Madden jersey patches will be worn by all six teams playing on Turkey Day. A special Madden coin — heads is a Madden silhouette, tails is a turducken — will be tossed. There will also be Madden tributes on the broadcast and on the field for all three games.
There are countless NFL memories we’ll all have from Thanksgiving, but when you think of the late John Madden calling games on the holiday, you might associate him with one word: Turducken.
That’s the Frankenstein-like combination of duck, chicken and turkey that gives eaters a taste of each.
It was over two decades ago that Madden first tried the turducken, leading him to talk about it on the air and show it during many a Thanksgiving game, popularizing a dish that was familiar in Louisiana before thousands of turduckens were mailed around the world.
How did the turkey-duck-chicken make its way into Madden’s hands (literally)?
Let’s go farther back than 1997 for a second. First, you have to ask where the turducken originated from. The story isn’t completely clear.
Paul Prudhomme, the famous Louisiana chef who died in 2015, claims he invented it in the 1960s while working in Wyoming. Here’s part of the claim from a 1994 Times-Picayune article reprinted on NOLA.com:
The original Turducken was introduced here in the 1970s by chef Paul Prudhomme. He invented the concept a decade earlier in Sheridan, Wyo., while working on a restaurant buffet line carving meats. Everything looked pretty except the turkey, he said. So the inventive chef set out to create something smashing. He eventually ended up with three birds, each with its own dressing. After moving back to New Orleans, Prudhomme gave it its name, then copyrighted Turducken in 1986.
“It’s that wild imagination I have and the physical abuse I give myself to make it happen,” he said, explaining the creation. “One of the greatest pleasures of my life has been to be able to do things like the Turducken that make people happy. It’s a huge effort but once you taste it, it is literally the best.”
But there’s also a story that in 1985, a farmer came to Hebert’s Specialty Meats and asked for the shop to combine all three fowls.
And that’s where Glenn Mistich comes in. Mistich’s wife Leah is from the family that owned Hebert’s, and he opened his Gourmet Butcher Block in 1994, where he used some savvy knifework to debone the trio of birds, line them up with various types of stuffing in between and sew them together.
He told For The Win that before Madden popularized the turducken, he sold 250 of them a year.
Then, in 1997, he heard longtime radio personality Bob Delgiorno talking on-air about getting Madden to try the dish before the Hall of Famer was set to broadcast a Rams-Saints game from the Superdome. Delgiorno told For The Win that he had interviewed Madden a few times on his show and that Mistich used to advertise the turducken on the station.
“Bob got in touch and we went to Superdome,” Mistich recalled. “Madden grabbed a piece of it with his hands and fell in love with it.”
Madden — who declined an interview request from For The Win in 2017 — confirmed that was true to the New York Times in 2002.
“‘The P.R. guy for the Saints brought me one. And he brought it to the booth. It smelled and looked so good. I didn’t have any plates or silverware or anything, and I just started eating it with my hands.”
(AP Photo/Intelligencer Journal, Suzette Wenger)
There’s also this anecdote to add to that moment via NOLA.com:
“I’m there eating this turducken with my fingers,” Madden recalled. “(Saints owner) Tom Benson comes in and I have all this stuff on my fingers and I’m doing that thing in my head where I’m wondering, ‘Do I shake his hand?’ ”
(For the record: Madden did shake Benson’s hand, sticky fingers and all, and he said the two haven’t spoken since.)
The next day, Mistich got a phone call he thought was a prank.
“I really loved it,” he remembered Madden saying. “Can you send one to me in California?”
Two weeks later, there was a FOX camera crew in his shop because Madden chose turducken to be the official “All-Madden Team” food. This year, he estimates he’ll sell between five and six thousand turduckens, two of which were shipped to Madden himself.
“Every year, he gets one for Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Mistich said.
“I’m very grateful,” Mistich added. “I can’t say enough about what he’s done for our business. He’s definitely put it on a national level. Turducken is even in the dictionary now.”
The Steelers’ use of two quarterbacks could be directly hurting their offense, as highlighted by their Week 12 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
One of the most famous and wise football adages, often attributed to the legendary John Madden, applies perfectly to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ struggles on offense: “If you have two quarterbacks, you have none.”
While much unnecessary energy has been spent on the Week 12 blame game and recent offensive struggles, the Mike Tomlin-led Steelers may be missing the bigger picture—bringing Justin Fields into games could be hurting the long-term offensive game plan.
Pittsburgh receivers need time to build chemistry with one decisive quarterback, and the offense must be led confidently by a single starter. This was evident in Week 12 when Russell Wilson was kept off the field for a critical third-down play—a play that better suited his strengths. Instead, Fields took the snap and ultimately missed his deep throw to WR George Pickens. The Steelers would go on to lose the game to the Browns, 24-19.
Wilson must be allowed to lead the offense without worrying about being pulled. Consistency is crucial, especially as the Steelers prepare for what is shaping up to be a shootout with the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 13, on December 1st at 1:00 PM EST.
One of the songs is called Dodger Blue and it is amazing.
Kendrick Lamar released a surprise album, GNX, and in the process was able to delight his fans around the world.
The project, which includes 12 new songs and did not have any promotional material leading up to its release, is his his sixth studio album. It includes a lot of what music fans can expect from the rapper, including some incredible beats and compelling lyrics as well.
Some of those songs include references to the likes of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, John Madden, local high schools in Los Angeles, and his upcoming Super Bowl Bowl performance.
It also has a song called “Dodger Blue” that is, obviously, a shout out to the World Series champions.
With the help of Genius, we looked at a few of the best athlete mentions on this surprise drop.
Track 1: wacced out
“Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulated me”
Track 5: hey now
“If they talkin’ ’bout playin’ ball, they can take it up with Jordan
It’s bald heads and the heckling for all endorsements”
Track 8: dodger blue
“What school you went to? God didn’t have Compton
Westchester, King Drew, do we function’?”
Track 9: peekaboo
“Peekaboo, eighty pointers like a Kobe game”
Track 10: heart pt. 6
“Punch played Phil Jackson in my early practices”
Track 11: gnx
“I’m in the field for real, UCLA Bruins”
Track 12: gloria
“Preoccupied playin’ John Madden and bull [expletive]”
A new biopic on the life of legendary NFL coach and broadcaster John Madden is in the works, and the casting for the leading role couldn’t have been more perfect.
Nicolas Cage, an Oscar-winning actor whose illustrious film career spans five decades, will be playing the titular character in “Madden.” The release date for the film has not yet been announced, but it is being backed by Amazon MGM, according to Variety.
“Nicolas Cage, one of our greatest and most original actors, will portray the best of the American spirit of originality, fun, and determination in which anything is possible as beloved national legend John Madden,” director, writer and producer David O. Russell said in a press release, per the article from Variety. “Together with the ferocious style, focus, and inspired individualism of Al Davis, owner of the underdog Oakland Raiders, the feature will be about the joy, humanity and genius that was John Madden in a wildly inventive, cool world of the 1970s.”
Among the other actors considered for the role were, per Variety, were Will Ferrell and Hugh Jackman.
It’s a truly iconic casting decision as Cage is notable for playing unique and eccentric roles. Now, he’ll take on the task of portraying the Super Bowl-winning former head coach of the Oakland Raiders, who subsequently spent 30 years as an NFL broadcaster and serves as the namesake for the long-running “Madden NFL” video game franchise.
If you gave me infinite guesses who is set to play John Madden in ‘Madden’ biopic, I still wouldn’t get it.
If someone gave me infinite guesses as to who would be laying John Madden in a movie about his life, I wouldn’t have guessed who was just chosen to play him. Any guesses? Yeah, well, you’re wrong.
It’s Nicolas Cage.
Variety reports that Amazon MGM is backing the film and Director David O. Russell has tabbed Cage to play the iconic Hall of Fame Raiders coach and video game mogul.
“Nicolas Cage, one of our greatest and most original actors, will portray the best of the American spirit of originality, fun, and determination in which anything is possible as beloved national legend John Madden,” O. Russell said in a statement. “Together with the ferocious style, focus, and inspired individualism of Al Davis, owner of the underdog Oakland Raiders, the feature will be about the joy, humanity and genius that was John Madden in a wildly inventive, cool world of the 1970s.”
No knock on Cage. He may end up doing a great job in the role. But Cage is pretty much a character himself. And that character shows up in pretty much every role he ever plays. It’s one that’s very different than that of John Madden.
With Cage getting this role, I can’t help but think of a certain scene from The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent in which Cage plays a fictionalized version of himself going through a bit of a crisis in his acting career.
In the scene, he wants a role in a film so bad, he corners the director at the valet stand at a restaurant in Hollywood and does a brilliantly terrible impromptu audition for the lead role in the Director’s next film.
If you have seen it, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t seen that movie, you need to see that movie. He and Pedro Pascal are electric and hilarious together.
At very least, it will be impossible not to be insanely curious to see what Cage can do with this role. Because I am finding it impossible to imagine.
Who will play John Madden in a biographical drama about the coach’s life?
A biographical drama is in the works about legendary Oakland Raiders coach and famed broadcaster John Madden. The decision on who will play the great Madden has been decided and it is … actor Nicolas Cage, per Variety.
Nicolas Cage will portray John Madden, the legendary American football coach and sports commentator, in “Madden,” a biographical drama from director David O. Russell. https://t.co/8r8Ev3TULn
“Nicolas Cage, one of our greatest and most original actors, will portray the best of the American spirit of originality, fun, and determination in which anything is possible as beloved national legend John Madden,” director David O. Russell said in a statement. “Together with the ferocious style, focus, and inspired individualism of Al Davis, owner of the underdog Oakland Raiders, the feature will be about the joy, humanity and genius that was John Madden in a wildly inventive, cool world of the 1970s.”
Madden, who died in 2021 at the age of 85, led the Raiders to their first Super Bowl championship. He was 112-39-7 as a head coach before retiring.
Madden was a football analyst for NBC after also holding the same position for ABC’s “Monday Night Football,” Fox and CBS.
We’ve got 61 days left until the New Orleans Saints kick off their 2024 regular season, which makes Reggie Bush’s 61-yard touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys our Saints Play of the Day.
This was a game-breaker. The Saints were already up 21-10 early in the third quarter, having made the trip to old Texas Stadium (where the Cowboys played from 1971 to 2008, until they moved into Jerry Jones’ shiny new AT&T Stadium). But Sean Payton was determined to keep pouring it on his mentor Bill Parcells. Each team hit the field with an 8-4 record and Payton intended on leaving no doubt about which was the better squad.
So he dialed up a screen play for Bush, the rookie Heisman Trophy winner who had excited all of Louisiana. Drew Brees looked left and looped a pass to Bush in the flat. With several blockers in front of him it was all too easy for Bush to cut through the Cowboys defense and extend New Orleans’ lead.
It’s a classic game now (watch the broadcast sometime if you can find it; John Madden and Al Michaels were great in prime time), but for many NFL fans this was the moment when the Saints truly arrived and proved they were more than a feel-good story in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Cowboys were favored by a touchdown and the over/under was set at 48 points, but the Saints wound up winning it 42-17, stunning the league in the process. Brees threw five touchdown passes and was only sacked once, while Bush totaled 162 scrimmage yards off of just a dozen touches. How’s that for a “welcome to the NFL” moment?
We’re looking at all Madden NFL covers from the last two decades.
Editor’s note: This post was updated for 2024.
The Madden series has been around since EA Sports released John Madden Football on MS-DOS in 1988.
For the first decade, Madden himself graced the cover. The Super Bowl-winning coach-turned-fan-favorite-broadcaster-turned-Turducken-evangelizer is also something of a master at building a personal brand. Even though he hadn’t broadcasted a game since 2009, he remained a household name thanks to EA’s best-selling franchise.
After 2000, Mr. Madden finally started to share the screen with NFL superstars. Here’s a look at every player who’s been on a Madden cover. And remember: Patrick Mahomes is among the athletes to show the “Madden Curse” is just a myth.
You ready for a full day of Raider programming? Set that DVR on NFL Network Thursday.
Are you ready for a full day of Raiders programming? I hope so because the NFL Network is going full Silver & Black today. Hope your DVR can handle all of it.
All times are Pacific
10:30am — The Specialist: Ray Guy
11am — A Football Life: Ken Stabler
Noon — A Football Life: John Madden
1pm — Dolphins vs Raiders 1974 AFC Divisional “Sea of Hands” game
2:30pm — Raiders vs Colts 1977 AFC Divisional “Ghost to the Post” game
