John Earl Madden was an American football coach and sports commentator in the National Football League.
43 Facts About John Madden
2.
Never having a losing season, Madden holds the highest winning percentage among NFL head coaches who coached at least 100 games.
3.
John Madden appeared on all four major American television networks, providing commentary for games broadcast by CBS, Fox, ABC, and NBC.
4.
John Madden lent his name, expertise, and commentary to the Madden NFL video game series, which became the best-selling football video game franchise of all time.
5.
John Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.
6.
John Earl Madden was born in Austin, Minnesota, on April 10,1936, the son of Earl Russell Madden and Mary Madden.
7.
John Madden attended Catholic parochial school with John Madden Robinson at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, graduating in 1950, and then Jefferson High School, graduating in 1954.
8.
John Madden was redshirted because of a knee injury and had a knee operation.
9.
John Madden won first-team all-conference honors at offensive tackle in his debut season at Cal Poly, and was a catcher on the Mustangs baseball team.
10.
John Madden was drafted in the 21st round by the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles in 1958.
11.
However, on January 3,1959, John Madden played in the All-American Bowl in Tucson, Arizona, and was later praised by Lou Pavlovich of The Sporting News for his play in the showcase.
12.
John Madden helped the team reach Super Bowl II that season.
13.
John Madden is still the coach with the most wins in Raiders history.
14.
John Madden's overall winning percentage, including playoff games, ranks second in league history behind Guy Chamberlin and is the highest among those who coached 100 games.
15.
John Madden achieved his record during a period that included head coaches Tom Landry, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, and Bud Grant, who are generally regarded as the top coaches of that era.
16.
John Madden was the biggest star in football broadcasting, and Fox, ABC, and NBC made offers higher than the $2 million a year maximum for sportscaster salaries; NBC's owner General Electric offered to make John Madden its "worldwide spokesman", and GE Rail would build for him a luxury train.
17.
John Madden's contract paid him more annually than any NFL player.
18.
In 2002, John Madden became a commentator on ABC's Monday Night Football, working with longtime play-by-play announcer Al Michaels.
19.
John Madden, who traveled by bus, decided to take the week off because he had traveled from Jacksonville to San Diego, and would have had to go back to Florida before returning to his Northern California home.
20.
John Madden was replaced by Football Night in America studio analyst Cris Collinsworth for the game, and returned for the following telecast on November 2,2008, in Indianapolis.
21.
John Madden called his final game on February 1,2009, for Super Bowl XLIII between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
22.
John Madden announced his official retirement from the broadcasting booth on April 16,2009.
23.
John Madden got his start in broadcasting calling in to longtime San Francisco radio personality "The Emperor" Gene Nelson's show on station KYA in the 1970s while coach of the Raiders.
24.
John Madden followed Nelson when he moved to station KSFO, and the call-ins continued even after Madden's coaching retirement.
25.
John Madden aired sports commentaries in syndication on the Westwood One radio network in the United States.
26.
John Madden was known for working the annual Thanksgiving Day games for CBS and later Fox.
27.
John Madden stopped announcing the Thanksgiving Day games after he moved to ABC in 2002, but the tradition continued.
28.
John Madden continued to pick the All-John Madden team through the 2001 season when he left to move to ABC and Monday Night Football.
29.
All John Madden was the title of John Madden's third best-selling book.
30.
John Madden played himself as the broadcaster of the fictional games in the film The Replacements alongside his broadcast partner at the time Pat Summerall.
31.
John Madden appeared in a variety of radio and television commercials including Ace Hardware, Outback Steakhouse, Verizon Wireless, Rent-A-Center, Miller Lite, Toyota, Sirius Satellite Radio, and "Tough Actin" Tinactin.
32.
John Madden appeared in a 1999 episode of The Simpsons, "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday".
33.
John Madden hosted an episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live in 1982 with musical guest Jennifer Holliday.
34.
John Madden made a similar appearance in the video for Paul Simon's 1972 single "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard", in which he attempts to teach football fundamentals to a group of kids playing a pickup game.
35.
John Madden stated in 2012 that Madden NFL was "a way for people to learn the game [of football] and participate in the game at a pretty sophisticated level".
36.
John Madden met his wife, Virginia Fields, in a bar in Pismo Beach, California, marrying on December 26,1959.
37.
John Madden had lost people close to him in the October 29,1960, California Polytechnic State University football team plane crash that claimed the lives of 16 players, the team's student manager, and a football booster.
38.
John Madden stated once in an interview that his fears were not about turbulence, flying, or heights, but primarily claustrophobia.
39.
John Madden never did commentary for the Pro Bowl, which was held in Honolulu during every year of his broadcasting career.
40.
Likewise, John Madden never called any preseason game held outside of North America, even when his play-by-play partner was on the telecast.
41.
John Madden found an unexpected use for his bus in New York City 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.
42.
John Madden died of undisclosed causes at his home in Pleasanton, California, on December 28,2021, at the age of 85.
43.
In October 2022, Cal Poly and the John Madden family announced that John Madden had donated a leading contribution toward a total $30-million football facility on the Cal Poly campus.