There are two sides to every story. For the NFL, on Thanksgiving, it’s heads, John Madden; tails, six-legged turducken.
Those will be the two images that team captains will be presented with during the coin toss for Thursday’s games.
It is part of the league’s second annual Thanksgiving tribute to the late broadcaster and coach, a holiday on which he called 20 games over his career.
In honor of #MaddenThanksgiving, a special coin featuring a silhouette of John Madden on one side (Heads) and a six-legged turducken on the reverse side (Tails) will be used for the coin toss before each Thanksgiving game. pic.twitter.com/pcFQ0Zf5Jq
— NFL (@NFL) November 22, 2023
“There’s no place that I would rather be today on Thanksgiving than right here, right now, at a football game,” Madden said at a Chicago Bears–Detroit Lions Thanksgiving game in 1997. “There are just certain things that go together: the turkey, the family, the tradition, football. … And we have it all today.”
The league’s tribute during Thursday’s tripleheader will include jersey patches featuring Madden’s silhouette for all players and on-field “John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration” stencils on the sidelines.
In addition, the Madden Player of the Game will receive a $10,000 donation in their name from the NFL Foundation to the youth or high school football program of their choice.
Madden began the tradition of handing out a turkey leg to the star of the game beginning in 1989 when Philadelphia‘s Reggie White got it following a win over Dallas.
The following year Madden gave out victory legs to Dallas’ Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman and joked that he wished he had more for the offensive linemen. A barbecue owner in Texas took up the challenge and created an artificial six-legged turkey.
No one could explain how to cut up a turducken like John Madden#MaddenThanksgiving pic.twitter.com/iIwRK6IGo3
— NFL (@NFL) November 22, 2023
It eventually evolved into a turducken, which is a chicken stuffed into a deboned duck stuffed into a deboned turkey.
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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