The NFL lost a legend on Tuesday when John Madden passed away at the age of 85. Madden had been a part of the NFL for more than six decades. Few people had as more influence on the game in so many ways. Depending on your age, Madden was a great coach, broadcaster or the face of the most popular football video game around. But one thing was certain: John Madden loved the game of football and that love was contagious.
Madden was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 21st round of the 1958 NFL Draft but suffered a knee injury that ended his playing career in training camp. He started his coaching career at colleges and was an assistant under future Cardinals and Chargers coach Don Coryell at San Diego State.
He made the switch to the pros in 1967 as a linebackers coach with the Oakland Raiders and he was an assistant with Oakland in Super Bowl II when Green Bay defeated the Raiders 33-14 in Vince Lombardi’s final game as Packers head coach.
Madden always had great respect for Lombardi. He often told the story of attending a coaching seminar where Lombardi spoke about his most famous play, the power sweep.
“I went in there cocky thinking I knew everything there was to know about football, and he spent eight hours talking about this one play,” Madden said. “He talked for four hours, took a break, and came back and talked four more. I realized then that I actually knew nothing about football.”
By 1969, Madden was head coach of the Raiders at the age of 32 which made him the youngest head coach in the league up till that point. His teams recorded outstanding records and he went 103-32-7 in 10 years with Oakland. His teams lost five AFC Championship Games before finally defeating the Steelers in 1976 to get to the Super Bowl. In Super Bowl XI, his Raiders whipped the Vikings 32-14 to give Madden and the Raiders their first Super Bowl title.
Madden had a reputation as a players’ coach. He allowed his guys plenty of leeway so long as they showed up ready to play on game day. He had a team full of characters and somehow got them to mesh as a team and be successful. Just the nicknames from those teams tell you about their personalities: “The Snake”, “The Mad Stork,” “Dr. Death” and “The Assassin” were just a few of the nicknames on those great Madden-coached Raiders teams.
The Packers faced Madden’s teams three times when he coached the Raiders. In 1972, Oakland beat the Packers 20-14 on a controversial play where Packers running back MacArthur Lane muffed the ball deep in Raiders territory and Raiders safety Jack Tatum picked it up and ran it back 104 yards for a touchdown. The league later admitted the Raiders should have gotten the ball on their own 20 as a muff cannot be returned.
In 1976, the year Madden’s Raiders won the Super Bowl, Bart Starr’s Packers gave them one of their toughest battles. The Raiders won 18-14 which saw the Pack outgain the home team 372-276. Both teams had 13 penalties in a tough, physical contest.
In 1978, the Raiders handily the Packers 28-3 as they gained 348 yards rushing on 58 carries.
Madden retired from coaching after the 1978 season and quickly went on to the next stage of his life. After doing some popular Lite Beer commercials that showed off his larger than life personality and writing some entertaining books about football and he went into broadcasting.
Here, Madden took the art of color commentary to another level and changed the way the game was broadcast. His ability to diagram plays for fans and his desire to give credit to offensive and defensive linemen helped fans appreciate players many had never noticed before.
More than anything, Madden had a deep knowledge of the game and he loved the game and he was able to get both of those facts across without sounding pretentious or talking down to his audience. Madden became the uncle or best friend everybody wished they could sit down and watch an NFL game with and from 1979 when he started his broadcast career until 2009 when he retired from broadcasting, he was a mainstay in homes across the country for the biggest games each week. If fans heard Madden’s voice, they knew it was an important game.
The larger-than-life ex-coach was fearful of flying and used to take a bus dubbed “The Madden Cruiser” to games across the country. He also loved calling Thanksgiving games and introduced much of America to “turducken” which was a deep fried and deboned turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken.
Madden famously teamed with some of the best play-by-play voices in the business. At CBS, by 1981, he was paired with Pat Summerall. They duo worked so well together as Summerall spoke in few words and gave Madden all the time and space he needed to provide analysis and be funny, often at the same time.
When Fox took over the NFC package in 1994, Madden and Summerall moved there and stayed together as a duo until 2002.
He later worked with Al Michaels on Monday Night Football for ABC and then Sunday Night Football for NBC. He called eight Super Bowls including his final broadcast which was Super Bowl XLIII between the Steelers and Cardinals in 2009.
Madden had a great love for the Green Bay Packers and the history of the franchise and what it meant to the league.
“To me, Green Bay is solid. There’s something solid,” Madden said in 1995. “There’s tradition, there’s something to hold onto, something to grab onto and there’s something that is fundamental and is what we’re all about. I love coming here. I wish there were more Green Bays.”
He also loved Packers quarterback Brett Favre who exuded a similar love and enthusiasm for the game and always seemed to be having fun on the field. It was fitting that Madden and Summerall called the Packers win in Super Bowl XXXI, the first championship for the franchise in 29 years.
Favre had this to say after Madden passed away. “We lost a larger than life legend in John Madden,” Favre tweeted. “My career was narrated by ‘Coach’, one of the best in the game. I’ll always remember our pre-game mtgs, when we laughed & talked about anything but football. I’ll miss my dear friend. Love & prayers to Virginia & the family.”
Younger fans may know Madden best as the namesake of the popular EA Sports video games which debuted in 1988 and continues to this day. He lent his voice and commentary to the game for many years.
Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006. It was something he took seriously and much like Packers legend Ray Nitschke before him, Madden shared the importance and honor of being in the Hall of Fame with new inductees each year.
Famously, Madden said that at night, when the Hall closes for business, the busts of all the players inducted in Canton spend the night talking to each other. What a great conversation that must be.
It is said the criteria for induction into the Hall of Fame is can you write the history of the game without mentioning this person’s contributions. Based on that standard, John Madden is a very deserving Hall of Famer as a coach, as a broadcaster and as an ambassador for the game.
You can follow Gil Martin on Twitter @GilPackers