Member-only story
We Lost A Lot More Than A Football Legend
John Madden passed away yesterday.
Most of you don’t know John Madden.
Many of you know him as a video game character.
John was more than a football coach and broadcaster.
He made an impact that will last generations.
He was a great football coach.
In fact, he has the highest winning percentage of any coach in history.
As a coach, he won 3 out of 4 games over a 10 year period.
He retired at 42 because he wasn’t having fun.
The stress and demands of coaching kept him away from his family.
After he retired, he reluctantly became a broadcaster.
He didn’t think he would like it.
Turns out, he became one of the most famous broadcasters of all time.
He made the game fun for diehard fans and for people who nothing about football.
He had the ability to explain complex football plays in simple, fun language that everyone understood.
He hated to fly so he traveled the country by bus.
He changed broadcasting forever.