How a Desperate Football Owner Accidentally Created a 90-Year Tradition

Originally sent in From the Desk of Justin Hubbard on December 14, 2025.

The short version: Thanksgiving football exists because one owner needed attention and put his team in front of a moment when the country was already listening. You don't build momentum by waiting to be discovered. You build it by stepping into the moments that already exist and making yourself hard to ignore.

Here's a little story about rich gladiators who don't care about you…

but that millions of Americans care about anyway.

I stumbled across something interesting the other day — a piece of football history that most people glaze right over — and the more I dug into it, the more I realized there's a real lesson in here for every home-service business owner trying to grow, get noticed, and move forward.

So I did what I always do:

I asked myself, "What does this have to do with running a business?"

And the answer was: a lot more than you'd think.

Because this story has less to do about football and more to do about how attention is created, how traditions are built, and how one bold move can shift the entire trajectory of a struggling enterprise.

So here's a story about the early days of American football — a story many of you might not know — and right after, I'm going to break down the business lesson hiding inside it.

Most people assume Thanksgiving football is a sacred American tradition — something baked into our culture since the beginning of time.

But it's actually a lot more interesting.

Thanksgiving football exists because one man needed attention. Needed serious freaking attention. The kind of attention you fight for when your business is drowning and no one knows you exist.

It's the kind of move owners make when they're out of options… and out of excuses.

Let me take you back to 1934.

The Detroit Lions had just moved to the city. They were new, unknown, and struggling to pull in fans. People weren't buying tickets. Local interest was barely a pulse. Detroit already had baseball. Detroit already had hockey.

Another football team? Sure… whatever.

The city shrugged.

But their owner, George A. Richards, wasn't wired for shrinking into the background.

And unlike most team owners of the era, Richards had something powerful in his back pocket: He owned WJR, a massive radio station that fed directly into the national NBC network.

Translation: He controlled a microphone loud enough to reach the entire country.

He saw what nobody else saw back then…

The problem wasn't the product. The problem was the attention.

So Richards made a move that, at the time, probably sounded absolutely nuts.

He called up NBC executives and asked them to clear a national radio slot — on Thanksgiving — to broadcast a game featuring a team no one cared about yet, in a city that hadn't adopted them, during the Great Depression when most teams were struggling just to stay afloat.

And somehow… NBC said yes.

Maybe it was the Bears — the powerhouse opponent — that made the game appealing.

Maybe NBC trusted Richards' radio instincts.

Maybe it was a slow programming day.

Doesn't matter.

What matters is that one bold decision changed everything.

On November 29, 1934, America tuned in because someone engineered the moment.

The stadium sold out 26,000 seats — unheard of for the Lions at the time.

NBC carried the game live on a 94-station network across the country.

And the nation got hooked.

From that day forward, Thanksgiving football became a fixture in American life.

A marketing idea from someone refusing to stay invisible that turned into a cultural tradition.

The strategic genius behind the story

Richards did something every business owner needs to understand:

He inserted his brand into a moment when attention was already gathered.

He didn't try to create attention from scratch.

He redirected it.

Thanksgiving = people home, relaxing, listening to the radio.

He didn't need to "educate the market."

He didn't need a long runway.

He didn't need years of building.

He needed:

• a moment people were already paying attention
• a platform loud enough to be heard
• a bold idea that cut through

That's it.

The lesson for us

Most home-service businesses think the game works like this:

Build a good product

Wait for people to notice

Hope it becomes "tradition"

Pray referrals keep you afloat

But that's not how momentum is built.

If you want attention, you have to place yourself in front of attention that already exists.

And here's what that looks like in practice:

1. Piggyback on moments when customers are already thinking about the problem.

Example:

When the first warm weekend hits in spring, junk piles suddenly become visible again.

Most haulers wait until mid-summer to "ramp up."

Smart owners schedule:

• boosted posts,
• Google Ads pushes,
• spring-cleanout landing pages,
• and email reminders

weeks BEFORE the weather breaks.

That's how you own the moment — not by inventing demand, but by positioning yourself at the exact second it spikes.

Richards didn't invent Thanksgiving.

He inserted a product into a moment that already came with a captured audience.

2. Align with someone else's platform that already has attention.

Richards had NBC.

You have:

• Local Facebook groups
• Realtors with huge SOIs (Sphere of Influence)
• Property managers
• Local social influencers
• HOA boards
• Town newsletters
• Trade partners (roofers, contractors, cleaners, organizers)

Most guys beg for referrals and word of mouth to grow their business slowly over time.

Smart guys attach themselves to megaphones other people have already built.

You don't need NBC.

You need the one person in your town whose voice already carries weight.

The takeaway

George Richards didn't have a massive fanbase, a proven brand, or a decades-long history to lean on. He had one thing:

A willingness to make a bold move when the market wasn't giving him attention.

That single decision turned a struggling team into a national Thanksgiving tradition.

So ask yourself:

Where is attention already flowing in your market — and how can you place yourself right in the middle of it?

Every home service pro wants more customers.

Only a few are willing to put themselves in front of the moments where customers are already paying attention.

That's where the growth is.

That's where the brand is built.

And that's how small businesses become fixtures in their communities — the same way the Lions did it in 1934.

This story has nothing to do with football — and everything to do with why so many good businesses stay invisible longer than they should. Most don't fail because the service is bad or the owner isn't working hard enough. They fail because attention never really lands on them in a meaningful way.

And the uncomfortable truth is that attention is rarely earned passively. It doesn't show up just because you're good, or honest, or local. It shows up when you place yourself where people are already looking.

If you're reading this thinking, "That all sounds great, but I'm just trying to keep the phone ringing," this lesson matters even more for you. The smaller the operation, the more intentional you have to be about where you show up and who you align with.

So take five minutes and ask yourself one simple question: Where is attention already flowing in my town — and who already has it? That answer is usually worth more than any new ad tactic, tool, or marketing trend.

You don't build momentum by waiting to be discovered. You build it by stepping into the moments that already exist and making yourself hard to ignore.

That was true in 1934.

And it's still true now ✌️

— Justin

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