Thursday is one of the great football days of the year, with a trio of Thanksgiving games on the schedule. Notably, the Panthers-Cowboys game on CBS (4:30 p.m. ET, also available for streaming) featuring Jim Nantz and Phil Simms on the call.
When the game ends, someone on the winning team will pick up a special Turkey Day award from Simms, the "All Iron" Thanksgiving MVP award.
Simms joined the CBS Sports Roughing the Passer Podcast to talk about the game (listen to the full podcast here, subscribe via iTunes here) and we got to talking about the award and the various players who won, including the inaugural winner, former Lions linebacker Stephen Boyd.
That got Phil to talking about the award and how it ended up named the way it was and the basis for the award's name is pretty hysterical.
"It’s funny, when it says 'All Iron' it’s a play on words. We started the show, we started it because they used to make fun of the fact that, the people that I worked with, I used to iron my own clothes when I travel," Simms said. "I said ‘How do y’all get your clothes ironed?’ and they said ‘We send them out to get them pressed!’ That would’ve never occurred to me so that’s kind of how it all started, kind of tongue in cheek.
"Stephen Boyd, to this day, is still the greatest winner. Because I wanted a guy who was all in and this and that. And we were in Detroit, wasn’t going to play, he was hurt. All of sudden I see he’s in the starting lineup and he plays great, he does a few things. And they’re kicking the field goal, there’s 10 people on the field and Stephen Boyd runs out there, throws his helmet on there, becomes No. 11 and he wasn’t even on the field goal team. And I just went wow, he’s everything that we want to talk about and be in this award so that’s kind of how it started."
Now, in a perfect world, there's a Boyd every single year, someone who comes out of nowhere and presents a blue-collar performance for a blue-collar award on a blue-collar holiday. But that's not usually the case so what happens is it ends being the game MVP.
"Of course over time it’s hard to find that Stephen Boyd kind of game so we just really turn it into whoever plays the best, the biggest star for the game, that’s who we give it to," Simms said.
The All-Iron reigning champ? Calvin Johnson of the Lions. But one guy featured this year, Tony Romo, holds the record for most wins (3).
| Previous All-Iron Winners | ||||
| Winner | Year | Team | ||
| Stephen Boyd | 1998 | Lions | ||
| Dexter Coakley | 1999 | Cowboys | ||
| Charlie Batch | 2000 | Lions | ||
| Mike Anderson | 2001 | Broncos | ||
| Troy Brown | 2002 | Patriots | ||
| Jay Fielder/Chris Chambers | 2003 | Dolphins | ||
| Peyton Manning/Colts O-line | 2004 | Colts | ||
| Ron Dayne | 2005 | Giants | ||
| Joey Harrington | 2006 | Lions | ||
| Tony Romo/Cowboys defense | 2007 | Cowboys | ||
| Albert Haynesworth/Chris Johnson Kevin Mawae/LenDale White |
2008 | Titans | ||
| Tony Romo/Jason Witten/Miles Austin | 2009 | Cowboys | ||
| Tom Brady | 2010 | Patriots | ||
| DeMarcus Ware | 2011 | Cowboys | ||
| Andre Johnson/Matt Schaub/J.J. Watt | 2012 | Texans | ||
| Tony Romo/DeMarco Murray/Lance Dunbar | 2013 | Cowboys | ||
| Calvin Johnson | 2014 | Lions | ||
