The Dallas Cowboys have long held the moniker of "America's Team," but the Kansas City Chiefs have been the most dominant franchise by a considerable margin ever since QB Patrick Mahomes claimed the starting job seven years ago.
Kansas City's popularity and success during that run hasn't been lost on the NFL, which made an announcement on its upcoming 2025 schedule that highlights the Chiefs and the Cowboys alike.
The league announced on Wednesday, May 14, that Kansas City will square off against Dallas at AT&T Stadium on one of the league's most prominent dates of the season: Thanksgiving Day.
"Kansas City is heading to Dallas for a Thanksgiving showdown 🦃," the NFL posted to its official X account.
Former NFL quarterback and podcaster for The Athletic Chase Daniel dubbed the Chiefs the "new America's team" following the league's announcement.
"The Chiefs are the new America's Team," Daniel wrote on X. "Playing on Christmas & now on Thanksgiving...Ratings King. Dallas vs KC may draw 50M viewers."
Kansas City has appeared in the last three Super Bowls, winning two of them and losing to the Philadelphia Eagles in February. A victory in that contest would have made the Chiefs the first NFL team to three-peat in the Super Bowl era.
The franchise has long been a huge draw, but the romantic involvement of superstar tight end Travis Kelce and global music icon Taylor Swift has brought the Chiefs new levels of interest across demographics not typically prominent with regards to NFL viewership before the relationship began in July 2023.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys are traditional Thanksgiving Day participants on the NFL schedule and offer plenty of intrigue of their own, as Dallas tries to bounce back from a 7-10 campaign in 2024, which saw its NFC East rivals, the Eagles and Washington Commanders compete in the conference championship game in January.