strategy and it was not only fun but also an educational experience. I know Madden drove some people nuts with the newfound technology where he could draw over the screen and control the replays. But he KNEW his stuff! Great times!