Gifts for Detroit Football Fans, From Tailgate to Couch

Detroit's NFL team arrived in 1934 from Portsmouth, Ohio, where it had played as the Spartans. It came wearing Honolulu blue and silver, and it played its first Thanksgiving Day game that same year, according to the Detroit Historical Society. More than ninety years later, the colors and the holiday game are both still here, and so is a lot of the food people eat while they watch.

That food is the easiest place to start if you're shopping for a Detroit football fan. Jerseys and hats are personal, sized and easy to get wrong. A bag of chips that tastes like every Sunday they've ever spent on the couch is hard to get wrong.

Start with what's on the table

Better Made. Cross Moceri and Peter Cipriano started the company in Detroit in 1930, and the chips are still made at its plant on Gratiot Avenue. For a fan who moved away, a bag of Better Made at kickoff is about as close to home as a snack gets. The darker Rainbow chips come in their own bag, and our piece on Better Made's history and the Rainbow chip explains where the dark ones come from.

Faygo. Ben and Perry Feigenson started the company in Detroit in 1907, and Faygo still labels its pop "Made in Detroit, Michigan." Rock & Rye is the flavor people argue about. It's a cream soda with a cherry edge, and it has its own backstory worth reading. Redpop and Moon Mist are good additions for a crowd.

Kar's. The company says it began in 1933 with roasted nuts sold outside Tiger Stadium. Tiger Stadium was also one of the football team's home fields, before the move to the Pontiac Silverdome, according to the Detroit Historical Society. A bag of Sweet 'N Salty Mix on the coffee table is a small piece of that history.

Pop Daddy. The seasoned pretzels come from a Michigan company that Mark and Erin Sarafa started in 2013, now based in Howell. The pretzel line arrived in 2018.

Build a coney bar

A Detroit coney is a natural-casing beef hot dog in a steamed bun with all-meat chili (no beans), diced white onion and yellow mustard. That's the Detroit Historical Society's definition. The society credits Gust Keros, a Greek immigrant, with founding American Coney Island on West Lafayette in 1917.

The hard part to find outside Michigan is the sauce. Everything else is at any grocery store. That makes canned coney sauce one of the most useful gifts for a fan living out of state. Hand it over with a pack of hot dogs, buns, a bottle of yellow mustard and a white onion, and the Sunday menu is settled.

For a tailgate, a coney bar is easy on a grill. Keep the sauce warm in a pot on one side, the dogs on the other, and set out the onions and mustard. Steam the buns in foil if you can. A soft bun matters more than people expect.

One shipping note: Canada doesn't allow U.S. meat products to come in by mail or courier, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, so coney sauce can't go to a fan in Windsor or anywhere else across the border.

Honolulu blue, without the logo

The team's colors have been Honolulu blue and silver since 1934. A gift in the right shade of blue reads as a game-day gift to any Detroit fan, logo or no logo, and it can go places a jersey can't: a desk at work, a kitchen shelf, a cabin in the off-season.

Some ideas that work without a team mark:

• A Honolulu blue mug for Sunday morning coffee or the halftime refill
• A blue and silver throw blanket for the couch, or for a cold tailgate in late November
• A deck of playing cards for the long pregame or the drive home
• A Christmas ornament in team colors for the fan who decorates around the schedule
• Can koozies in blue for the cooler

If the person you're shopping for wants actual team gear, with the logo, buy it from an officially licensed seller. Homeland Security Investigations has advised fans to shop at official team stores and the league's own online shop, and to look for the league's hologram on the tag, which it calls an essential element of authentication. The federal government's intellectual property center, which works with the league on counterfeit seizures, also tells shoppers to watch for ripped tags, sloppy stitching and suspiciously low prices from sellers they don't know.

Gifts for the tailgater

Ford Field, at 2000 Brush St., opened in downtown Detroit in 2002. It's an indoor stadium, so the weather only matters before kickoff. That's where tailgaters come in.

Eastern Market sells reserved tailgate spaces for home games through a ticketing link on its website, and its 2026 calendar runs through Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26. The market's rules shape a good tailgate gift. Lots open five hours before kickoff. Only propane or charcoal grills are allowed, with no deep fryers, open flames or wood fires. Tents can't be larger than 10 by 10 feet. Food can't be offered for sale, so whatever the group brings is shared.

Gifts that fit those rules:

• A portable propane or charcoal grill, if the tailgater doesn't own one
• A heavy pot with a lid for keeping coney sauce warm on the grate
• Foil pans, tongs and a good cutting board for the onions
• A cooler stocked with Faygo and Vernors
• Hand warmers and a blanket for the late-season games
• Paper plates and napkins in Honolulu blue

For a reserved spot itself, check Eastern Market's site for remaining dates and spaces. Each ticket covers a set number of wristbands, and groups arriving in separate cars have to transfer tickets ahead of time, according to the market.

For the fan who can't get home

Plenty of Detroit fans watch from Phoenix, Charlotte or Chicago, a time zone or two away from the people they used to watch with. On Thanksgiving, the game is on, the family is in Michigan and the food on the table is someone else's.

A box of Detroit snacks that arrives before a big game is a way to put them back in the room. The Michigan Box ($79) does that: Better Made chips, Pop Daddy pretzels, Kar's Sweet 'N Salty Mix and Faygo Rock & Rye, plus Germack dried cherries, Mackinac Island fudge and Koeze Cream-Nut. No team logos. It's packed by hand in Detroit with a handwritten card.

For the coney side of things, a build-your-own box, from $89, can hold canned Detroit coney sauce, our coney recipe card, Jiffy corn muffin mix, Sanders hot fudge, Vernors, Faygo Rock & Rye and Better Made. That box ships to U.S. addresses only, because of the coney sauce. If timing matters, our shipping section lists delivery windows and holiday cutoffs.

The Thanksgiving game kicks off from Ford Field on Nov. 26. Eastern Market's lots will open five hours before that.