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The 10 best NFL Thanksgiving games of all time (from buttfumbles to Leon Lett)

Earlier this year, I proclaimed this year’s slate of Thanksgiving games among the worst in history. At the time, the Carolina Panthers took offense to this, as I had written that their game with Dallas was a key component to the awfulness. Here’s how they responded:

Well played, Carolina. I’ll eat my crow on this one (particularly since I don’t like turkey). However, I was right about the other two games and proudly stand by my comment that Carolina-Dallas won’t be a good one as I expect Dallas to win easily (just against a good Carolina team, not a bad one). But who knows? Maybe one of these three games will be a classic and crack our list of the top 10 Thanksgiving games in NFL history:

10. (2012) New England Patriots 49, New York Jets 17

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The butt fumble gets placement on any top 10 list.

9. (2010) Green Bay Packers 27, Detroit Lions 15

Thanksgiving is all about getting together with family and friends and celebrating all the good things that are happening in your life. Oh, that and stomping defenseless dudes laying on the ground.

(USA TODAY Sports Images)

(USA TODAY Sports Images)

8. (1989) Philadelphia Eagles 27, Dallas Cowboys 0

It all started when Buddy Ryan cut punter Luis Zendejas and then they got into a war of words — Buddy saying Luis couldn’t kick, Luis saying Buddy couldn’t coach. Zendejas signed with the Cowboys and would meet his old team on Thanksgiving. Numerous Eagles players remember seeing Ryan and other coaches meeting with backup linebacker Jesse Small during the week, an odd occurrence that turned odder when Small appeared to take out Zendejas after a third-quarter punt. It was alleged there was a $200 bounty on the punter and a $500 one on rookie quarterback Troy Aikman. Fomer University of Miami head coach Jimmie Johnson, in the midst of am embarrassing 1-15 rookie season in the NFL, wasn’t happy.

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He said of Ryan:

I have absolutely no respect for the way they played the game, I would have said something to Buddy, but he wouldn’t stand on the field long enough. He put his big, fat rear end into the dressing room.

The next game (Bounty Bowl II) saw Philly fans being their normal classy selves, throwing snow balls at the Cowboys coaches, players and CBS announcers. Verne Lundquist said he’d enjoy a root canal better than calling that game. (Just remember this the next time an Eagles fan rolls his or her eyes at the “snowballs at Santa” story. They threw snowballs at Papa Verne!! That’s almost as bad.) The Bounty Bowls are two of the most famous games in Philadelphia Eagles history. The rest of the NFC East have won 12 of the 49 Super Bowls.

7. (1994) Dallas Cowboys 42, Green Bay Packers 31

With Troy Aikman and backup Rodney Peete out with injury, third-string Cowboys quarterback Jason Garrett (the name may sound familiar) won a shootout with some guy named Favre. Emmitt Smith played a small role too, combining for 228 yards on the ground and through the air.

6. (2012) Washington Redskins 38, Dallas Cowboys 31

(USA TODAY Sports Images)

(USA TODAY Sports Images)

Under their dynamic rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III, the Washington Redskins opened the 2012 season with a 3-6 mark, but a big division win in Week 11 got them to 4-6 and, all of a sudden, their Thanksgiving showdown with Dallas became a massive game in the NFC East. Griffin had a Doug Williams-esque second quarter, throwing for three touchdowns en route to a 28-3 halftime lead. It was RG3’s first national exposure and he looked every bit the Heisman-winning No. 2 pick. The sky appeared to be the limit. Then, Tony Romo and Dallas stormed back, cutting the lead to 35-28 before Griffin and the ‘Skins held on for a 38-31 win. One month later, the teams would play for the NFC East title on Sunday Night Football. Those two games were the highest rated NFL games in the 2012 season. Three years later, RG3 would be an inactive quarterback on a 4-6 team.

5. (1980) Chicago Bears 23, Detroit Lions 17 (OT)

The Bears were down 17-3 in the fourth quarter before scoring two touchdowns, including a game-tying scramble as time expired. Then, Dave Williams took the opening kickoff of OT back 95 yards, setting a record for shortest regular-season overtime in NFL history at 16 seconds. That mark has since been lowered, now all the way down to 13 seconds (earlier this year by the Saints). Tim Tebow and the Broncos hold the all-time mark when they scored in 11 seconds in the 2012 wild-card playoff.

4. (1976) Detroit Lions 27, Buffalo Bills 14

** FILE ** O.J. Simpson (32), of the Buffalo Bills, talks with coach Jim Ringo before a workout at Rich Stadium in Buffalo, N.Y., in this Sept. 12, 1976 file photo. Ringo, a Hall of Fame center who played 15 seasons for the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles, died Monday, Nov. 19, 2007 after a short illness. He was two days shy of his 76th birthday. (AP Photo, file) ORG XMIT: NYOL570

(AP)

O.J. Simpson broke his own NFL record (in which he was tied with Spec Sanders from 1947) with 273 yards on the ground. The mark would last just one year, when Walter Payton broke it by two yards. That record would stand for an amazing 23 years. The odd part of O.J.’s record-breaking day, the Bills were down 20-0 at one point and lost the game handily. Of the top-25 rushing performances in NFL history, O.J.’s is the only to come in a losing effort. The next player to rush for so many yards in a loss was Ricky Williams going for 228 while the Dolphins fell to the Bills in 2002. That yardage total is tied for No. 30 in history. By the way, on the flip side of O.J.’s historic performance, Bills quarterback Gary Marangi was 4-29 for 29 yards, hence the loss.

3. (1998) Detroit Lions 19, Pittsburgh Steelers 16

Was it the best game? Who knows. Who cares. This is the infamous game in which Jerome Bettis went out for overtime and, being the visitor, got to call the toss. With the coin in the air, he said “tails.” Immediately after, with the coin still tossing, referee Phil Luckett said “the call is heads.” It came up tails and Detroit got the ball, despite Bettis’s protests that he said tails. The Lions won on the first possession.

Luckett insisted Bettis said “heads-tails” and some audio of the incident suggests it might be true, though it’s sort of an eye-of-the-beholder thing. Bettis’s reaction seems to be the best indication he only said tails. The incident caused the NFL to quickly change the coin toss rule, mandating that a team captain announce his call before the coin is flipped, which is so lame. Everyone calls it in the air! Thanks, Phil.

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Also, did you know Jerome Bettis is from Detroit?

2. (1993) Miami Dolphins 16, Dallas Cowboys 14

One of the most famous gaffes in NFL history came on a snowy Thanksgiving day in Dallas. With the field blanketed in white (no, not that kind, mid-90s Cowboys), Dolphins kicker Pete Stoyanovich had a chance to win the game with a 41-yard field goal in the final seconds. Jimmie Jones blocked it and the ball rolled to the 10-yard line.

Game over!

Game over!

That was it. Dick Enberg called the game over on NBC, as had the ball stayed untouched, the play would have been whistled dead and the Cowboys would have won.

No, Leon. No, Le --What is he doing? LEON! NO!

No, Leon. No, Le –What is he doing? LEON! NO!

Instead Leon Lett charged in, touched the ball and it was recovered by Miami on the one.

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Son of a —-

Stoyanovich got another chance, this time from 19 yards and converted it for a 16-14 win. It was a huge loss for Dallas, who fell to 7-4 in their Super Bowl defense season and slipped to second in the NFC East. And it provided this lovely site of Jerry Jones cheering a win that never came.

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The Cowboys then rolled off eight straight wins to repeat as Super Bowl champs, including a Week 18 (there were two bye weeks that year) victory over the Giants that gave Dallas home-field advantage and a bye instead of sending them on the road wild-card weekend. Miami, meanwhile, moved to 9-2. They wouldn’t win another game, finishing 9-7 and out of the playoffs.

1. (1974) Dallas Cowboys 24, Washington Redskins 23

In our insta-history world that dictates every “best ever” list be topped by a game or event that happened in the last decade, it might be jarring to see a 41-year-old game atop the list. The Clint Longley game — by far the most famous Thanksgiving game ever, making a household name out of a rookie quarterback who only started two games and threw 68 passes in his NFL career and was out of the league by the age of 25. (Sucker punching Roger Staubach didn’t help that.) It’s also the worst defeat in the long, illustrious history of the Washington Redskins, with Clint Longley’s name being a sort of football four-letter word in the District and serving as one of the NFL’s great one-hit wonders. Nary a Thanksgiving goes by that my mom doesn’t mention it. (The Redskins did eventually win the division, it should be noted, thus showing the true pain of the day. No one remembers that it all turned out okay.)

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The gist: With the Redskins winning a crucial game that could have clinched the NFC East, Staubach got hurt and was replaced by the rookie Longley, who had thrown exactly zero passes in his NFL career. (“I still don’t know who Clint Longley is,” Joe Theismann said later.) What had been a 16-3 Redskins lead was quickly narrowed, but a win was basically in the books with Washington winning 23-17 with the Cowboys at midfield with just over 30 seconds left. Then Longley hit Drew Pearson in stride with a beautiful 50-yard touchdown pass with 28 seconds left and the rest is Thanksgiving glory for one city and indigestion for another.

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