John Madden
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| Record at Pro Football Reference | |
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 a well-known CBS and later Fox sports broadcasting duo, along with Pat Summerall in the 1980s and 1990s. He was also the last color commentator for Monday Night Football before it was transferred to ESPN during 2006.
He currently serves as a 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 cock sucker
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
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
- ^ Sandomir, Richard. "Fox Show Mocks the Meat It Fed On". nytimes.com. Retrieved March 2.
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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
- Articles needing cleanup from August 2007
- Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field from August 2007
- Wikipedia pages needing cleanup from August 2007
- American football offensive linemen
- Cal Poly Mustangs football players
- Philadelphia Eagles players
- San Diego State Aztecs football coaches
- American Football League coaches
- Oakland Raiders coaches
- Pro Football Hall of Fame
- American sportswriters
- Sports Emmy Award winners
- National Football League announcers
- People from the San Francisco Bay Area
- American radio personalities
- Madden NFL
- 1936 births
- Living people
- People from Minnesota
- Pleasanton, California