By Joao Cunha
John Madden passed away this week and his legacy will forever remain. To football fans all over the wordl he was the symbol of the NFL over the last 50 years. He began his trajectory in the early 1960’s as an assistant coach to legendary coach Don Coryell. He then took over the Oakland Raiders in the late-1960’s and built arguarbly the most charismatic team in the league’s history.
The 1970’s Raiders would win over 100 games in the decade and win Super Bowl XI destroying the Minnesota Vikings to clinch the Raiders’s first championship. John Madden built a team around a great offensive-line with Jim Otto, Art Shell anchoring a brilliant unit. Ken Stabler was the reckless yet clutch QB who led the team through many dramatic game-winning drives. The offense was full of stars like speed reciever Cliff Branch, a great possesion receiver in Fred Blientinkoff, and of course the best tight-end at the time John Casper. But the real strength of those teams were the intimidating and brutal defenses. Led by linebacker Phill Villipiano and pass rusher George Atkinson they rushed the quarterback and stopped the running game to great effects. Hayes and Willie Brown were the corners who shut down the o[[posing team’s best skilled position players. But the two most infamous players on that defense were Ted Hendricks and Jack Tatum two players who struck fear into opposing offensive players. Tatum was the hard=hitting safety and Hendricks basically had a free-role in the defense being arguarbly the Raiders’s best and most instinctive defensive players. With great special teams to go with these stars the Raiders reached 5 conference championship games and dominated their division under Madden’s reign. The team itself was built off discarded veterans from the NFL, unheralded college plaers, and some controversial characters. A lesser coach could easily have allowed the players to undermine the team, but Madden treated them like men. He only had three rules for his players:
- Show up on time.
- Listen to the coaching instructions.
- Play hard on game day.
With these rules the players rallied around their young coach and won many games and an NFL title. He abruptly left the coaching ranks in the late-1970’s having already built a hall of fame career as a head coach. However his teams would be studied for years and his vertical passing game and run-blocking schemes would be used by many coaches throughout football. John Madden before the age of 50 already made his mark on the game, in later years his incredible legacy would only increase.
Next up for John Madden was a career in broadcasting. Intially there were some struggles as Madden and TV executives at CBS. However when Pat Summerall was put in the booth with Madden a legendary partnership was born. I was not old enough to enjoy their broadcasts but listening to them in YouTube, it’s unmistakeable to see the chemistry they had. Pat would say very little but his timing as a play-by-play commentator was flawless. While Pat would be economical with his words, John Madden would go to explain the game with his funny yet brilliantly simple style. Madden didn’t need to show how smart he was, his intelligence lied in making the difficult seem simple and accesible to the audience. He would notice things that would only become consensus years later. During a 1993 playoff game between the Giants and the vikings. Quarterback Jim McMahon suffered a concussion and Madden opined that “I think if a guy has a concussion or had a concussion he shouldn’t play anymore. I don’t agree with that. (allowing players to play with concussions) They always talk about boxing being archaic but when a boxer gets knocked out he doesn’t fight for a month. And sometimes in football we say the guy has a slight concussion he will be right back in, I don’t know if i ever agreed with that.” He was so far ahead pf his time on this subject as it took the NFL almost 20 years after this game to take concussions more seriously after they fully understood the effects of CTE. (Also being sued for negliemce on the issue also forced the NFL to change too) He also predicted that future Hall of Fame and six-time Super Bowl winning head coach Bill Belichick would be a future head-coach when he was still an assistant with the Giants. But also he made people laugh, with his love of Brett Favre, his commentary on Turkeys during Thanksgiving, his enthuiasm for offensive linemen being tough, and his general unflappable BOOM sound effects. His games would increase ratings for any network he would work with. But more than that he was a commentator that NO fanbase would ever criticize him calling their games. He was universally loved by every fan and missed by everyone. His last game was in 2009 with the Pittsburgh Steelers’s dramatic victory over the Arizona Cardinals with another great call with Al Micheals. He worked with several networks and several broadcast partners but he shone on TV like few ever had.
To add to his incredible legacy John Madden lent his name and his voice to the most profitable gaming franchise in history which was EA’s Madden series. A series that I have played and enjoyed for many years. To be honest I learned more about football through “Ask Madden” a feature on those video games more than I would want to admit. His voice taught a generation of young people and me about football and for that his legacy will last well beyond his coaching or broadcast career. In the 1980’s he intially rejected several offers to put his name on football games as it was not authentic as they couldn’t make an 11 vs. 11 football game yet. When they could he put his name and voice in the video game and the rest is history. John Madden in this move made his legacy eternal as I doubt EA will EVER change the name that makes the game what it is today. Football fans decades from now will know John Madden’s name because of the video game and that is something to behold. A man who was born in the 1930’s will have a leagcy that will last for far longer than he could have dreamed of. Famously John Madden hated to fly, he used buses to get around. But while he hated to fly, his dreams soared to new heights and touched the hearts of minds of millions of people around the United States and even the world. There is no bigger compliment I could give to John Madden that I can’t ever imagine the game of football without him. He was one of a kind and his legacy like his catchphrase will BOOM in all of our hearts.
On a personal note John Madden was a icon, as he represented the Raiders my favorite football team with incredible class. He built teams with renegades and discarded players and built not only a team but a family. If you watch any ex-Raiders players talk about their teammates they loved and admired each other and especially their coach. He was the symbol of those Raider teams and he will always be a Raider legend. On the human level Madden was one of the rare people that everyone liked. There was no controversy, no criticism, no cancellation of his legacy, he was a really good person. When Pat Summerall passed away he gave a very emotional speech when he said the last goodbye is the hardest and he was right. On behalf of all the football fans in the world, with a special mention to Raider Nation we send to you our goodbye John Madden. May you be reunited with Pat Summerall, Willie Brown, Ken Stabler, and Al Davis in heaven and live your eternal life with the joy you had here on earth. Rest in Peace Coach Madden.
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