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Good morning! Gobble gobble.

Turkey Day Watch Guide: Football, football, turkey, football

If you’re reading this newsletter, your order of operations on Thanksgiving likely revolves around football and then everything else. So that’s how we’ll operate today: football, then everything else. What’s interesting – in both a diss and compliment to the Lions – these games all matter!

Let’s go. Today’s action, all times Eastern:

12:30 p.m.NFL: Packers (4-6) at Lions (8-2) — Last weekend, Detroit survived a game it absolutely should’ve lost. That’s what good teams do. Meanwhile, the Packers have been the definition of a mixed bag. The Lions are a big favorite, but Thursday games are always weird, especially around noon on Thanksgiving. TV: FOXStakes: Detroit wins they match Philly at 9 wins 👀

4:30 p.m.NFL: Commanders (4-7) at Cowboys (7-3) — Thursday game or not, I expect an easy Dallas win here. Dak Prescott has been a top-five QB this year. CBS

Stakes: Dallas loss means “Happy Thanksgiving, Philly. Here’s the division.” [serve dinner in this gap]

7:30 p.m.NCAAF: No. 13 Ole Miss at Mississippi State — Maybe my favorite non-LSU game of every year. No matter how good each team is (and State is bad this year), something hilarious and stupid always happens in a game that each team cares about deeply. Sometimes it affects the entire college football universe. You cannot ask for any better football entertainment. ESPN

Stakes: Lane, you can’t play the leverage game if you lose this. 8:20 p.m.NFL: 49ers (7-3) at Seahawks (6-4) — Here’s our best NFL game of the day. The Seahawks have been itching to show the Niners they can hang this time around, and it helps that they’ll be in Seattle, one of the league’s best environments, according to players. Perfect nightcap. Stakes: First place in the NFC West. More than leftovers.

Turkey Day Memories: Some say Randy Moss is still open

The kids have a saying these days: You weren’t outside. It implies that, when a big thing happened, you weren’t there like we were there. Maybe you weren’t at school that day, or in this case, you weren’t sentient in 1998 to witness prime Randy Moss go nuclear on Turkey Day.

Moss is still all over our TV screens, but for those of you too young to have been outside, Moss was Ja’Marr Chase, Julio Jones and Tyreek Hill wrapped in one wide receiver.

On this day in 1998, Moss was unguardable, as Jason Jones memorialized here in his ranking of Thanksgiving Day performances. It’s No. 1 for good reason: Moss had three catches … for 163 yards and three touchdowns. We might never see a statline like it. Only bangers here. No crossing routes, no button curls. Just bombs.

Thanksgiving 1998. You just had to be there.@RandyMoss | #MaddenThanksgiving pic.twitter.com/9mCPLJZsfI

— NFL (@NFL) November 21, 2023

My other favorites from the list:

• 4. Jason Garrett outduels Brett FavreYes, a real thing. Garrett was the third-stringer for Dallas in 1994, but injuries forced him under center, and he somehow outplayed prime Favre.
• 11. Barry Sanders runs wildFor this 33-year-old, Sanders was Thanksgiving football growing up. The Lions were always on, and Sanders was elite enough to make anyone a fan, no matter your technical allegiance. He ran for 167 yards in a win over the Bears during the 1997 season, when he rushed for 2,053 yards.

Sure, my picks skew toward my generation, but Jason took a fuller view of history than I did. See his full list for more.

News to Know

NFL owners says he was ‘profiled’Colts owner Jim Irsay told Andre Kremer of HBO Sports he was profiled by police for being “a rich, white billionaire” during a 2014 arrest. Read the full news report here.

A hoops star injuredBrutal news out of Storrs as Azzi Fudd is going to be lost for the season for UConn. Another bad break for a program that has dealt with big injuries recently.

More news

• Lincoln Riley put to rest any notion that he would bolt USC, in an Athletic exclusive. “Hell no. I’m coaching SC, period.” And lest you think Riley has no leverage, his offensive acumen is coveted. Defense has dragged USC down.
• Benches cleared! Then-No. 1 Kansas (and that ranking will change soon) lost for the second time in two days to No. 4 Marquette. New No. 1? That would be Purdue.
• New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones underwent ACL surgery. This is going to be a timeline to watch.

Pulse Court: Happy Pulsegiving, Vol. 1: The best parts of Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate. I hope your plates are full of your favorite foods later. We are serving takes today and, since today is the actual holiday, we’ll save the fiery, negative takes for tomorrow.

According to Pulse staffers, the best part of Thanksgiving is:

• Chris Sprow, director of creative development: Applying gravy to everything. And you know what should be trending up? Catering all or some of the meal so you can relax more. There is zero shame in professionals doing the bird. Related: Pour something early. It’s fine. Mimosas/bloodies are perfectly acceptable by 10 a,.m. Judge not lest ye be boring.
• Jason Kirk, senior newsletters editor: Absolutely all food and Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State. (Latter is also the worst part. Spoiler alert.)
• Keenan Williams, CRM marketing manager: Corn on mashed potatoes and putting whole black olives on your fingertips, pretending to be E.T.
• Torrey Hart, staff editor: The Turkey Trot *ducks*. When dinner starts at 3 p.m., you need to get an early jump on building an appetite. And — sincere take alert — it’s actually lovely to see a community show up and show out in the fresh air.

As for me, I’ve made my stances clear in these pages during prior Thanksgivings, but once again I want to reiterate my love (and decry unjust hate) for cornbread dressing. This is not stuffing, so please do not yell at me about something being dry. At its best, it’s almost closer to a custard, a perfect mix of cornbread, turkey, eggs, holy trinity and seasoning I could eat at every meal. Please do not bring me a dry mix of weird bread crumbles that have cooked inside a bird.

You can find a respectable recipe here, and while it doesn’t mirror my true love, this one from New York Times Cooking sounds incredible.

Someone pour me that mimosa.

Pulse Picks

We have a great hub of fun Thanksgiving stories here. Pop it open and peruse when you have time today. I’ll also be highlighting my favorites below.

Mike Sando has the future situation at QB for all 32 NFL teams. Click. I loved this from Jason Jones: Let’s relive the botched coin flip from Thanksgiving Day in 1998 that sent a Lions-Steelers game into pure chaos.

Before he was the NFL’s best kicker, Justin Tucker earned his horns at Texas with an unforgettable game-winner over Texas A&M on Thanksgiving Day. Excited for these two teams to play again every year.

Sleeping through the Thanksgiving NFL games? A neuroscientist helped us bust the myth that turkey makes you sleepy. Prescient.

I am also thankful for Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, who helped save hockey. And, as Rob Rossi writes, these two might have gray hairs, but they aren’t done yet.

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(Photo: Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)