(Redirected from John Madden (football))
'John Earl Madden' is a former
National Football League player, a former head coach with the
Oakland Raiders, and is considered the top broadcast analyst for
NFL games. In 2006, he was inducted into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame as recognition of his coaching career.
Madden was part of the iconic
CBS and later
Fox broadcasting duo, along with
Pat Summerall in the 1980s and 1990s. He was also the last
color commentator for
Monday Night Football before it moved to
ESPN in 2006.
He currently serves as a popular
TV football commentator for ''
NBC Sunday Night Football'', author, and
commercial pitchman for various products and retailers. Madden has served as a spokesman for numerous endorsement deals, including the popular, NFL-branded home video game series that has carried his name since 1990: ''
Madden NFL''. Madden was inducted to the
Pro Football Hall of Fame on
August 7,
2006.
Early life
Born in
Austin, Minnesota on
April 10,
1936 to Earl and Mary Madden. Attended middle school in Daly City, at OLPH (Our Lady Of Perpetual Help) and left as an alumnus of 1950. Then attended
high school at
Jefferson High School, in
Daly City, California, graduating in 1954. John Madden played junior college football at the
College of San Mateo before transferring and playing college football and baseball at
California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in
San Luis Obispo, California. In football, he played both sides of the line, winning all-conference honors at offensive tackle, while as a member of the school's baseball team, he played catcher. Madden was drafted in the 21st round (244th overall) by the
National Football League's
Philadelphia Eagles in
1958, but suffered a knee injury in training camp and never played in a professional game.
Career as a coach
Madden began his coaching career while working on his
master's degree at Cal Poly. One of his first coaching positions was at San Luis Obispo High School. After two years as an assistant coach at
Allan Hancock College in 1960 and 1961, he was elevated to head coach the following year. Following an 8-1 season in 1963, he was hired by
Don Coryell as a defensive assistant at
San Diego State University, where he served until 1966. During that final campaign, the
SDSU Aztecs were ranked among the top small college teams in the country.
Building on that success, Madden was hired as
linebackers coach for the
Oakland Raiders in
1967, and played a role in helping the team reach
Super Bowl II during that first year. After Raiders head coach
John Rauch resigned to take the same position with the
Buffalo Bills, Madden was named the Raiders' head coach on February 4, 1969. With his hiring, he became the youngest head coach in the
National Football League.
In addition, Madden's overall winning percentage (including playoff games) ranked second behind only legendary
Green Bay Packers coach
Vince Lombardi. Both Madden and Lombardi won the Super Bowl and neither had a losing season as a head coach. Madden has a winning record (36-6-2) as a head coach against other NFL head coaches in the Hall of Fame that he coached against.
However, the team endured continued frustration over coming up short in the playoffs, especially against the
Pittsburgh Steelers. Five title-game losses in seven years left the Raiders with the same image that the
Dallas Cowboys had previously had: the inability to win "the big one." Despite a 12-1-1 mark in
1969, the team lost 17-7 to the
Kansas City Chiefs in the final
American Football League championship game. Three years later, what appeared to be a last-minute victory over the Steelers instead became a part of football lore when
Franco Harris's "
Immaculate Reception" gave Pittsburgh a 13-7 win. Then, in
1974, after defeating the two-time defending
Super Bowl winner
Miami Dolphins in dramatic fashion, the Raiders lost again to the Steelers in the
AFC Championship game.
In
1976, the team's luck finally changed when the Raiders put together a 13-1 regular season, escaped the first-round of the playoffs with a dramatic and highly controversial victory over the
New England Patriots, then defeated the Steelers for the
AFC Championship. Then, on
January 9,
1977, Madden's team finally captured their first Super Bowl with a convincing 32-14 win over the
Minnesota Vikings.
The Raiders lost the
AFC Championship Game in
1977 to the Denver Broncos with Madden battling an
ulcer for most of the season. He retired after the 1978 season when the Raiders failed to make the playoffs.
Madden retired not only with a Super Bowl ring to his credit, but was the youngest coach ever to reach 100 career regular season victories, a record he compiled in only ten full seasons of coaching at the age of 42.
Career as a broadcaster
Broadcasting partners
Since
1979, Madden has worked as a
color commentator/analyst on network television broadcasts of NFL games. After working lower profile contests for
CBS during his first few years, he was then elevated to the network's top football broadcasting duo with
Pat Summerall. When the
Fox Network gained the rights in
1994, the pair shifted to
that network with Madden reportedly making
$8 million per year. Following his appearance during
Super Bowl XXXVI in February 2002, Madden left Fox to become a commentator on
ABC's ''
Monday Night Football'', working with longtime play-by-play announcer
Al Michaels.
[1].
NBC
In
2005,
Dick Ebersol, president of
NBC Sports, announced that Madden would do color commentary for
NBC's Sunday night NFL games beginning with the
2006 season.
As of 2006, Madden has become the first sportcaster to have worked for all of the "Big Four" U.S. broadcast television networks. It was announced on
February 9,
2006 that Michaels would also be moving to NBC with Madden after his new ABC/ESPN contract was nullified so he could work on the NBC telecasts.
Radio
For listeners of
KCBS-AM radio in San Francisco, Madden does a 15 minute on-air chat with an anchor person every weekday morning at 8:15am with recorded repeats throughout the day. Madden has aired sports commentaries in syndication on the
Westwood One radio network in the United States.
Madden has had some very funny moments on his morning on-air chats. As always, his delivery is often as or more funny than the story itself:
★ When backup QB
Jeff Hostetler upset the
49ers to advance the
Giants to the Super Bowl, he was so obscure, his team bus left without him and Madden's bus had to drive him to the
SF Airport (with no bags, no ID, and barely clothed). Madden then had to vouch for Hostetler at the airport since he had no ID, was not recognizable and looked rather unsavory in his undershirt and barefeet.
★ While in office,
President Reagan once called Madden. John responded by saying, "Hey How Ya Doin'". John laughed about it on his talk show and said there are probably hundred different ways to greet the President of the United States, but "Hey, How Ya Doin" is probably not one of them.
★ In a co-ed bathroom at an awards ceremony, he left the
toilet seat up. He then realized as he was coming out of the bathroom, actress
Brooke Shields was next to use it. He said "hi" and exchanged pleasantries, and realized as she was walking she would forever remember him as the guy who couldn't put the toilet seat back down.
Style
Madden's lively and blunt delivery has won him critical acclaim and fourteen
Sports Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sports Event Analyst. His announcing style is punctuated with interjections like ''"Boom!"'' and his use of the '
telestrator', a device which allows him to superimpose his light-penned diagrams of football plays over live or re-play videocamera footage. Madden's use of the telestrator helped to popularize the technology, which has become a staple of television coverage of all sports.
Madden sometimes ends up the butt of jokes, as occasionally his commentary borders on the rhetorical and blatantly obvious. This tendency may have increased since his final years of working with Pat Summerall. It's not uncommon for someone to rib on Madden's ''"Maddenisms"'' by saying something like ''"You can't win a game if you don't score any points."'' or ''"If the quarterback completes a pass in the endzone, it's a touchdown."'' In November 2006, The Onion ran a sports brief headlined, "John Madden Reminds Viewers Of Importance Of Quarterback To NFL Teams." Madden has also been made the butt of jokes for his frequent "BOOM" comments, such as when a player hits another player hard.
Comedian and impressionist
Frank Caliendo does an uncanny Madden impression, mocking Madden's penchant for overstating the obvious in an exaggerated way, or parodying Madden's overzealous praising of star players like
quarterback Brett Favre. Aware of Caliendo's act by 2003, Madden said he'd read an interview in which Caliendo noted that the impersonation was not "to be mean, but to make money, so I'm happy for him and his family."
[1]
Popularity
Madden has also brought to popular American attention the poultry dish
turducken. While working annual
Thanksgiving Day games for CBS and later FOX, he would award a turducken to players of the winning team. He would also award a turkey drumstick to players of the winning team during the Thanksgiving Day game, often bringing out a "nuclear turkey" with as many as 8 drumsticks on it for the occasion.
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The
Pro Football Hall of Fame honored Madden with its
Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award in 2002. In August 2005 the Hall's Veterans' Committee selected Madden and
Rayfield Wright as candidates for entry into the Hall in 2006. Madden was inducted into the Hall of Fame on
August 5,
2006.
Other activities
Madden on the cover of ''Madden '99'', part of the ''
Madden NFL'' video game series.
In recent years he has appeared in a variety of radio and television commercials including
Ace Hardware (interestingly, Madden's partner Summerall was the spokesman for
True Value, Ace's main business rival),
Outback Steakhouse (the current corporate sponsor of the ''Maddencruiser'' – see below),
Verizon Wireless,
Rent-A-Center,
Miller Lite,
Sirius Satellite Radio and
Tinactin. In particular, the Miller beer advertisements cemented Madden's image in the public eye as a bumbling but lovable personality. He had a brief movie role playing himself in the 1994 youth football film ''
Little Giants'' and in the 2000 film ''
The Replacements''. Madden also hosted an episode of NBC's ''
Saturday Night Live'' in 1982 with musical guest
Jennifer Holliday.
In addition to his real-world exploits, John Madden lends his voice, personality and name to the ''
Madden NFL series'' of football video games published by
Electronic Arts. ''Madden NFL'' is created at
Electronic Arts Tiburon Studios in
Orlando, Florida and consistently is one of the top selling games in
North America every year. He has also recorded radio and television
public service announcements for a number of causes, including the Pacific Vascular Research Foundation of San Francisco (based on the health experiences of his wife, Virginia Madden).
Fear of flying
Madden is noted for his
fear of flying, believed to be related to the
October 29,
1960,
plane crash that claimed the lives of sixteen players, the team’s student manager, and a football booster all from his alma mater,
California Polytechnic. Having graduated from the school only two years previous, Madden lost many friends in the accident. However, it is known that Madden flew up until 1969, when he had a panic attack on a flight originating in Tampa. He stated once in an interview that it was not about turbulence, flying or
heights, but primarily
claustrophobia. He also once noted that when he did fly, he claims to have traveled all over the United States but never got to see anything.
Therefore he travels around the country in a luxurious customized coach-bus, which he has dubbed the ''Maddencruiser''. Because of this, Madden has never done commentary during a
Pro Bowl since they are held in
Hawaii, on the island of
Oahu, and states that he never will. However, if by chance the
Super Bowl is ever held in Hawaii and he is slated to announce it, he plans to take a cruise ship to Hawaii.
Madden found an unexpected use for his bus in New York after the
September 11, 2001 attacks, when he provided transportation for former ice skating champion
Peggy Fleming, whose flight home to
Los Gatos, California had been grounded.
[2]
Personal life
When not on the road, John and his wife, Virginia, reside in a custom estate in
Pleasanton, California, an upscale community east of San Francisco. He also maintains an apartment in the
Dakota Apartments in
New York City as an
East Coast base during the NFL season. He has two sons, Michael and Joseph.
Coaching record
''Oakland Raiders''
| Year | Regular
Season | Winning
Pct. | Playoffs | Division Finish |
|---|
| 1969 | 12-1-1 | 0.923 | 1-1 | 1st - AFL West |
| 1970 | 8-4-2 | 0.643 | 1-1 | 1st - AFC West |
| 1971 | 8-4-2 | 0.643 | - | 2nd - AFC West |
| 1972 | 10-3-1 | 0.750 | 0-1 | 1st - AFC West |
| 1973 | 9-4-1 | 0.679 | 1-1 | 1st - AFC West |
| 1974 | 12-2 | 0.857 | 1-1 | 1st - AFC West |
| 1975 | 11-3 | 0.786 | 1-1 | 1st - AFC West |
| 1976 | 13-1 | 0.929 | 3-0 | 1st - AFC West |
| 1977 | 11-3 | 0.786 | 1-1 | 2nd - AFC West |
| 1978 | 9-7 | 0.563 | - | 2nd - AFC West |
| 'Totals' | '103-32-7' | '0.750' | '9-7' |
★ ''Winning Percentage based on the regular season record''
★ ''Oakland missed the Playoffs in both 1971 and 1978
See also
★
Super Bowl XI
★
Immaculate Reception
★
The Holy Roller
★
Frank Caliendo
★
Turducken
★
Bang Cartoon
★
Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame
References
Footnotes
1. Fox Show Mocks the Meat It Fed On
Press
★
CNN Money article on Madden salary
★
Cal Poly Sports Information office
★
NFL on FOX "A-Team" - Pat Summerall/John Madden (1994-2001)
External links
★
Madden's official website
★ ''
Pro Football Hall of Fame:''
Member profile
★
Madden's daily show on KCBS radio
★
EA Sports Madden video game
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