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Lions Pay Tribute to John Madden on Thanksgiving With Jersey Patch
In this story:
The Lions will carry on a Thanksgiving tradition on Thursday as they host the Packers to kick off the football slate on Turkey Day.
To commemorate this year’s day of Thanksgiving games, teams will be sporting a jersey patch featuring the likeness of legendary coach and commentator John Madden.
Madden’s Thanksgiving Day broadcasts are iconic, specifically his loving breakdown of the Turducken.
The NFL choosing to honor Madden on Thanksgiving is a nice gesture, but one that came with a bit of confusion at first. When the Lions first posted pictures of the patch, the jerseys were at an angle that made it difficult to make out Madden’s profile.
All teams playing on Thanksgiving Day this year will wear a John Madden jersey patch. Here is ours!#GBvsDET | #OnePride pic.twitter.com/xRrR2iu8n0
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) November 22, 2023
If you see Madden right away, good on you. If you just see a jumble of crude gold shapes, rotate the image roughly 45 degrees to the left in your mind and everything should slip into place.
Once you can see it, the patch looks great. But a few people who were quick to react on social media struggled to connect the pieces at first.
Took a minute. I didn't see Madden, I saw part of the Great Lakes, a saber, and small trinkets.
— Gailileo (@Osmungw) November 22, 2023
First time I saw this patch at this angle, I didn’t see Madden’s face, I saw this smiley face. pic.twitter.com/OBReY5irPc
— Patrick Hoffmann (@84patman) November 22, 2023
At first all I saw were a bunch of extra turkey legs that John Madden used to add to his tur-ducken, but then when I tilted the photo his face appeared.
— Mike Novak (@manovark) November 22, 2023
What am I looking at? Is that a map of some Polynesian islands?
— ChurroDude (@ChurroDuderino) November 22, 2023
Took me way too long to see it.
— AMERICA (@eicky32) November 22, 2023
Ok y’all be honest, how long did it take you to figure out what this was? https://t.co/0cM7StzWWt
— Duncan Smith (@DuncanSmithNBA) November 22, 2023
The Lions and Packers kick off at 12:30 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.