LOS ANGELES, United State — Former NFL coach John Madden, who guided the
Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl victory before embarking on a successful
broadcasting career and pioneering a blockbuster video game franchise, has
died. He was 85.
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With his
distinctive voice and folksy, everyman persona, Madden became a fixture of NFL
broadcasts during a 30-year commentary career that began in 1979 and concluded
with Super Bowl 43 in February 2009.
It was a
testament to Madden’s status as a beloved broadcaster, and later involvement as
the voice of the smash hit “Madden NFL” video game series, that his remarkable
achievements as a coach have often been overlooked.
“Nobody loved
football more than Coach,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a
statement. “He was football.”
The league said
Madden died “unexpectedly” on Tuesday morning but did not give a cause of
death.
“There will
never be another John Madden, and we will forever be indebted to him for all he
did to make football and the
NFL what it is today,” Goodell said.
Born on April
10, 1936, Madden grew up in California and looked destined for a career in
football after starring for his high school.
But his hopes of
a professional career ended without playing a game when he suffered a second
serious knee injury during his first professional training camp after being
drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1958.
The injury was
to prove instrumental in launching Madden’s coaching career. During his rehab,
he spent hours in the film room breaking downplays in the company of Eagles
quarterback Norm Van Brocklin.
“That’s where I
learned pro football,” Madden would say years later.
After several
years coaching in college football, Madden was hired as linebackers coach by
Oakland owner Al Davis in 1967.
Two years later,
he would become the youngest head coach in NFL history at that time, at the age
of 32 years and 10 months.
Yet while Madden
built a succession of strong Raiders teams, his first seven seasons as head
coach were a story studded with near-misses.
The Raiders lost
five
AFC Championship games during that period, saddling Madden’s team with the
unwanted tag of serial nearly men.
Lifting the curse
The curse was lifted in spectacular fashion in 1976, however, when
after a 13-1 regular season, a Raiders team led by quarterback Ken “Snake”
Stabler romped to a 32-14 Super Bowl win over the Minnesota Vikings.
With that monkey
finally off his back, and Madden still only 40, it seemed certain to be the
first of many championships.
But two years
later, citing fatigue and ill health caused by a stomach ulcer, Madden walked
away from the sport.
“I gave it
everything I have and just don’t have anything left,” a tearful Madden
explained in an announcement that shocked the NFL.
“I’m retiring
from football coaching, and I’m never going to coach again in my life. I’m an
Oakland Raider, and I always will be an Oakland Raider.”
It was not long,
though, before Madden found a new calling.
Hired by CBS as
a color commentator, Madden proved to be a star in the commentary booth.
He would
eventually work for all four major networks — CBS, Fox, ABC and NBC — at one
stage commanding a salary that was higher than any NFL player.
His mix of sharp
analysis with the occasional breathless truism — “If this team doesn’t put
points on the board, I don’t see how they can win” — were to become his calling
cards.
Madden’s distinctive
style made him the logical choice as the figurehead of the only officially
sanctioned NFL video game, “John Madden Football”, launched in 1988.
The game, which would
later be known simply as “Madden NFL” and updated every year, would become one
of the biggest-selling video games of all time — generating billions of dollars
in sales — and hugely popular with fans and NFL players alike.
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