Good morning and greetings from Uni Watch HQ, where I returned yesterday after several days in Virginia. I had a great time, but it’s good to be home. Big thanks to Phil for covering a few breaking news stories while I was away!
Now then: As you may recall, the NFL saluted John Madden last year on Thanksgiving by replacing the NFL rear-helmet logo decal with a shield-shaped Madden decal (as seen above). This year they’re upping the Madden quotient on Turkey Day, as follows:
- The six teams playing on Thanksgiving (that’s Packers/Lions, Commies/Cowboys, and 49ers/Seahawks) will wear a Madden patch on their jerseys. It will look like this:
- For all three Thanksgiving games, the pregame coin toss will be done with a coin featuring a portrait of Madden on one side and, in deference to Madden’s famous espousal of gluttony, a six-legged turducken on the other side:
- For all three games, “John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration” stencils will appear on the sidelines. (Sorry, no visuals yet for those, although it seems safe to assume that they’ll look something like the patch and the coin.)
- The TV broadcast of each Thanksgiving game will kick off with this video spot:
- Per the league: “Network partners FOX, CBS, and NBC 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.”
- Also per the league: “The NFL’s radio broadcast partners Westwood One and SiriusXM NFL Radio will air Madden- and Thanksgiving-related programming throughout the week leading up to Thanksgiving Day.”
Thanksgiving Day is Nov. 23, which is one week from tomorrow.
The new mascots are awesome. How you get any work done with those 2 around is a mystery. Congrats on finding them.
I loved seeing the word “Imperial” in vertical arch. I thought “Imperials” would be a good name for Cleveland baseball, for alliterative reasons, but they went with “Guardians”.
VAL…Yes, please.
The Imps…No, thanks.
Is it just me, or does the Madden logo look similar to the old Washington logo?
It’s just you.
Definitely not just you. I thought the same thing at first glance.
All NFC teams on Thanksgiving this year. When was the last time that happened? Before the merger?
Not so far back. 2018 had Detroit hosting Chicago, Dallas hosting Washington, and New Orleans hosting Atlanta.
Great line up for Thanksgiving games, can’t wait!
“in deference to Madden’s famous espousal of gluttony”
This. Such a great turn of phrase to describe Madden’s epicurean excesses!
“epicurean excesses” is really good too!
Paul and Phil are culinary gents. Either of you (or any Uni Watch reader) ever attempted a Turducken?
Not me.
Hah! I am FAR from culinary — I’m a picky eater with simple tastes. Paul, OTOH…
and no, I’ve never attempted, nor have I ever been tempted to try, a Turducken. Frankly even the thought of such a frankenmeal kinda sickens me.
I wish there was a like button.
The Sporting News has a brief but detailed article on the evolution of The Turkey Leg MVP Award, including the inventor of the Six-legged turkey joking(?) that they grow on a farm near the Glen Rose nuclear plant…
Maybe Thanksgiving should be renamed Thanks John Madden Day. I still miss his commentary, he was really part of the fun. The can is wonderful: imagine your car singing like Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole.
I once had a Camaro that sounded like Ed Orgeron trying to rap
I’m stealing this joke for my friends that attended LSU.
I wonder if this’ll be a continuous thing because you’re going to have a really hard time convincing the Broncos, Chargers and Chiefs to wear that patch
If they are going to do this every year, then your post would explain why the first design was changed from (Raiders) Coach Madden to Commentator Madden…
I am very pleased to see Madden recognized again on Thanksgiving Day. He loved NFL football and he loved Thanksgiving. I have a lot o f great memories growing up listening to him and Pat every Sunday and every Thanksgiving until they went separate ways.
Now we just need Jerome Bettis to do the coin toss.
While I’m firmly in favor of Washington bringing back the Redskins name and logo, I could be convinced to instead use the new round Madden logo, with a change of team name to the Washington BOOM!–exclamation point included. I mean, since the ‘Skins/Football Team/Commies have to change their name yet again anyway, why not honor JM this way? The Madden logo is in the same style as the ‘Skins, with John’s head replacing that of Chief Walter Wetzel of the Blackfeet tribe (who fought hard to get that logo on the teams’ helmet). Add the feathers back as a nod to Madden’s love for Thanksgiving, and BOOM!, here’s a logo and team name we can all get behind!
“since the ‘Skins/Football Team/Commies have to change their name yet again anyway, why not honor JM this way?”
Are we sure the Commanders will (again) be changing their name? Yes, I know there’s new ownership and they’ll probably do everything to get the stench of Snyder off the team, but I don’t know that another complete rebranding is in the works.
And it will be interesting to see if Nike waives their 5 year rule for new uniforms (which I hope they get). Although, by the time the new uniforms actually get developed (a process we know takes a minimum of 18-24 months), they may be at the end of the five year cycle regardless.
Wait, the 5-year rule is Nike’s rule? I thought it was the NFL’s rule. Or are you having a jape at the NFL and Nike being the same?
I’ve heard for months now that for some reason, “Commanders” has some legal/copyright/trademark issues (not to mention the movement by Native Americans to bring the old name back), so they were looking for yet another re-brand.
Also, I’m with Ron in thinking that the 5-year rule was an NFL rule and not a Nike rule. Could be wrong, as Nike seems to be the One Who Rules All when it comes to NFL and college jerseys/uniforms. But then again, when they changed from the Redskins to the Football Team, that uniform only lasted 2 years. I realize that change wsd minimal, but it did involve new jerseys (ones that said “Washington” over the numbers instead of “Redskins.”
Regardless, while I believe it was a mistake to every change names to begin with, I enjoy watching the dumpster fire they’ve become. It distracts me from the dumpster fire that is my Cleveland Browns.