Post by TheShadow on Aug 4, 2006 7:32:15 GMT -5
www.TheOlympian.com
We know him as the popular TV football commentator, as the comical co-author of "Hey, Wait a Minute (I Wrote a Book)," and as the pitchman for an athlete's foot medication.
But whether John Madden is standing next to Al Michaels, arms waving as he pontificates on X's and O's, or whether his name is on the cover of a popular NFL video game, he's still "Coach" to Otis Sistrunk.
On Saturday, when Madden is inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame 28 years after he coached his last game, Sistrunk will be among the expected 300-plus Oakland Raiders in Canton, Ohio, saluting "Coach."
"John was a player's coach," said Sistrunk, one of Madden's defensive tackles for most of the 1970s and now a Lacey resident. "He loved his players and his players loved him."
Sistrunk remembers Madden coming into the locker room after practice, maybe bumming a cigarette off a player and then just chatting. Not much older than some of the players (he was younger than his kicker and backup quarterback, George Blanda), Madden had a way of connecting with guys like Kenny Stabler, Jim Otto, Art Shell and Gene Upshaw.
The frumpled Madden had a reputation for being lax in dress code, hairstyles and curfews. But he was maniacal about offsides, holding and other penalties.
"John was close to his players," Sistrunk said. "Players loved playing for him."
In 10 seasons with the Raiders, Madden dutifully followed Al Davis' request - "Just win, baby." Only 32 when Davis hired him, Madden became one of the youngest coaches to win 100 games, finishing 103-32-7 in regular-season games from 1969-78 before retiring to a life of talking.
Madden has become the voice and the face of NFL football.
The Madden we've all watched on Monday Night Football is not too unlike the man who stood in the Raiders locker rooms. The hands are still in perpetual motion.
"John always talked with his hands," Sistrunk said. "When he talk at a team meeting, he'd talk with his hands. People who watch him on Monday Night Football, see him. That's the old John. He's still the same guy."
Maybe not as intense. Who can forget Madden's wild rantings on the sidelines during a game?
"Like most coaches, John would get mad after a loss," said Sistrunk, who was a Raiders from 1972-80 and played in the 1977 Super Bowl. "But he didn't get mad that often because we didn't lose that often."
At 70, Madden is an icon and now a Hall of Famer. But he remains connected to his former players. Sistrunk sees his old coach he once did beer commercials with once or twice a year, usually at golf charity tournaments. And whenever they meet, "Coach" reaches for a handshake and says, "Otis, how ya' doing?"
"If he wasn't a good guy, you wouldn't have 300 guys coming back for his induction," Sistrunk said.
Madden, who quit coaching because of ulcers and stress, is now the 16th Raider to be inducted in the Hall of Fame. Clearly, he had a talented team. But he also had a knack for squeezing the best out of them.
"Guys who played for John would run through a wall for him," Sistrunk said. "He's just that kind of coach. Not everyone who played for John liked him. But I'd say 98 percent of them did. He was a down to earth coach."
