Passing Of A Legend

The NFL, sports and broadcasting world, lost a true legend yesterday. Former Raiders head coach, NFL broadcaster and the man behind the most popular football video game franchise out there, John Madden, passed away at the age of 85. Cause of death, as of this writing, has not been announced. There's so much to the man and his legacy that we can try and do it just a little bit of justice here.

First off, there's the hall of fame coach. He spent a decade coaching the Oakland Raiders, leading them to seven AFC title games and a Super Bowl win following the 1976 season. He finished his coaching career with a record of 103-32-7, good for a .759 win percentage. That's the best in the history of the sport among coaches who have coached over 100 games in the league. When he hung it up from his fantastic coaching career at the age of 42, that's when his second career really took off. Thanks to his use of a telestrator, his work in the broadcast booth helped a new generation of football fans really understand the game they were watching on TV. For over three decades in the booth, Madden was winning an unprecedented 16 Emmy Awards for outstanding sports analyst/personality and covering 11 Super Bowls for four networks from 1979 to 2009.

Oh and there's even more than that. Anybody who's ever played video games at some point in there lives has played the game that bares his name. He had become attached to the franchise from the beginning when he was approached about the idea way back in 1984 when EA Sports founders wanted to come up with a new and different way to play football other than the old Strat O Matic games if your old enough to remember those.

Whether it was through his coaching of the raiders, his broadcasting of the games, or the videogame, everybody who has ever watched football in any way shape or form has been influenced by John Madden.