NFL to honor John Madden during Thanksgiving Day broadcasts

John Madden was synonymous with the holiday because he was the voice of the Thanksgiving Day games.

The "John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration" will begin on the first Thanksgiving after Madden's death last year.

Roger Goodell said that John Madden was the most important person to the game. Thanksgiving Day brings all of the elements significant to John to life - family, football, food and fun.

The Thanksgiving tribute to Madden will be an annual event starting in November.

A recording of Madden discussing Thanksgiving and the holiday's relationship to football will serve as the lead-in to the three games that day, including Buffalo at Detroit on CBS, the Giants at Dallas on Fox and New England at Minnesota on NBC.

During his career, Madden worked for all three networks and worked on Thanksgiving 20 times.

Madden said at the Bears-Lions Thanksgiving game in 1997 that he would rather be at a football game than on Thanksgiving. The turkey, the family, the tradition, football are just some of the things that come together. Today, we have everything.

The tradition of handing out a turkey leg to the star of the game began in 1989 with Reggie White getting it after a win over Dallas.

Madden joked that he wished he had more for the offensive linemen after giving out victory legs to Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman. The barbecue owner in Texas created an artificial turkey.

The Madden Player of the Game will receive a trophy and a donation in their name from the NFL Foundation to the youth or high school football program of their choice.

There will be a patch on the uniforms with an image of Madden with his fist up in the air.