Each year, the Dallas Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day game has an added layer of flair and storylines, and the 2025 version against the Kansas City Chiefs is no different.
On a day of family and reunion, the Cowboys and Chiefs will line up with their own familial storylines that align with the theme of America’s holiday.
From a former Texas Stadium concession stand worker’s son being on display to a unique tie into the city of Dallas in 1960, here are the intriguing off-the-field Thanksgiving storylines heading into Thursday:
Schottenheimer reunites with Kansas City
In 1989, the Chiefs hired Marty Schottenheimer, Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer’s father, as their seventh head coach in franchise history. For a decade, Schottenheimer led the organization and powered the team to seven playoff appearances and three division titles.
For the younger Brian, it came at a crucial time in his development As a high school quarterback, Brian played at nearby Blue Valley High School, where he won a state championship in 1991 before moving on to play at the University of Kansas in 1992. (He would later transfer to Florida after just one season with the Jayhawks.)
As Brian broke into the coaching world after college, he landed his second NFL job as an assistant on his father’s staff in Kansas City in 1998. With so many family ties to the organization and the Kansas City area, Thursday’s game will be special for the Schottenheimer family to reunite with the owners of the Chiefs, the Hunt family.
“I hold the Hunt family in such high regard,” Schottenheimer said. “They were so good to us when my dad was coaching there. I was there one year with him. But just even the way they looked after my dad after he was sick, I think that means the world to me. ... Then of course when you have the success that they had, it’s fun for me to look back on that. But incredible people in the organization, and they’re a lot like this organization. It’s family. Family first.”
Chiefs, Hunt family return to their roots
From an organizational foundation standpoint, a lot of parallels exist between the Cowboys and Chiefs.
Back in 1960, both organizations got their start in the city of Dallas and played their home games at the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park. After being denied by the NFL to start an expansion franchise in his hometown of Dallas, Lamar Hunt Sr. started the American Football League and the Dallas Texans franchise in the city.
Although the franchise would move to Kansas City after just three seasons because Hunt did not believe that the Dallas-Fort Worth media market could sustain two pro football franchises, most of the Hunt family remained in Dallas and still lives in Highland Park in the present day.
On Thursday, the entire family will be able to return to Dallas in full for the holiday.
Patrick Mahomes comes to AT&T Stadium
Growing up in the small East Texas town of Whitehouse, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes grew up with the dream of playing for the Dallas Cowboys, describing his adolescent self as a “die-hard Cowboys fan” in an interview ahead of the Chiefs’ matchup against the Cowboys in 2021.
Unfortunately for his early dreams, Mahomes did not fall in the first round of the 2017 NFL draft to where the Cowboys would have a shot at selecting him, as the Chiefs took him with the 10th overall selection. He has since made Kansas City his home and has invested a good amount of his career earnings into local sports teams and into starting businesses in the area.
On Thursday, Mahomes will play at AT&T Stadium for the first time in his career after growing up watching the team in the same stadium. He arrives with a regular-season record of 12-0 in domed stadiums in his career.
Post Malone returns home
When the teams go to the locker room at halftime, the stage will quickly be set for Post Malone to make his Thanksgiving halftime debut on the field of AT&T Stadium.
A Grapevine native with the birth name of Austin Post, his father used to be concessions manager at Texas Stadium, where Post developed a strong love for the Cowboys. The family will return to the stadium on Thursday to see him perform in AT&T Stadium for the fifth time after tour stops in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2025.
“Extraordinarily excited,” owner Jerry Jones said. “You know his background. He used to come over every night and sleep in [Texas Stadium], when his dad was in charge of all of our beverage. And he slept over there for years, because his mother was working, and then she would finish her work and then he’d go home. For several years, probably four or five, had a cot for him, and he slept.”
It will be Post Malone’s third NFL performance after performing “America the Beautiful” ahead of Super Bowl LVIII and performing alongside Beyoncé at halftime of the Houston Texans’ Christmas Day game in 2024.