Post by TheShadow on Jul 17, 2006 18:49:34 GMT -5
www.scrippsnews.com
By RON AGOSTINI
No football man has merged credibility and likeability better than John Madden.
After all, why do we care that he can't ride airplanes or that he's overweight, or that when he sneezes, Corporate America reaches for Kleenex? He's simply Madden, stamped with the NFL's seal of approval and, right now, that's more than enough.
"I'm the luckiest guy in the world," Madden, 70, said during a recent teleconference call. "I never really had a job. I was a football player, then a football coach, then a football broadcaster. It's been my life. Pro football has been my life since 1967. I've enjoyed every part of it. Never once did it ever feel like work."
It's easy, too easy, to fall into Madden's I'm-just-a-lucky-guy shtick, probably because he's never taken himself too seriously and he's gained great mileage from his ah-shucks persona. Such spin leads to a fashionable argument that his post-coaching successes are the major reasons why he'll be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame next month.
Don't buy it. He's been a gold strike for the NFL for decades, but before the announcer, author and commercial pitchman came the coach, and Madden was a great coach.
His 10 seasons with the Oakland Raiders (1969-78) produced a won-loss percentage of .759, the best in NFL history for a coach with more than 100 wins. Counting playoff games, he trails only the legendary Vince Lombardi.
Critics point out that Madden's star-studded Raiders should have won more than just Super Bowl X in 1977. Fact is, the Raiders of that era were betrayed by several factors - the presence of great teams in Pittsburgh and Miami and some miserable luck (read: The Immaculate Reception in 1972).
"Everyone kind of goes through that, where you have a good team, you're getting close, but you haven't won it," he said. "They have a good record, yeah, they win a lot of games, win divisions, but they never won the Super Bowl. When you win the Super Bowl, that eliminates all your 'Yeah, buts.'"
Madden's genius didn't come from Xs and Os or brilliant strategy. As a player, he was a footnote, a 21st-round draft pick (Philadelphia) who suffered a knee injury and never played a professional game. No, his genius was born from his personality and, equally important, a jewel-cutter's feel for his players.
I mean, he had only three rules: 1. Be on time, 2. Pay attention, and 3. Play like hell when I tell you to. Replace "play" with "work," and it's advice worth heeding for any boss.
Madden would succeed today, but he'd require a savvy general manager to navigate the choppy waters of free agency.
"I tell coaches this all the time. I say, 'What you're doing now is tougher than what I did.' I think it's because of free agency," he said. "We used to be able to draft players, develop them, take an offensive lineman and put him on a 10- or 12-year program. This guy won't play for two or three years, but once he starts, he'll start eight or 10 years for us."
The most amazing element about Madden's career, however, happened since he left the field. Who figured a rough-around-the-edges football coach would blossom into an almost-perfect spokesman for Ace Hardware, Verizon Wireless, Rent-a-Center, Miller Lite, Sirius Satellite Radio and Tinactin? Still, he dismisses as a happy accident the popular NFL-branded home video game series that has carried his name since 1991.
"When we first started, we were going to make a computer game," he said. "We stumbled upon it."
Wait a minute. He rakes in an estimated $40 million a year, so something we identify as real fuels this engine.
By now, any other consumer jockey would have fallen into the celebrity black hole also known as overexposure. Instead, we hear Madden's trademark "Boom!" about every 15 minutes and then we buy the product he's pushing. He's the apple that never rots, the milk that never sours.
If only Barry Bonds had followed Madden's template. Then again, there's only one.
We can't avoid Madden. He's everywhere - commercials, video games, Monday Night Football the last four years, even gliding down America's freeways in his Maddencruiser. When he switches to NBC this fall for the new Sunday night NFL series, he'll be the first sportscaster to have worked for all "Big Four" networks.
All from a Daly City, Calif.-raised guy who talks football like the man sitting on the next bar stool.