NFL again honors John Madden during Thanksgiving games

Thanksgiving, football and John Madden are linked forever in the history of professional football.

For the third year in a row, the National Football League plans to honor Pro Football Hall of Famer JOHN MADDEN on Thanksgiving. The “John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration” will be featured on three broadcast networks, with a multi-faceted celebration Thursday.

“There’s no place that I would rather be today on Thanksgiving than right here, right now at a football game,” Madden once said in a broadcast. “There’s just certain things that go together — the turkey, the family, tradition and football.”

Throughout each Thanksgiving Day game, segments from network partners CBS, FOX and NBC will celebrate Madden’s contributions to the game of professional football and the NFL, from his coaching days and his time as a broadcaster. The lineup includes the Chicago Bears at the Detroit Lions at 12:30 p.m. ET on CBS, the New York Giants at the Dallas Cowboys at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX and the Miami Dolphins at the Green Bay Packers at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC.

Live game audio of all three Thanksgiving Day games will be broadcast nationally by Westwood One and SiriusXM.

 
Fans also will note John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration stencils placed on the sidelines of Ford Field (Detroit), AT&T Stadium (Dallas) and Lambeau Field (Green Bay), along with stadium wall panels that include an iconic image of Madden from his coaching days.

As part of the celebration, the Pro Football Hall of Fame sent the “Madden Cruiser,” a unique item in its collection, to Lambeau Field. The Cruiser, an original Greyhound bus, was converted to permit Madden to travel to game broadcast locations while enjoying the open road.

Each network will select a Madden Thanksgiving MVP; that player will receive a $10,000 donation from the NFL Foundation to be given to a high school or youth football program in their name. This year, for the first time, each Madden Thanksgiving MVP will be awarded with the Madden Thanksgiving MVP trophy, created to honor Madden and celebrate everything the game of football means to the Thanksgiving holiday.

The trophy is in the form of a pylon and includes various “Maddenisms” sprinkled throughout, along with visual cues to speak to the holiday theme.

“We have turkey legs, we have turkey, we have turducken,” Madden said in the same broadcast, “and the biggest thing: the tradition of Thanksgiving and football.” For more details on the celebration, read the full NFL news release here.