Full Platter: NFL’s Mad, Mad, Mad, Madden Thanksgiving Day Celebration ’25
Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 07:34PM By Barry Janoff
November 20, 2025: The NFL enjoys celebrating Thanksgiving Day as much as anyone. But the league goes above and beyond to ensure that it’s a Madden, Madden, Madden, Madden World.
The NFL’s annual John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration began in 2022 as a way to honor the late icon’s indelible legacy. He passed away in December 2021.
In 2025, all three NFL games will again be filled with Madden-themed activation, sounds, visuals and honors.
Network partners Fox (Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions 1 PM ET), CBS (Kansas City Chiefs at Dallas Cowboys 4:30 PM ET) and NBC (Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens 8 PM ET) will 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.
A special NFL-produced Madden Hallmark video will air prior to each broadcast “conveying what Thanksgiving meant to him in his own words.”
“Turducken” will have a special role.
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. A patch featuring a silhouette of Coach Madden will be included on the jersey of each player at all three games.
Special John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration stencils will be placed on the sidelines of Ford Field (Detroit), AT&T Stadium (Dallas) and M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore), along with stadium wall panels that include an iconic image of Madden from his coaching days.
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.
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.” 
For the second consecutive year, the NFL will benefit the John Madden Foundation by auctioning off game-used items from the three Thanksgiving Day games via NFL Auction, with proceeds supporting the new foundation.
New this year, the second EA Sports Madden NFL Cast has moved to Thanksgiving Day, streaming exclusively on Peacock complementing the Bengals-Ravens game.
Last year’s inaugural Madden NFL Cast supported the Houston Texans-Kansas City Chiefs game Dec. 21.
Blending video game elements and live action, the stream will be an “immersive, data-powered live football experience that injects Madden NFL’s unique brand elements as animated overlays.”
“We are excited to once again work with the NFL, EA Sports and Genius Sports to offer fans the ability to watch Madden NFL come to life, exclusively on Peacock,” Fred Gaudelli, NBC Sports’ executive producer of NFL, said via the network.
He has a special connection with Madden, having been lead producer for John Madden’s final seven seasons in the broadcast booth (2002-05 at ABC, 2006-08 at NBC).
“It’s appropriate that this year’s Madden NFL Cast presentation takes place on Thanksgiving, an NFL holiday tradition that meant so much to John and now carries his name,. We look forward to showcasing the Madden NFL Cast in primetime as well as introducing some new features that viewers and gamers will enjoy.”
EA Sports and PlayStation said they are honoring Madden’s legacy with all-new content across game modes in the Nov. 19 title update of Madden NFL 26. “We’re infusing Coach Madden from the booth to the turf with new commentary lines speaking everything from John Madden’s Thanksgiving to his impact on NFL players, franchises, and fans. We’ve also added Team Select SFX that include samples from John Madden.”
Support also includes media beyond the three network games.
Madden PatchThe 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 several platforms will support John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration with unique content throughout Thanksgiving 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 and NFL GameDay Morning on NFL Network. John Madden’s son Michael Madden is schedued to join Good Morning Football as a guest on Thanksgiving Day.
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