The Big Lead

John Madden, Nicolas Cage and the history of turducken

The late, great football icon will be portrayed by the mercurial actor in an upcoming biopic and we're betting a crazy-delicious food concoction will become an ever bigger sensation.

By Ty Bronicel

Former Oakland Raiders coach John Madden at halftime ceremony to present punter Ray Guy with Pro Football Hall of Fame ring at O.co Coliseum on Nov 20, 2014.
Former Oakland Raiders coach John Madden at halftime ceremony to present punter Ray Guy with Pro Football Hall of Fame ring at O.co Coliseum on Nov 20, 2014. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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As we approach Gobble-Gobble Day, fans of John Madden will be delighted to learn that the NFL plans to show this video before the three Turkey Bust Gut games: The Bears-Lions (12:30 p.m. EST, CBS), Giants-Cowboys (4:30 p.m. EST, Fox) and Dolphins-Packers (8:20 p.m. EST, NBC).

The iconic coach who became the most famous football analyst of all time called 20 Thanksgiving Day games during his career and in the above video he states: “There’s no place that I would rather be today on Thanksgiving than right here, right now, at a football game."

Players on all six teams that play Thursday will be sporting Madden patches on their jerseys, and the coin used for the pregame coin toss will feature Madden's silhouette as "heads" and his famous turducken as "tails." Check out the game coin and also the perfect patch.

Madden money
Charlie Lovering
John Madden 2024 Thanksgiving patch
Sam Drexler

More on the turducken in a minute.

Madden, who essentially made the company EA Sports with its video game bearing his name, will be honored with an Amazon docuseries that begins Nov. 26. Watch the trailer here.

Following that, Nicolas Cage is portraying the legend in an upcoming biopic. Here's a first look.

Now about that turducken. You can still put one together in time for Feast Your Face Off Day (trademarked).

What is it, if you don't know? Turducken is a deboned duck stuffed into a deboned chicken and then stuffed into turkey that also (sometimes) includes sausage and bread stuffing. Wild, right? Yes. But it's incredibly delicious.

Had one in New Orleans once, where it is alleged to have been created by another late, great legend, the Louisiana chef Paul Prudhomme.

Madden was certainly a big bird fan since he used to hand out chicken legs on Thanksgiving Day to players he deemed deserved them.

Madden ate his first on-air turducken on December 1, 1996, during a game between the New Orleans Saints and St. Louis Rams at the Louisiana Superdome.

So, yeah, the guy is still missed but his legacy will live on forever.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone—and keep politics off the dinner table this year and focus on the food (basic bird or turducken) and keep your eyes on the prizes: the pies!

Cheers!

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