John Madden, the former football player, coach, renowned commentator and the man who lent his last name to create the franchise of Madden NFL, died in the last hours at the age of 85.
News of Madden’s death was recently confirmed by the National Football League (NFL). The sports organization offered its condolences and said that “nobody loved football like El Coach did. He WAS soccer.
Madden’s playing career was very short, but he had a very successful time managing the Raiders from Oakland and other teams. Later, he became a sportscaster for sports networks such as FOX, CBS, ABC, and NBC.
The story of John Madden Football (and subsequently Madden NFL)
It was the recognition of Madden as an icon of the franchise that made it also make history in the video game industry. Trip Hawkings, the founder of Electronic Arts, I was trying to make a simulation game of American football. So in 1984 he decided to contact John Madden to sell him the idea of a football simulation game. The same character would repeat throughout his life the idea that this would be an educational tool to learn about sport.
However, it would not be an easy task. At that time computers had a very basic performance compared to Nintendo and / or Sega consoles. Therefore, it was originally proposed that the possible title be launched with only six or seven players per team. This upset Madden, as he refused to launch a game that did not have the typical 11 players per team in American football: “I will not put my name if it is not real.”
Due to that and legal problems with Bethesda Softworks (which was partially involved in development), the game took three years to see the light of day. Finally, John Madden Football It was released on Apple II computers in 1988.
Today the franchise of Madden NFL It has sold more than 250 million copies in more than 40 titles. His most recent release was Madden NFL 22 in August 2021.
Fountain: National Football League
