He had a net worth of approximately $1 billion, according to Forbes.
Boom! A former NFL player, sportscaster, and entrepreneur with a fortune in the neighborhood of $200 million, John Madden passed away recently. He passed away at the age of 85 on December 28, 2021. Even though John Madden had a successful coaching career in the NFL, he is best known today for his post-coaching activities. “Madden NFL” is one of the most popular video game franchises ever, thanks in part to his work as a popular NFL commentator.
In addition to being a well-known writer, John Madden has appeared in numerous commercials for a variety of different companies. He was the first television broadcaster to earn a salary of $1 million. He was also one of the first entertainers to earn more than $1 million a year from endorsements, making him a pioneer in the industry.
More than half of John Madden’s $200 million fortune stems from the “Madden” video game franchise. You can find out even more about this deal in the section that follows…
John Madden Early Life
John Madden was born in Austin, Minnesota, on April 10th, 1936. His father relocated the family to California, where he worked as an auto mechanic, in order to provide for the needs of the family. As a young man, John spent most of his childhood in a small town south of San Francisco, where he developed a love for the outdoors. In addition to attending a Catholic school, he then transferred to Jefferson High School. As a high school football player, John Madden quickly established himself as one of the team’s best players. This young athlete, who could play both offense and defense, had a lot of potential. He was also an accomplished baseball player.
John Madden College Football
At the College of San Mateo, John Madden started playing football right after graduating from high school in 1954. Prior to moving to the University of Oregon, he had completed one season of football at Oregon State University. The first of two major injuries that hampered Madden’s playing career occurred while he was a student at Oregon. He was forced to miss a large portion of the season due to a knee operation.
It wasn’t long before John Madden was back in San Mateo and playing football again. For the Mustangs, he was a dual-threat offensive and defensive lineman at California Polytechnic State University. Madden proved his worth as a football player once more, cementing his reputation as a formidable offensive tackle and earning all-conference honors for the second straight season. The college’s baseball team also had him as a catcher during his time at the university, where he earned a BS in Education and an MA in Education in 1961.
Professional Football
Even though John Madden was a former professional football player, his career was effectively over before it began. Initially, Madden was drafted by the Eagles in the 21st round of the 1958 NFL draft, and he was expected to play in the league. In his first training camp, however, a mishap occurred. The injury to his other knee (not the one he had already injured) ended his professional career.
Coaching Career
During John Madden’s recovery from a knee injury, he completed his teaching degrees at the University of Central Florida. Norm Van Brocklin, whose career was winding down, was also a frequent visitor at the time. Using Madden video games, the ex-quarterback broke down plays and explained what was happening on the field. His education in teaching began to mesh with football as Madden gained experience. The logical conclusion was to pursue a career as a coach.
Allan Hancock College hired Madden in 1960 to serve as an assistant coach. He was promoted to head coach two years later. As an assistant defensive coach at San Diego State until 1966, the team was among the nation’s top-ranked. Coryell’s tactical genius is what Madden later credited for his success as an NFL coach during this time.
The Oakland Raiders hired John Madden as their linebackers coach in 1967. Madden learned from Al Davis, who had learned from Sid Gillman, the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. To put it another way, Madden was learning strategies from a man who had a significant impact on the game’s evolution. In 1969, Davis resigned from his position as head coach of the team, and Madden, then 32 years old, assumed control. As a result, John Madden became the NFL’s youngest-ever head coach.
Many people believe that John Madden was the greatest Raiders coach ever. However, from 1969 to 1975, the team had a reputation for losing big games. After defeating their long-time rivals, the Steelers, in 1976, to win the AFC Championship, the Cardinals became the first team in NFL history to do so. The following year, they defeated the Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl to claim victory. Coaching had taken a toll on John Madden’s health by 1979, and he announced his retirement shortly thereafter.
Video Game Deal
It’s estimated that John Madden earned around $14 million in today’s dollars after inflation during the height of his broadcast career. Although Madden has made a fortune coaching and commentating on sports shows, his work on video games has eclipsed everything else. That video game franchise he helped create is responsible for creating the vast majority of John Madden’s net worth.
Electronic Arts has been releasing video games featuring the NFL star since 1988. Year after year, the series continues to be a huge financial success, selling more than 130 million copies.
EA Sports, a video game developer, signed a $300 million deal with the National Football League in 2005. It was also reported at the time that EA was considering removing the name “Madden” from any future games they developed. In the end, it turned out that John Madden had signed a deal for a reported $150 million that allowed the use of his likeness and name in the games for all time. In addition, until his retirement in 2009, John Madden earned an estimated $2 million annually as a retainer.
John Madden Endorsement Deals
As one of the first celebrities to make over $1 million a year from endorsements in the 1980s, John Madden rose to fame. The 1980s saw him working with Miller Lite and Exxon, McDonald’s, Canon, and Ramada Inn as an ad campaigner.
His Tenactin endorsement deal may be what people remember him for today. During his peak in the 2000s, he was paid $2 million a year by Tenactin alone. Madden also had endorsement deals with companies like Ace Hardware, Outback Steakhouse, Verizon Wireless, Miller Lite, and Toyota later in his life.
John Madden Cause Of Death
In his three decades as an NFL broadcaster, John Madden was known for his exuberant calls and straightforward explanations. The NFL announced his death on Tuesday morning. He had reached the age of eighty-five.
The NFL stated that he died unexpectedly and did not provide a cause.
During his ten-year tenure as head coach of the renegade Oakland Raiders, Madden achieved notoriety by winning the 1976 Super Bowl and seven AFC championship games. In the regular season, he amassed a 103-32-7 record, good for the best winning percentage among NFL coaches who have coached more than 100 games (.759).
However, it was after he stepped down as a coach at the age of 42 that Madden truly became a household name. In addition to educating football fans with his use of the telestrator during broadcasts and entertaining millions with his interjections of “Boom!” and “Doink! “, he was a ubiquitous pitchman for restaurants, hardware stores and beer and became the face of “Madden NFL Football,” one of the most successful sports video games of all time. He was also a best-selling author and published numerous books.
His long career as a sports analyst on television earned him an unprecedented 16 Emmy Awards for outstanding sports analyst/personality and coverage of 11 Super Bowls over the course of his three decades on the air.
Football Hall of Famer Jim Harbaugh was asked the same question over and over again when he was inducted: “Do you play video games?” Coaching is who I am and has always been.”
He left coaching to pursue a career in broadcasting at CBS after overcoming his fear of flying. He and Pat Summerall rose to prominence as the network’s top announcers. While at Fox, he helped make the network look respectable, and after calling prime-time games at ABC and NBC, he announced his retirement after Pittsburgh beat Arizona in the Super Bowl by a score of 27-23.
“I am not aware of anyone who has made a more meaningful impact on the National Football League than John Madden, and I know of no one who loved the game more,” Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a statement.
Madden’s unpretentious, unkempt style won him a place in America’s heart in a sports world rife with soaring salaries and diva stars. Due to the fact that he was afraid of flying and couldn’t travel by plane, he had to take his own bus to each game. A “turducken” — a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey — was given to the best player in Madden’s Thanksgiving game.
“Coach was a football fanatic to the core. There is no doubt that he played football, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated. “He was a great source of inspiration for me and many others.” There will never be another John Madden, and we owe him a debt of gratitude for everything he did to shape the modern NFL and the game of football as we know it.
He was widely praised for his passion for the sport, his preparation, and his ability to explain an often-complicated game in simple terms when he finally retired from the broadcast booth, leaving NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
While working with Madden for seven years on ABC and NBC, Al Michaels remarked that working with him was “like winning the lottery.”
A man who could hold a thoughtful discussion on a seemingly endless list of topics, he had a keen eye for the world around him. The term “Renaissance Man” is bandied about a lot these days, but Michaels said John was as close as you can get.”
His passion for the sport was clear to anyone who heard Madden exclaim “Boom!” when breaking down plays.
He wrote in “Hey, Wait a Minute!,” “For me, TV is really an extension of coaching. (I Wrote a Book! )”
As a coach, I’ve learned a great deal about football. It is my goal to share some of that knowledge with the general public through my work on television programs.
When Madden was a child, he lived in Daly City, California. As a member of Cal Poly’s football team from 1957 to 1958, he earned both his bachelor’s and his master’s degrees from the university.
Madden was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles and made the all-conference team, but a knee injury ended his professional football career. As an alternative, Madden went into coaching, first as the defensive coordinator at Hancock Junior College and then at San Diego State.
In 1967, Al Davis hired him as a linebackers coach for the Raiders, and the team went to the Super Bowl in his first season in the league. When he took over as head coach from John Rauch in 1968, he was 32 years old. This began a remarkable 10-year run for him as head coach.
As a coach, Madden’s demeanor on the sidelines and disheveled appearance made him an ideal fit for the Raiders teams he coached.
“Sometimes guys were disciplinarians in things that didn’t make any difference. I was a disciplinarian in jumping offsides; I hated that,” Madden once said. “Being in bad position and missing tackles, those things. I wasn’t, ‘Your hair has to be combed.’”
The Raiders responded.
“I always thought his strong suit was his style of coaching,” quarterback Ken Stabler once said. “John just had a great knack for letting us be what we wanted to be, on the field and off the field. … How do you repay him for being that way? You win for him.”
And boy, did they ever. Many years, the only problem was the playoffs.
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His first season saw him go 12-1-1, but he fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFL championship game 17-7. When he was in charge, the Raiders won the division seven times in his first eight seasons, but they went a dismal 1-6 in conference championship games.
There are some notable games in the NFL that Madden’s Oakland Raiders played in during the 1970s; these games helped to shape the league’s regulations. On the final play in 1978, Stabler deliberately fumbled forward in an attempt to get the ball back before he was intercepted. Dave Casper snatched the ball from the air and ran it into the end zone for the winning touchdown against San Diego.
In the 1972 playoffs, the Raiders faced the Steelers in Pittsburgh. A fourth-and-10 from the Steelers’ 40 gave the Raiders a 7-6 lead with 22 seconds remaining. Both Jack Tatum and Frenchy Fuqua deflected Terry Bradshaw’s desperate pass to Franco Harris, who ran it in for a touchdown.
It was illegal in those days for an offensive player to pass directly to a teammate, and the debate over which player it hit is ongoing to this day. The “Immaculate Reception,” of course, was the enticement.
Stabler was the quarterback, Fred Biletnikoff and Cliff Branch were the wide receivers, Dave Casper was the tight end, and Hall of Fame offensive linemen Gene Upshaw and Art Shell played on the defense, which also included Willie Brown, Ted Hendricks, Art Tatum, John Matuszak, and George Atkinson. In 1976, Oakland finally broke through with a loaded team.
They finished 13-1, with their lone defeat coming in a rout of the New England Patriots in Week 4. In their first playoff game, they beat the Patriots 24-21, and in the AFC title game, they beat the Steelers 24-7 despite being hampered by injuries.
The Raiders thrashed the Vikings 32-14 in the Super Bowl to claim the title of champions.
“Players loved playing for him,” Shell said. “He made it fun for us in camp and fun for us in the regular season. All he asked is that we be on time and play like hell when it was time to play.”
Madden battled an ulcer the following season, when the Raiders once again lost in the AFC title game. He retired from coaching at age 42 after a 9-7 season in 1978.
Madden was a longtime resident of Pleasanton, California, a Bay Area suburb. A 90-minute documentary on his coaching and broadcasting career, “All Madden,” debuted on Fox on Christmas Day. The film featured extensive interviews that Madden sat for this year. His wife, Virginia, and sons Joseph and Michael were also interviewed for the documentary.
John and Virginia Madden’s 62nd wedding anniversary was two days before his death.
Read Also: John Madden wife, Virginia Fields.