Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Hope everyone had a great day of eating turkey, watching football, drinking alcohol, and hanging out with family (or avoiding them). If you happened to watch the action on the gridiron today, you likely witnessed the not-so-spectacular NFL game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. The final score ended up being closer than contest actually was. Lainey Wilson's highly anticipated halftime show performance was undoubtedly the highlight of the game. The country music star was tapped to play on the big stage in front of 90,000-plus football fans and the millions of people that welcomed the broadcast into their homes on the Thankgiving holiday. Wilson played some of her greatest hits (so far), including "Heart Like A Truck" and "4X4XU." It was an electric performance, and she certainly met the moment. As you can see in this short clip below: https://twitter.com/Rlop1234Goat/status/1862280267651576057 Very smart of Lainey to incorporate the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders... though we'll get to more on that later. Wilson was also able to keep a surprise musical guest for the performance a secret. Fresh off of the conclusion of his Beautifully Broken 2024 Tour (and throwing his phone into the Cumberland River), Jelly Roll joined the performance to belt out "Save Me." The country music stars collaborated on a remixed version of the song on Jelly's critically acclaimed Whitsitt Chapel album. Their duet live at AT&T Stadium was certainly another high point of the Thanksgiving Day performance: https://twitter.com/PatDoneyNBC5/status/1862280825770799456 That being said... it still was no Dolly Parton halftime show. Though in their defense, the legendary "9 To 5" singer set the bar very, very, VERY high last year when she shocked the world and distracted men all across the country when she dressed up as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader for her performance. Even before Lainey Wilson had her moment earlier today, social media was buzzing - and posting memes - about a potential Dolly Parton cameo at this year's performance: https://twitter.com/TravisMangone/status/1862245666090610951 Yeah that was most of America today. Daydreaming about Dolly Parton while their turkey was baking in the oven (I can assure you I don't mean that as a euphemism). In case you needed a refresher on Dolly's iconic performance from last year, Danny Nozell (Dolly's manager) told Billboard that the idea to wear the Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfit was all Dolly. No one else knew about it. Many people on Dolly's team supposedly “fainted” when she walked out of the dressing room and they saw her for the first time: “Dolly didn’t tell or show anyone that she was going to dress as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader until it was time to go to the stage. It was completely her idea. She waited until right before she went to stage and came out of the dressing room to show us all. When she came out, myself, the security and my staff fainted. I couldn’t tell the difference between Dolly and the cheerleaders. That is the genius of Dolly, and people are still talking about it.” People are still talking about it ONE YEAR LATER. I personally think the performance will live on forever, and every time Thanksgiving rolls around, people will say, "I wish this was Dolly in a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfit instead of (insert artist/band here)." Something tells me that Dolly Parton knew exactly what she was doing when she donned the cheer uniform at the age of 77-years-old, and as she later revealed, the "9 To 5" singer had a great attitude about it: “I thought, ‘Well at my age, if I can pull it off, it’s going to be good. And if I don’t, I can just pass it off as an old woman doing a stupid a** thing. I’ve always said my desire to do something is greater than my fear of it.” And thank God Dolly faced her fears and blessed the entire world - and created a mega-viral moment - during last year's Thanksgiving halftime show: https://twitter.com/hoangcrab_/status/1727863919778349060?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1727863919778349060%7Ctwgr%5E90736bd19b8c652e79a958d27c054839eb04d9cb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiskeyriff.com%2F2024%2F11%2F27%2Fdolly-parton-dallas-cowboys-thanksgiving-halftime-show%2F