Not all football is created equal. Case in point: the pigskin is better served after the pig itself. That means on Thanksgiving, where football is the holy grail, where even the most uninterested, scornful Americans point their eyes toward the set because by some holy decree, they're supposed to watch football on Thanksgiving.

There a few givens every Thanksgiving, aside from your uncle's intoxication. You know some iteration of the Lions and Cowboys will take the field, that a really good team will play a not-so-good team, and that one matchup will pit division rivals against each other. A lot of the time, you can also expect a blowout and a pitifully low-scoring game as well.

This season's games look promising. New England-the Jets is the night-cap, and it needs no explanation. These two teams don't like each other, and the back stories alone could draw you in. The Lions-Texans is probably our best shot at a blowout, but it wouldn't be too surprising to see Detroit keep it close. The Cowboys-Redskins, we're all hoping, is going to be a classic NFC East dogfight.

Here are the 5 most important reasons you should step away from the stuffing and snap on the TV Thursday.