The most impressive thing about him is he is a football legend to different generations based on his work in three separate disciplines. People born in the 1950s or earlier remember him as a Hall of Fame coach. People born before the 1990s remember him as the country's most beloved sports broadcaster. People born in the 1990s or later remember him as the guy behind video game football. It is hard to think of anyone else who had a similarly large impact in one field in three such distinct ways.
Right on. I remember him strictly as an announcer. He rarely had anything super important or overly technical to say, but we loved listening to him nonetheless, probably for that reason...like a football grandpa. Reminds me a lot of Harry Caray, and I'll forever miss listening to both.
Madden was the butt of many jokes for his “duh” comments but the older i get, the more sense they seem to make.
I’m reminded of the “software is just ifs and loops” post from weeks back. I had that opinion when I started, lost it for 15 years and find it returning more and more.
One day in the late 90s or early 2000s a friend and I were playing Madden. My dad walked into the room and announced “huh, why are they playing football on a Friday.” He hadn’t noticed at a casual glance that it was a video game- John Madden’s voice was coming out of the TV and it looked like football, so it must be football. That has always stuck with me as an impressive level of immersion.
Sports video games, and Madden in particular, helped mainstream gaming and computing in a very real way. I hope EA brings him back to the cover one last time next year.
Legend. Don't think I'd love football nearly as much as I do if he wasn't around calling games when I was a kid. He had an infectious love for the game. The game lost a lot of its appeal when he stopped broadcasting.
I ran into John Madden a few years ago at A.G. Ferrari in Soma (he had a residence nearby at the St Regis). He cut in line in front of me, to get his seemingly daily sandwich. The lady behind the counter and I let it slide.
I'm glad I didn't quote the game (or worse, say "boom, tough actin tinactin"), but it was definitely interesting to have thought "Huh, what a wild life. Now he's just an old man who wants a sandwich like anyone else".
Even when you are wealthy or famous at the peak of whatever fame or wealth you may have, or at the end of it, some times you just want to be left alone and have a sandwich.
Madden definitely had a hulking, physical presence about him. I had grown up listening to his broadcasts with Pat Summerall and played Madden on various systems. Fast forward about 10+ years and I had moved to San Francisco and frequented The Grove near Yerba Beuna. I am terrible at recognizing celebrities in real life, but I immediately recognized him when he walked in. I had already ordered so I didn't notice if he cut anyone in line... one of the few times I can remember being starstruck.
I cannot just let your story sit here unchallenged on the day this great man died. First of all, John Madden lived his whole life as just a simple guy who wants a sandwich. He was as blue-collar as they come. The clothes he wore. Took a bus (sure, his own bus, but still) everywhere.
More importantly, perhaps he cut a line, I wasn't there and don't know. But literally everybody he worked with, who interacted with him for years or decades, insists he was gracious, generous, and kind. It's not right to mention your single interaction without countering with the thousands of people who loved this man.
One more anecdote. In 1978, during a preseason game, Jack Tatum of Madden's Raiders put a hit on New England's Darryl Stingley that paralyzed him for life. Madden, not New England's coach, and not Tatum, visited Stingley in the hospital that night. And the next day. And the day after that. And regularly, for weeks and months. He opened his house to Stingley and his wife. He returned from away games and immediately drove up to check on Stingley. He had no obligation, no responsibility, he just thought it was important to do.
I was looking at Madden NFL 200x games last week specifically the assortment of music (Chamillionaire, Earshot, Slipknot, Green day, etc.) that got me into listening to music in the first place. If it wasn't for those games, I don't think I would have ever gotten into football or listening to music.
Modden NFL helped demonstrate technology really well in a variety of ways that was fun and interesting to people who didn't see the appeal in video games like Pac Man. It was definitely a big contributor to getting more people into electronic interactive content.
Truly a loss to the game of football. I will forever remember his voice while commentating as well as him drawing on screen in a silly fashion, to explain different plays.
Great 30 for 30 podcast episode, where they feature a few stories /from/ Madden himself about what it was like creating the first John Madden video game and how his early influence helped make it what it became.
> Madden's Game: we look back at how John Madden went from being a football player and coach to the conscience of a billion dollar video game franchise that has stayed true to the sport itself.
Looks like he may have been responsible for at least inspiring the digital first down line that's just part of the broadcast now. It's not all football stuff, though.
Hard to know who famous people really are, but he seemed to be a pretty good dude.
One thing I remember that I rarely read about is him being involved with marketing for Florsheim shoes. My dad had extra wide feet and for whatever reason the Florsheim dress shoes were the ones he liked to wear for work. On a couple of occasions as a kid I got dragged along with him to the Florsheim store in the mall so he could get shoes. I think this was in the mid-to-late 80s. They had what was basically a video game cabinet, except it was like a guided sales catalog or shoe picker, and it was narrated by John Madden. At least it was something I could mess with instead of sitting around looking at shoes.
EA will keep his name and they'll continue to make a boatload of money with each yearly release while making the minimum amount of fan-requested changes with the least effort possible.
They'll probably use his twitter account to shill NFTs sometime in the next year.
EDIT: for the downvoters: I was referring to Stan Lee's twitter account now being used to shill NFTs, and saw John Madden as the next logical target of that behavior. Said it tongue in cheek. I'll keep my jokes to myself from now on.
Having retired over a decade ago, I bet a fair number of Madden players already have no idea who John Madden is and may think it's an obscure term like gridiron.
Rest in peace, you turducken lover. There's a place on the West Bank in New Orleans that made them for him special order and sent them to him on game days.
[+] [-] slg|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] darknavi|4 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B488z1MmaA
[+] [-] silisili|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dylan604|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dracophoenix|4 years ago|reply
Pre-1970s: Dracula
1970s-2000s: Scaramanga
2000s: Count Dooku/Saruman
[+] [-] subpar|4 years ago|reply
― john madden
[+] [-] mysterydip|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] liquidise|4 years ago|reply
I’m reminded of the “software is just ifs and loops” post from weeks back. I had that opinion when I started, lost it for 15 years and find it returning more and more.
[+] [-] christophilus|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] topkai22|4 years ago|reply
Sports video games, and Madden in particular, helped mainstream gaming and computing in a very real way. I hope EA brings him back to the cover one last time next year.
[+] [-] owlbynight|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] boulos|4 years ago|reply
I'm glad I didn't quote the game (or worse, say "boom, tough actin tinactin"), but it was definitely interesting to have thought "Huh, what a wild life. Now he's just an old man who wants a sandwich like anyone else".
[+] [-] bitexploder|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chang1|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] listenallyall|4 years ago|reply
More importantly, perhaps he cut a line, I wasn't there and don't know. But literally everybody he worked with, who interacted with him for years or decades, insists he was gracious, generous, and kind. It's not right to mention your single interaction without countering with the thousands of people who loved this man.
One more anecdote. In 1978, during a preseason game, Jack Tatum of Madden's Raiders put a hit on New England's Darryl Stingley that paralyzed him for life. Madden, not New England's coach, and not Tatum, visited Stingley in the hospital that night. And the next day. And the day after that. And regularly, for weeks and months. He opened his house to Stingley and his wife. He returned from away games and immediately drove up to check on Stingley. He had no obligation, no responsibility, he just thought it was important to do.
[+] [-] excerionsforte|4 years ago|reply
Modden NFL helped demonstrate technology really well in a variety of ways that was fun and interesting to people who didn't see the appeal in video games like Pac Man. It was definitely a big contributor to getting more people into electronic interactive content.
[+] [-] kloch|4 years ago|reply
I'm pretty sure I saw him coach in the 70's but my fondest memories of him are as a broadcaster in the 80's and 90's.
No matter how trivial the thing he said was you felt like you had just received critical knowledge directly from the football Gods. (Because you did!)
[+] [-] gregd|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kinos|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ptrklly|4 years ago|reply
https://overcast.fm/+dxvETG06k
[+] [-] syspec|4 years ago|reply
> Madden's Game: we look back at how John Madden went from being a football player and coach to the conscience of a billion dollar video game franchise that has stayed true to the sport itself.
https://30for30podcasts.com/episodes/maddens-game/
[+] [-] pram|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] saxonww|4 years ago|reply
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/31215567/coach-broadcast...
Looks like he may have been responsible for at least inspiring the digital first down line that's just part of the broadcast now. It's not all football stuff, though.
Hard to know who famous people really are, but he seemed to be a pretty good dude.
One thing I remember that I rarely read about is him being involved with marketing for Florsheim shoes. My dad had extra wide feet and for whatever reason the Florsheim dress shoes were the ones he liked to wear for work. On a couple of occasions as a kid I got dragged along with him to the Florsheim store in the mall so he could get shoes. I think this was in the mid-to-late 80s. They had what was basically a video game cabinet, except it was like a guided sales catalog or shoe picker, and it was narrated by John Madden. At least it was something I could mess with instead of sitting around looking at shoes.
[+] [-] fabiensanglard|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sfblah|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FillardMillmore|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jrootabega|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prometheus76|4 years ago|reply
EDIT: for the downvoters: I was referring to Stan Lee's twitter account now being used to shill NFTs, and saw John Madden as the next logical target of that behavior. Said it tongue in cheek. I'll keep my jokes to myself from now on.
[+] [-] boomboomsubban|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Lamad123|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hamiltonians|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] isamuel|4 years ago|reply
You’ll be missed.
[+] [-] selimthegrim|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] basementcat|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwawaymanbot|4 years ago|reply
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