The American Football world has been rocked as the National Football League has announced that the legendary NFL Coach John Madden passed away suddenly Tuesday morning, December 28th. He was 85. Reports are not confirming his cause of death, but are calling his passing “unexpected.”
John Madden was a landmark football coach both pre-and post-merger of the historic American professional football leagues. His lifetime accolades include being the championship-winning coach for theOakland Raiderswhen they were still a part of the American Football League. After the National Football league merger, he won Super Bowl 11 as coach of the Raiders in 1976. He retired from coaching after the 1978 Season and began a career as a color commentator across a host of networks including CBS, FOX Sports, NBC Sports, and ABC Sports. He was inducted to the NFL Hall of Fame in 2006 and retired as a broadcaster in 2008.
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Condolences immediately populated social media after the announcements. Commemorations came in from the Raiders and other NFL teams, the NFL Hall of Fame, Electronics Arts, former andcurrent NFL players, and athletes from other sports. He left a mark on sports and pop culture as a whole with not only his trademark “Boom!” but with his ability to explain the game in ways that other football announcers have tried to emulate ever since. After the announcement of his passing, a documentary about John Madden that was originally planned to air on NBCUniversal’s PeacockTV, will air tonight in Memoriam.
For younger audiences, he is most known as the namesake of theMadden NFLvideo games, which have borne his name since the late 1980s. He played a pivotal role in creating asimulation-style football game with Electronic Artswho which completely different than the entity it is known as today. The firstMaddengame was released asJohn Madden Footballfor MS-DOS in 1988. After a few years, the name was shortened toMadden NFLfollowed by the year of release, and has been a yearly release ever since. The impact of theMaddenfranchise left indelible footprints on the sports video game market. TheMaddengames have been consistently used as a predictor of the year’s Super Bowl matchups andThe Madden Cursehas taken on a life of its own.
Outside of theMadden NFLfranchise, his bombastic voice and bubbly personality were attached to different TV commercials like ‘Tough Actin’ Tenactin, Toyota, Outback Steakhouse, Ace Hardware, and many other American franchises. He also made some film and TV cameos, loaning his boisterous voice to an episode ofThe Simpsonsand the movie,The Replacements.
John Madden has left a legacy that will be remembered way beyond any one avenue of entertainment and his presence will be sorely missed.
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