What’s the Giants' record on Thanksgiving? Full year-by-year history

Football on Thanksgiving is one of the NFL's most hallowed traditions, born when the Detroit Lions scheduled a game against the defending-champion Chicago Bears way back in 1934. What began as a promotional stunt has since become a national institution, the perfect partner to a helping or two (or three) of turkey each year.

But while fans across the country tune in each year, fans of the New York Giants haven't gotten to cheer on their team too often over the years. For as rich as the franchise's history is, Thanksgiving has never been much a part of it. But it will be this year, as Big Blue travels to Dallas to take on the Cowboys in their annual Turkey Day tradition. Ahead of kickoff, let's look at how New York has fared in the past.

The Giants' overall record on Thanksgiving

Overall, New York has a record of 7-6-3 on the holiday, those 16 appearances the sixth-most of any team in the league. Once upon a time, the Giants were Thanksgiving staples, playing on the holiday each year from 1929 through 1938. And those games usually went pretty well: New York went 5-2-3 in that stretch, including a 4-0-2 record in six straight games against the Brooklyn Dodgers (no, not the baseball team).

After 1938, though, the Giants wouldn't appear on Thanksgiving for over 40 years, until a Lawrence Taylor pick-six led New York to a 13-6 win over the Lions in 1982. Big Blue only appeared on Thanksgiving once in the 1990s, losing to the Cowboys in 1992, and this will be just the franchise's fourth game on the holiday in the 21st century.

Year-by-Year Thanksgiving Game History

Below are the results of all 16 games the team has played on Thanksgiving to date. There are a couple of big gaps, from 1938 to 1982 and from 1992 to 2009. This year's game against the Cowboys, however, is the team's third in the last eight years, so the trend has reversed a bit of late.

Memorable Thanksgiving moments for the Giants

There isn't a lot of recent history to choose from; the Giants have lost each of their last four Thanksgiving games, averaging fewer than 10 points per game in those contests. The team's lone modern highlight came back in '82, when Lawrence Taylor intercepted a Gary Danielson pass and took it back 97 yards for a game-sealing pick-six — still the third-longest interception return in franchise history.