John Madden, Teacher
Bryan Curtis, writing for The Ringer:
One of the coolest things about John Madden is that he was an
academic. It was a brief run, but still. In 1979, after Madden
quit as head coach of the Oakland Raiders, he was hired by the
University of California, Berkeley, to teach an extension course
called “Man to Man Football.” Madden’s students had watched
football on TV. Now, they wanted to understand how it worked.Professor Madden stood in front of a board that was like the
Telestrator he later used on TV. Madden drew X’s and O’s and
carefully studied his students’ faces. “I wanted to see at what
point I lost ’em,” he told me years later. Madden was trying to
find the most simple way to explain a complex game. He was
converting passive football fans into smart fans. For the next 30
years, Madden performed the same trick on TV every week.
See also:
- David Roth at Defector: “Every Sport Could Use a John Madden”.
- Where to watch Fox’s documentary All Madden.
