John Madden, Nicolas Cage and the history of the turduck

As we approach Gobble Gobble Dayfans of John Madden will be pleased to hear 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-turned-most famous football analyst of all time called 20 Thanksgiving Day games during his career, and in the video above he states, “There’s no place I’d rather be today on Thanksgiving than right here, right now, at football game.”

Players on all six teams playing Thursday will have 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.

More on the turducken in a minute.

Madden, who essentially created the company EA Sports with its video game bearing his name, will be honored with a Amazon Documentary Series that begins November 26. Watch the trailer here.

Then Nicolas Cage portrays the legend in an upcoming biopic. Here is one 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? The turducken is a boneless duck stuffed into a boneless chicken and then stuffed into turkey that also (sometimes) includes sausage and bread stuffing. Crazy, right? Yes. But it is incredibly delicious.

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

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

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

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

Happy Thanksgiving everyone – and keep politics out of the dinner table this year, and focus on the food (basic bird or turkey duck) and keep your eyes on the prizes: the pies!

Bowl!

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