By Lydia Jane Allison

Multi-Faceted Celebration Will Take Place Across CBS, FOX and NBC

NEW YORK — Nov. 21, 2024 — The National Football League continues to honor and commemorate the late John Madden with the third annual John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration on Thursday, Nov. 28.

Madden once said, “There’s no place that I would rather be today on Thanksgiving than right here, right now, at a football game,” and the John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration brings together all the things that were important to him – family, football, food, tradition and fun.

This year’s edition of the John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration will feature the following elements:

• Network partners FOX, CBS and NBC will continue to celebrate Madden’s contributions to the game, both on the field and in the broadcast booth, with tributes interspersed throughout each game on Thanksgiving Day. The lineup includes the Chicago Bears versus the Detroit Lions at 12:30 p.m. ET on CBS, the New York Giants versus the Dallas Cowboys at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX and the Miami Dolphins versus 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.
• A special NFL-produced Madden Hallmark will kick off each broadcast, conveying what Thanksgiving meant to him in his own words. The Hallmark can be viewed here.
• Each network will select a Madden Thanksgiving MVP who will receive a $10,000 donation from the NFL Foundation to be given to a high school or youth football program in their name, as the topic of youth football was important to Madden. 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.
• New this year, the NFL will benefit the newly-created John Madden Foundation by auctioning off game-used items from the three Thanksgiving Day games via NFL Auction, with proceeds supporting the new foundation.
• A coin featuring a silhouette of Coach Madden on one side (“Heads”) and a six-legged turducken on the reverse side (“Tails) will be used for the coin toss, and a patch featuring a silhouette of Coach Madden will be included on the jersey of each player at all three games. The coin can be viewed here and the jersey patch can be viewed here.
• Special John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration stencils will be 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.
• The NFL’s radio broadcast partners Westwood One and SiriusXM NFL Radio will air Madden and Thanksgiving-related programming leading up to and on Thanksgiving Day.
• The NFL’s social media handles across X, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube and others will support John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration by posting content around the Thanksgiving celebration, and AP Images will be capturing gameday still imagery throughout the day.
• NFL Media will support all elements of the John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration across programming and platforms leading up to and on Thanksgiving Day, including “Good Morning Football” on NFL Network.

The John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration began in 2022 as a way to honor the late icon’s indelible legacy.

COURTESY NFL COMMUNICATIONS