Here's a breakdown of the history of NFL games on Thanksgiving, including the origins, team records, traditions and more.

According to NFL Media, the Bears-Lions game averaged 37.5 million viewers on CBS, which makes it the most-watched early Thanksgiving Day game on record. As a whole, it was a record-setting Thanksgiving Day for the NFL,

The Detroit Lions were able to set a new NFL record for viewership on Thanksgiving in their normal time slot. According to Sports Illustrated, "The NFL announced a record average viewership of 34.2 million across its three Thanksgiving last week,

Few combinations go together better than Thanksgiving and football and this year's ratings bear that out. Per Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, the NFL had its most-watched Thanksgiving ever this year,