Next from CBS Sports, the National Football League.
You are looking live inside the Pontiac Silver Dome where the Detroit Lions host their 49th
annual Thanksgiving Day game.
Today they welcome the Minnesota Vikings led by quarterback Wade Wilson who has sparked
the Vikings to three straight victories.
Detroit's field general Chuck Long returns to action after missing six games for the
injured knee.
Long and the Lions are looking to make it two victories in a row under their new coach
Wayne Fontz.
The man who hired Fontz was general manager Russ Thomas who has been blamed for many of
the problems that have overwhelmed the Lions in recent years.
We'll be talking to Thomas about what Fontz must accomplish to keep his job and what else
must be done to make the Detroit franchise a winner again.
Many of you no doubt remember Bart Starr, the quarterback who led the Green Bay Packers
to victories in the first two Super Bowls more than 20 years ago.
Bart is now involved in a far more serious battle.
I'll have that story.
Dick Buckkiss was great at carving up offenses and today I'm going to show him a thing or
two about carving up some real turkeys, all that and much much more on the NFL Today.
The NFL Today is sponsored by Apple Computer, giving you the power to be your best in home,
school and business.
Diet Coke, you're going to drink it just for the taste of it.
And now, here's Brent Busberger.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody and thanks to Julia Child for that sharp introduction.
Welcome to our holiday edition of the NFL Today.
The Vikings have a lot on the table on their Thanksgiving Day visit to the Silverdome.
They're still very much in the chase for the Central Division title in the NFC and their
overall hopes for the playoffs are even stronger than that are.
Well that's right Brent because two teams will be going to the playoffs as Wildcars
and the Vikings have a one game lead over all other contenders for those last Middle
Birds.
If the season were to end today, Minnesota would not only be a Wildcard team but they'd
have the home field advantage as well.
Dick, what do you think?
Well, you know, it's an important game for the Vikings but this game is not going to
be easy.
I mean Wayne Fonce has got the team fired up and since he was a defensive coordinator
before the head job, I mean he's got the defense really fired up and there's one guy
on defense who I especially like is a rookie named Chris Spielman.
I mean when he hits, they stay hit and that's my kind of a player.
He's having a great year Dick and you know one athlete who has a lot to be thankful for
on this holiday is the newest member of the New York Yankees.
Steve Sachs last night signed a reported three year, four million dollar contract with the
Yanks and he later told us that he had no regrets to put it mildly about leaving the
world champion Dodgers for a team that made him feel wanted.
I felt that the Yankees were much more aggressive and they made me feel special and quite frankly
the Dodgers made me feel just the opposite.
I felt that Fred Claire, the general manager kind of talked down to me in negotiations
and after that meeting we had on November 4th when I was a free agent, he told me that
his last and final offer was a two year deal for 2.3 and he felt that sitting three feet
away from me, he looked me in the eye and told me if you can get a better deal, if you
think you're getting screwed, then my advice to you is to take that other deal.
So I did it.
Still to be resolved is the future of second baseman Willie Randolph.
Now Detroit, Minnesota at summer all and John Madden will be calling the action, Christmas
came early for Big John.
He's got a brand new toy to work with.
John, first of all, what kind of a name are we going to give you at new gizmo?
Hey, this thing is great Brent and we're going to call it the coach's clicker because that's
really what it is and this is what all the coaches in the NFL use.
You know the NFL went to tape three years ago.
So this is the same device that they use to teach and coach that we're using in the booth
now and you talk about control and something, this reminds me of the old days.
What happens is you start here, this button up on top controls the picture right there.
Now when I push it, that player is going to start.
Now when I push this thing, he stops.
Now I can run him back and forth.
You see now if I push like this, it plays.
If I push like this, they all go backwards.
Now this is great for a coaching device and you can see right here where the offensive
guy loses it.
You see when those shoulders are there, then once they start to go up straight, he has
to go backwards and the next thing that's going to happen, he's going to end up right
on his back.
This is the way you coach.
This is the way you teach and I'll tell you, this is a great thing Brent and a lot of fun.
Click away and happy Thanksgiving John.
You know another of our great Thanksgiving Day traditions across America is the big high
school football game.
This morning in fact, about 100 games were played across the land including one at Doylestown,
Pennsylvania.
That's just outside of Philadelphia.
Central Bucks West with the longest high school winning streak in the country.
Fifty-three in a row taking on arch rivals Central Bucks East.
First touchdown scored by West on the pass play and they let it 7-0.
Then before the half, East was able to tie it up on this pass play.
The corner gambles can't come up with it and it is 7-7 and at halftime we'll tell you who
won that game Central Bucks East or West and Dick, there's another tradition around the
NFL.
Right Brent, right around Thanksgiving time, NFL veterans usually play one of the oldest
practical jokes in the book on unsuspecting rookies.
Now here's how it works.
The vets make up a notice about some store giving players free turkeys and on Tuesday
night we sent our NFL Today candid cameras to a supermarket outside Detroit to see who
the real turkeys were.
Tuesday morning we got a little piece of paper on our locker and said you know get a free
turkey at this supermarket right down the street here from 3 to 5 p.m.
What made it seem real was the fact that guys were asking are you going to get the turkey.
I went around and offered and guys would say we're all going to buy your turkey for $5.
So after practice me and Carl Painter were the first ones in the store.
We walked to the back where the meat section is and heard him ask the lady about turkey
and she started laughing and said you must be a rookie.
So I didn't want Benny and the rest of the rookies to hear that so I turned them around
and kept them in the front.
And I remember Danny McCoy coming up to me and saying you know he has that country accent
and he said look at all these hard working people and they giving us turkeys and everybody
knows but you know.
But the good thing though was I wasn't by myself.
He never fell for that ever.
No no.
We'll continue live.
We'll go out to Well McDonough at the Pontiac Silverdome in just a moment.
I hope you don't mind.
I'm not feeling any of your thunder.
This is my first job as a head football coach and I want to give this ball to my own Mr.
Ford.
Now William Clay Ford is one of the people Wayne Fonce has to please and another is the
Lions long time General Manager Russ Thomas and earlier today our Will McDonough spoke
with him.
Russ is it true that if Wayne Fonce does well over the rest of the season he'll be the head
coach of the Lions next year?
That's correct.
Well it's a matter of his job to win or lose and it's not a matter of how many games he
wins it's how he handles the team from this point forward.
Russ let's suppose that he does not do well.
Which way would you turn?
We really haven't gone that far other than I am convinced in talking to Bill Ford that
he would want to go in the professional ranks to find a coach.
Now we have heard the names of Jerry Glanville and Chuck Knox.
Is there any truth to those rumors?
No there's a lot of rumors like that.
You'd be amazed at the number of applications and calls we've had but my response to them
is that Wayne Fonce is our head coach until we decide otherwise.
Now this franchise has not done well in recent years not only on the field but also in attendance.
How much does this bother you?
Oh it's always bothered you when you're not doing well certainly.
We go back to over the years earlier on our attendance was one of the leading attendance
in the league.
This is a great sports town Will and our team hasn't done well the last few years and certainly
you always want to be associated with something that does well.
Hopefully we're on the track that we're not that far away from turning it around.
I'm expecting around 40,000 today and Will why has Detroit always been the site for this
Thanksgiving Day game?
Well Brent the tradition started in 1934 with the then owner G.A. Richards and it's really
part of a day long festival that had the big parade in the morning and people would go
to the old ballpark downtown at noontime and make a day long thing out of it.
And in recent years of course Dallas has also had the home game on Thanksgiving.
There were some owners in the National Football League that don't like it.
Lamar Hunt a couple of years ago the Kansas City owner went to a league meeting and said
I think it's an unfair advantage for those two cities to always have the home game on
Thanksgiving.
There was a vote and then Russ Thomas who you saw earlier got up and said wait a second
what kind of an unfair advantage is our record is something like 23, 22 and 2 on Thanksgiving
on this dead even so we don't have an advantage.
Well on the injured quarterbacks around the league I know that Phil Simms is due back
for the Giants against New Orleans.
What about Neil Olmec with the Cardinals against Philadelphia?
Well Neil has said he wants to come back and play this Sunday against Philadelphia.
Yesterday he worked out in Phoenix and he did not work out well.
After the practice Gene Stallings the head coach says I know Neil wants to play but the
way he looks right now he is not going to be ready to play.
Cliff Stout will still be the starter in Philadelphia Sunday.
You know Will the USA today polled the broadcasters and writers and overwhelmingly they were going
for Barry Sanders as the Heisman Trophy winner out of Oklahoma State.
You were talking to general managers what did you find out this week?
Well Brent I not only talked to general managers around the league I talked to player personnel
directors and to me they're the guys that should really vote for the Heisman.
This is their life and the poll shows that they also love Barry Sanders the great running
back of Oklahoma State a lot.
20 out of the 28 first place votes.
Then the two quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Rodney Peete both got four first place votes
a piece.
And the reason they went for Sanders in the pro is they think his year has been so exceptional
that you just couldn't give it to anybody else.
Alright thanks Will we'll talk to you again at halftime and when we come back Irv Cross
with the emotional story of Bart and Cherry Star who have taken the offensive against
drugs after cocaine claimed the life of their son.
The NFL today continues here on CBS.