“Madden is dead.” There are probably some good millions – maybe even more – of (mostly) American boys who, if you tell them that, will take it very hard. After all, who responds well when they steal their favorite toy?
But, even though “Madden” is also the most successful non-FIFA or Pro Evolution reviewer sports computer game – that is, it’s the best sports video game franchise in America ever – it’s in the basket everything is named after Ben A real man. John Madden. And yesterday he passed away.
By the way, although FIFA and Pro sold more, it can be argued that the series of football games bearing Madden’s name is the most influential of all. Because football was the most popular sport in the world before the invention of the console, Madden introduced football. For homes all over the world.
Not only did he expose millions to a game that had previously been “this beating sport with an egg ball,” but also plunged the endless tactical complexity of this industry deep into the homes and minds of millions of Americans who suddenly knew this sport as deeply as they had never experienced.
And yet, somehow, John Madden, who managed to mark his 85th Christmas before dying at his home in California, was even bigger than the series of games.
How large? “He was football himself,” NFL commissioner Roger Godell praised him yesterday, “We’ll never see John Madden again, and we’re forever indebted to him for everything he did to make football and our league what they are today. “.
Sounds excessive? Maybe. Certainly for a man who as a player was only selected in the 21st round (!!) in the draft and never came on the field in an official NFL game. It’s probably also an exaggerated description of someone who has been head coach of the league for just 10 seasons, even though he won the Super Bowl once and led an iconic club like the Auckland Raiders to consecutive seasons of great balance sheets.
Maybe it even sounds too much for someone who has been a favorite game commentator for several decades. Not to mention someone who was simply named after a computer game.
But Madden was that too. And that too. And that too. And that too. And more – he was an educator and mentor, a leader and a father figure, a voice identified with an entire industry, a person who loved the game at least as much as everyone loved the person he himself was.
“There’s not a generation of NFL fans that John Madden has not touched,” Tom Felisero, a commentator on the league’s television network, said of him yesterday, where he was also described as “you can’t go a day around the league without saying or hearing his name.” “I wanted to play so he could broadcast my games,” said James Jones, a former player and current commentator.
“He’s the reason I broadcast today. He taught whole generations what football is,” added Dinagello Hall, “Generations of players grew up because they wanted to be in the league. But because they wanted to see their character in ‘Madden’.”
In addition, we are finally talking here about a man who was born in the 1930s, and who held positions with a lot of influence and power, in the most chauvinistic industry there is. And yet, Hall says of him, “no one can say anything bad about him.” At the end of 2021 it is no less important because of something else probably.
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