John Madden, the Star of EA’s Madden NFL Series has Died At 85
Today, the world learned that legendary American football coach John Madden had died at 85. He is best known as the legendary head coach of the Oakland Raiders (1969-1978) and as an influential broadcaster.
For video game enthusiasts, he is also the name of the Madden NFL videogame series. It began in 1988 on the MS-DOS PCs.
John Madden, American Football and Madden Game Fame has Passed Away
Although most people think Madden would just sign a contract and agree that he will be on the covers for a few games, the man actually took action to ensure the games were quality. He felt they could be a way to encourage gamers to play football.
Madden felt American football video games could be a useful coaching tool. He even demanded that EA include 11 players per team, after learning that the MS-DOS original game had only six players.
The Madden video game series has been a hit since the release of John Madden Football for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. There are many Madden games available for a multitude of systems from handhelds like Game Boy to home consoles like Dreamcast and PlayStation.
Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, stated that “nobody loves football more than Coach,” in a statement released earlier today. He was football. He was an amazing sounding board for me and many others.
“There will never again be John Madden and we will always be indebted for everything he did to make the NFL and football what they are today.”
