June 13, 2026 • 17 mins
We're covering NFL Legend John Madden! Gronk and Julian Edelman discuss what makes John Madden so great and some of their favorite stories.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Standing six feet four inches tall and weighing around two
hundred and fifty pounds during his playing days. He grew
up in Daily City, California, and played and played college
football at Cal Poly sam Lewis Obispo Obispo as an
offensive tackle. He was drafted in the twenty first round
of the nineteen fifty eight NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Goles.
(00:23):
My mind was just blown because I just learned something.
Juliant there was that many rounds in the NFL draft
back then?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
He still twenty first round. How many rounds were there? Total?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Thirty rounds total? Yeah, that's absurd start. I'm glad they
knocked it down a little bit that that would be
way too much. If there was thirty round it won't
even make sense, won't even make sense.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
You'd have better have lower drosters.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
But was there less teams? Was there only like ten teams?
Is that why there was thirty rounds? They're just throwing
out there. It's like kind of getting drafted to go
to the military. And if someone showed up, they showed up,
then great kind. But if they didn't show up, well,
he didn't show up. That's why we drafted fifty players.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
So I teaming this military. You gotta go.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
That's why we know they just didn't have it.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
You're gonna draft fifty guys back then, and the ones
that don't show, we already know they don't have it.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
More like baseball the military. But yeah, will take it.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And he went on to become one of the most
successful head coaches in NFL history, winning over one hundred
games and securing a Super Bowl title in nineteen seventy seven.
After his playing and coaching days were over, his football
intellect and natural charisma helped him become a legendary broadcaster,
pitch man, video game pioneer, and cultural icon. Let's get
(01:30):
on John Madden. Madden and Jules. What's the first thing
that you think of when you hear the name John Madden?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
The tur ducan?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh tur duck.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Who doesn't think of the turduckan? This guy used to
cut the damn turducking with his fingers. Those big ass
offensive line sausages that he had. He cut the tur
duckan on Thanksgiving and he would reward the MVP of
Thanksgiving Day with the turduck and turkey, leg chicken, whatever
the thing is, whatever leg it is. He would give
it to him. We all know about it because of
(02:04):
John Madden. Thanksgiving John Madden Football. When you watch it.
John Madden, if you're a kid that's in his thirties
or lower forties, maybe even early fifties, taught you the
game of football through his video game. John Madden is
one of the most important names for the NFL, one
of the most important names for the National Football League.
(02:27):
I mean, you got kids out in Tokyo and Africa
and India playing American football because of John Madden video game.
I don't know if that's actually true. I know it's
the highest grossing American video game of all time. But
you know, it sounded good. It sounded good. That's all matters,
that's all. But you know he Daily City. I love
(02:50):
John Madden because he's a fellow College of sam mateolum
Go Bulldogs went to CSM, the same JUCO that I
went to. He was born and raised in Daily City,
so he had a huge Bay Area, Bay Area influence.
And then he also coached the Raiders legendary got them
their first was it their first super Bowl? Got them
(03:10):
their first Super Bowl with Al Davis with that corner
Stone organization and the history of that organization to be
the guy that brings them their first I mean, he's
just he's an absolute legend. His name is synonymous with football.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Here's a question for you, being a California guy, how
did being a norcl guy shape his approach to the game.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
That's a question I did well.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I mean it's not even just John Madden. How is
just being a NorCal guy overall? I mean John Madden
set the standard, but like, how did that change the
approach or how did he see it, you know, approaching
the game, you know, just being from California.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well, if you look at him on and how he
was on TV, very approachable, very like there's always the
stories of how John Madden took the bus everywhere and
was always in the community that he was visiting, would
go up to people he was like the most famous
guy in football, and he would go hang out at
like the local restaurant. And I think maybe and that's
(04:10):
what the noer cownis he has is being able to
be a very intellectual dude, but be able to break
it down to simple for everyone to understand. Kind of techie,
kind of techy. I mean he's C plus plus and ship.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
There we go, that's the answer that we're looking for,
And all of a sudden he's are from He's.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Shipped for you to understand the coding football the regular
viewer to understand me. I mean, Daily City, the freaking
cloudiest place in the world, but awesome right by the SFO. Literally,
it's the.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It's why their geniuses they don't go outside of the
cloudy cloudy.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
What's the point of going outside there's no sun. You
will stay inside. You become a tech master, tech master, And.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
That's kind of what he was. Well in the Bay
Area that you have this mountain range that is along
the whole coast and it funnels all that fog right
from both north and south right into like Daily City,
and so Daily City always freaking foggy. Shout out. Ceremony, Uh,
that's over there. Ceremony was this mall where everyone would
(05:17):
go get their Air Force ones. It was in Daily City, shout.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Out say in that era and being that consistent for
that long of a time, Yes, you got to give
it to him, I would say, right, who'd be up
there in that competition.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
There's there's a lot of great ones.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
I mean, I don't know. John Mann is the guy
he is.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Just the guy, and that's why he got the video
game cover. Hey, I like wop. I want to say
wop wop. Just the way that he broke down plays too.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
He like you said, he in vented the illustrator.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
That that's why he is who he is because you
said it. He made the game simple, and the game
of football is not simple. There's a lot going on,
especially for your quarterback. You got to know fifteen things
going on in a matter of a split two seconds.
You got to know where the safeties are, who's blitzing off,
what the defensive lineman's doing, what your wide receivers are doing,
(06:12):
what are the calls at the offensive line position. And
then when he broke it down, when John Madden broke
it down, I'm that little you know, chalk board or
whatever he was joy. Yeah, he's the one who started
that type of shit too. To break it down with
the fans, he made it simple for fans to understand
the game of football, for people that don't play the
game of football, because it's hard to understand the game
of football if you don't play it, and if you
(06:34):
can break it down easy, it gets the fans more involved.
And that's Also what made him so iconic is he
got so many fans involved in understanding the game of
football because he broke it down so easily. And that's
kind of how I am too. I appreciate when it's simple, Jewels.
When McDaniels was calling fifty calls at the line of scrimmage,
you got to do that when the blitzers and I'm like, no.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It's a lot for me. You got to think, I
like one, it's simple.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
And McDaniels found that out, as I also called it,
and he's like, I'm just gonna keep it simple for
rock and that's when you thrive the most. So I
appreciate John Madden for keeping it simple. You understand it
and you can just go out there and do what
you gotta do.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
They call that kiss keep it simple, silly. My dad
used to say, stupid.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Though you ever meet John Madden.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I didn't get to meet John men.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I never have either, But it feels like I feel
like I know we ever did. Yeah, it's like you
feel like you're your good friend.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
You know what he also did, like he brought in
the telestrator. He brought in you know Madden. I remember
hearing stories that They originally wanted to make it eight
verse eight because they didn't have the technology to do
eleven verse eleven hand and he was like, hard, no,
if we're going to teach football, we're gonna teach it correctly.
He taught football to the viewer, the telestrater. What that
(07:51):
did and what that showed was that gave an inside
look of how a coach coaches a player. You know,
the great telestrator, which is that we had I had
Scotti O'Brien where these guys would sit up there for
twenty minutes and they'd be doing John Madden shit. All right,
you guys. He'd draw like a butt here, a butt here,
you gotta get up there and go. And these guys
(08:12):
get on these telestrators and they think they're fucking Picasso
or something, and you know, and it's you know, it
brought the best out of it. It brought the best,
and it was a form of entertainment and it was
and it man, it broke it down simpler as well
and made it simple. And he was the first. John
Madden was the first to show people that's how we
broke down film. That's how like probably in those days
(08:32):
they had overhead projectors where they would show all right, guys,
this is what we're doing, and like that that little
thing right there is so huge. And now you look
at like how they show games now, everyone every network
is always trying to look for that new thing. That's
like the telestrator with all the different camera angles, the
fucking camera that goes in behind and everything, like all
(08:54):
that stuff. You could. He's a pioneer a lot of
that shit, you know what I mean. The Madden game.
I mean, I mean John Madden so legendary. They already
have a movie coming out about John Madden. You got
Nicholas Cage playing Madden, and I've seen some pictures of him.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
He kind of looks exactly like Madden. I don't know
how they do that.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Nicholas Cage is a skinnier guy, and like, what do
they do?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Fill them up with pillows?
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, I mean when I might just fill myselfself up
with pillows. I'd be in one corner, my brother would
be in the other corner, and we call it zooms,
and you just get as big as you possibly can
and stuff as many pillows as you can, and you
would run full speed at each other and just crash
right into each other, kind of like Mark Allstop versus
any linebacker, and you would meet at the line of
scrimmage and then we would just go flying backwards. But
(09:37):
our protection was the pillows. So that's what I guess
Nicholas Cage is.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Doing right now.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Let me explain something to some people out there. For
all you people that think, like, oh, I got a
baby grounk in my house, look at this kids. His
form of entertainment was running full speed into a wall
with pillows.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Into another person, not a wall built different into another
and to another person.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Ship mm hmm. He literally the former entertainment was playing
hockey downstairs and fucking running into each other. That looks
like Madden.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
That's Nicholas Cage.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Holy ship. They got his titties and everything.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I'm gonna be watching the movie.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
He used to have man boobs. We all love Maddens
man boobs.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Would you have rather played for John Madden, as you know,
with him being the head coach, or would you rather
have been his broadcast partner?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I'd rather play with him, played for him. I heard
he was an awesome players coach. I took a picture
recently in a bathroom I forgot where I was and
it was a quote of John Madden. He goes, guys,
what was it? I think it was like, you can't
break if you don't make a lot of rules, guys
can't break them. It was something like along that line.
(10:53):
Didn't I send it to you guys?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
The fewer the fewer rules a coach has, the fewer
rules there are for players to break.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Keeps it simple, keeps his because the rules that he
has probably get fouled so well because there's not so
many rules.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
And I think he did only have three rules.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
What were they? They were simple, be on time, pay attention.
This is like kindergarten. I love it. Yeah, I could
have thrived. That could have gotten an a you know,
playing for John Madden back in.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
The day, and play hard when I tell you.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I like that. So what if he doesn't tell you
to play hard? You don't have to play hard.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You're probably just playing your game.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
But then like when he really needs like that team
to step up, his team to step up to another level,
brings him in the huddel. Hey, motherfuckers, I need you
guys to play hard right now, and whoop the motherfucking
asses and then they go out there and play hard.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
I bet you he had. He probably had some great
like pregame speeches.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
I mean, the guy knows how to talk savvy, savvy, clever.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
And it was like always like entertaining tokue like the booms,
and you know, he would come up with names and
he would like he analogized the regular man shit to
like I really.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Look up to people like John Madden that just have
that wittiness to them. There's a lot of people like that.
Greg Olsen has a straight hand, has it, you know,
Terry Bradshaw has it. Like you put them in any
situation and they can just be witty with whatever's going
on or figure out a way to explain what's going
on or a way to ask a question of what's
being evaluated right there.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
John Madden had that.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
The words he would come up with, the way he
would explain things. You got to be born with that trait.
I mean, you can develop it a little bit. I
got it in a way, like but they have it
to a whole another level and it's.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Like I envy it.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
I love it. I love what they just do. And
John Madden had that and that's what made him so
great as well. And that's what made him such a
great speaker and a guy to explain the game and
broadcaster and coach, because you can relate to people when
you can, you know, speak like that.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And I I I loved I love people like that.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
And it's crazy. He's he's one of the only he's
the only broadcaster to go on the four big networks NBC, CBS,
ABC and then go into Fox. He did all four.
He did the Big Four. That's when you know you're
good hearing old stories from Shanks, one of our bosses
at Fox. He used to say that like John basically
(13:29):
gave the template of how we're gonna call the game
like and it was basically like a playsheet of like
how they you would prepare for a game, like the
information groups, like building a scouting system. There's he taught
the people on like what information he wanted to see,
like what the coaches request for all the film guys
(13:50):
for when they're breaking down an opponent. I heard like
he was a huge part of all that. I could
be completely wrong and may have just thought that through
my my brain, but I remember Shank's talking about a
lot of about Madden.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
No definitely.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
He was one of the first guys that brought into
interviewing with the players the night before. Whenever you hear like, oh,
were you talking to this guy? You know like that
was John Madden.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
And that's a true inside perspective into the game is
when you get inside the heads of a player. And
John Madden started that, like you said, and that helps
you out in the booth as well, and it gives
you know, a better perspective to the fans in the sports.
It's in the game all right, before we get on
though and figure out what type of guy he is. Jules,
I got a question, what was your best Madden rating?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I don't know? Yeah, you do know, I really don't.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Come on, you don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
It was in the nineties.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I'll tell you mine.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
You were a ninety nine club.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, I was a ninety nine club or babe. That's
why I asked you that soth boost my ego up
a little bit. Ninety nine club a couple of times
as well. What was I I don't think I really
deserved it, like one of the years, but I was
a ninety nine er a few times.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
My best what was my best ninety five?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Ninety five that's not bad. Ninety five is really good overall.
It must have been your speed that knocked you down. Yeah,
your quickness is definitely ninety nine should be elite. What's
your speed? What was your forty? By the way for
four eight? Oh that's not bad. Actually won Yeah, but
your quickness is just through the roof, through the roof.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Jewels ninety five. Overall, that's not bad. You run the cover.
What year twelve it was? You run the cover of Madden?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yes, yes, Jules, so much cool shit I forget, yes, yes,
thanks man, I appreciate it. It was really cool man.
I think it was twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
You didn't get hurt after the curse was gone.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
It was it was gone. I forgot the guy before
me broke it who was on it the year before?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Remember that?
Speaker 1 (15:44):
But yeah, I was grind spiking on the cover. I
mean it was special, dude. It was really special to
be on the cover of Madden. So I just want
to give a big shout up to John Madden for
creating Madden and giving me the opportunity to be on
the cover. And it was special, dude, It really was
just just you know, it's an honor be in that category,
(16:08):
you know, to be recognized like that, you know, that
was one of the coolest things that happened to me
while I was playing, you know, in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
It really was.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Hell yeah, I mean that's a huge honor. And I
didn't know my score, but like I remember, back when
we were playing, we all looked at our score. I
knew I was on a high ninety of some sort
at my best, but like, that was a huge thing
in the locker room. I mean, you got guys that like.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
That's all they care about.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Now, that's all they care about, is God damn.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I mean what was it the New York Giants they
were or was it the Jets? They were cutting guys
based on their Madden score.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I mean that's what they said. I mean the grandson
was running it.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, I mean that that just shows how influential, yeah, influential,
and how legit Madden is.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Let's get to do. What kind of dude is John Madden?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I think this one's easy easy.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
I mean he's he's definitely a stud, drafted in the
twentieth round. Maybe a freak. We all see the man
boobs that's out of love. Uh, definitely had some dogging
him because I've seen a mother f some people. You
see a mother f in the old footages. He used
to yell, and he used to remember he used to
have all those great commercials. He used to have a
lot of great commercials. He's definitely a dude's dude. But
(17:27):
I think it's easy what he is. It is on
three one, two, three whiz. Why do you think he's
a whiz.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
He's a whiz.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I mean, like you said, he broadcasted for all you know,
four of the major stations. He was a head coach,
he was a player, and just the way he broke
down games. You got to be a smart and intellectual
guy in order to do that. And I would say
that's his number one aspect of who he was was.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Just his knowledge. And when you got that knowledge, you're
a whiz.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
He literally got inside the game, as EA would say,
because of John Madden.
Standing six feet four inches tall and weighing around two
hundred and fifty pounds during his playing days. He grew
up in Daily City, California, and played and played college
football at Cal Poly sam Lewis Obispo Obispo as an
offensive tackle. He was drafted in the twenty first round
of the nineteen fifty eight NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Goles.
(00:23):
My mind was just blown because I just learned something.
Juliant there was that many rounds in the NFL draft
back then?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
He still twenty first round. How many rounds were there? Total?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Thirty rounds total? Yeah, that's absurd start. I'm glad they
knocked it down a little bit that that would be
way too much. If there was thirty round it won't
even make sense, won't even make sense.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
You'd have better have lower drosters.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
But was there less teams? Was there only like ten teams?
Is that why there was thirty rounds? They're just throwing
out there. It's like kind of getting drafted to go
to the military. And if someone showed up, they showed up,
then great kind. But if they didn't show up, well,
he didn't show up. That's why we drafted fifty players.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
So I teaming this military. You gotta go.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
That's why we know they just didn't have it.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
You're gonna draft fifty guys back then, and the ones
that don't show, we already know they don't have it.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
More like baseball the military. But yeah, will take it.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And he went on to become one of the most
successful head coaches in NFL history, winning over one hundred
games and securing a Super Bowl title in nineteen seventy seven.
After his playing and coaching days were over, his football
intellect and natural charisma helped him become a legendary broadcaster,
pitch man, video game pioneer, and cultural icon. Let's get
(01:30):
on John Madden. Madden and Jules. What's the first thing
that you think of when you hear the name John Madden?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
The tur ducan?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh tur duck.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Who doesn't think of the turduckan? This guy used to
cut the damn turducking with his fingers. Those big ass
offensive line sausages that he had. He cut the tur
duckan on Thanksgiving and he would reward the MVP of
Thanksgiving Day with the turduck and turkey, leg chicken, whatever
the thing is, whatever leg it is. He would give
it to him. We all know about it because of
(02:04):
John Madden. Thanksgiving John Madden Football. When you watch it.
John Madden, if you're a kid that's in his thirties
or lower forties, maybe even early fifties, taught you the
game of football through his video game. John Madden is
one of the most important names for the NFL, one
of the most important names for the National Football League.
(02:27):
I mean, you got kids out in Tokyo and Africa
and India playing American football because of John Madden video game.
I don't know if that's actually true. I know it's
the highest grossing American video game of all time. But
you know, it sounded good. It sounded good. That's all matters,
that's all. But you know he Daily City. I love
(02:50):
John Madden because he's a fellow College of sam mateolum
Go Bulldogs went to CSM, the same JUCO that I
went to. He was born and raised in Daily City,
so he had a huge Bay Area, Bay Area influence.
And then he also coached the Raiders legendary got them
their first was it their first super Bowl? Got them
(03:10):
their first Super Bowl with Al Davis with that corner
Stone organization and the history of that organization to be
the guy that brings them their first I mean, he's
just he's an absolute legend. His name is synonymous with football.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Here's a question for you, being a California guy, how
did being a norcl guy shape his approach to the game.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
That's a question I did well.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I mean it's not even just John Madden. How is
just being a NorCal guy overall? I mean John Madden
set the standard, but like, how did that change the
approach or how did he see it, you know, approaching
the game, you know, just being from California.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well, if you look at him on and how he
was on TV, very approachable, very like there's always the
stories of how John Madden took the bus everywhere and
was always in the community that he was visiting, would
go up to people he was like the most famous
guy in football, and he would go hang out at
like the local restaurant. And I think maybe and that's
(04:10):
what the noer cownis he has is being able to
be a very intellectual dude, but be able to break
it down to simple for everyone to understand. Kind of techie,
kind of techy. I mean he's C plus plus and ship.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
There we go, that's the answer that we're looking for,
And all of a sudden he's are from He's.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Shipped for you to understand the coding football the regular
viewer to understand me. I mean, Daily City, the freaking
cloudiest place in the world, but awesome right by the SFO. Literally,
it's the.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It's why their geniuses they don't go outside of the
cloudy cloudy.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
What's the point of going outside there's no sun. You
will stay inside. You become a tech master, tech master, And.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
That's kind of what he was. Well in the Bay
Area that you have this mountain range that is along
the whole coast and it funnels all that fog right
from both north and south right into like Daily City,
and so Daily City always freaking foggy. Shout out. Ceremony, Uh,
that's over there. Ceremony was this mall where everyone would
(05:17):
go get their Air Force ones. It was in Daily City, shout.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Out say in that era and being that consistent for
that long of a time, Yes, you got to give
it to him, I would say, right, who'd be up
there in that competition.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
There's there's a lot of great ones.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
I mean, I don't know. John Mann is the guy
he is.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Just the guy, and that's why he got the video
game cover. Hey, I like wop. I want to say
wop wop. Just the way that he broke down plays too.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
He like you said, he in vented the illustrator.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
That that's why he is who he is because you
said it. He made the game simple, and the game
of football is not simple. There's a lot going on,
especially for your quarterback. You got to know fifteen things
going on in a matter of a split two seconds.
You got to know where the safeties are, who's blitzing off,
what the defensive lineman's doing, what your wide receivers are doing,
(06:12):
what are the calls at the offensive line position. And
then when he broke it down, when John Madden broke
it down, I'm that little you know, chalk board or
whatever he was joy. Yeah, he's the one who started
that type of shit too. To break it down with
the fans, he made it simple for fans to understand
the game of football, for people that don't play the
game of football, because it's hard to understand the game
of football if you don't play it, and if you
(06:34):
can break it down easy, it gets the fans more involved.
And that's Also what made him so iconic is he
got so many fans involved in understanding the game of
football because he broke it down so easily. And that's
kind of how I am too. I appreciate when it's simple, Jewels.
When McDaniels was calling fifty calls at the line of scrimmage,
you got to do that when the blitzers and I'm like, no.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It's a lot for me. You got to think, I
like one, it's simple.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
And McDaniels found that out, as I also called it,
and he's like, I'm just gonna keep it simple for
rock and that's when you thrive the most. So I
appreciate John Madden for keeping it simple. You understand it
and you can just go out there and do what
you gotta do.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
They call that kiss keep it simple, silly. My dad
used to say, stupid.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Though you ever meet John Madden.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I didn't get to meet John men.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I never have either, But it feels like I feel
like I know we ever did. Yeah, it's like you
feel like you're your good friend.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
You know what he also did, like he brought in
the telestrator. He brought in you know Madden. I remember
hearing stories that They originally wanted to make it eight
verse eight because they didn't have the technology to do
eleven verse eleven hand and he was like, hard, no,
if we're going to teach football, we're gonna teach it correctly.
He taught football to the viewer, the telestrater. What that
(07:51):
did and what that showed was that gave an inside
look of how a coach coaches a player. You know,
the great telestrator, which is that we had I had
Scotti O'Brien where these guys would sit up there for
twenty minutes and they'd be doing John Madden shit. All right,
you guys. He'd draw like a butt here, a butt here,
you gotta get up there and go. And these guys
(08:12):
get on these telestrators and they think they're fucking Picasso
or something, and you know, and it's you know, it
brought the best out of it. It brought the best,
and it was a form of entertainment and it was
and it man, it broke it down simpler as well
and made it simple. And he was the first. John
Madden was the first to show people that's how we
broke down film. That's how like probably in those days
(08:32):
they had overhead projectors where they would show all right, guys,
this is what we're doing, and like that that little
thing right there is so huge. And now you look
at like how they show games now, everyone every network
is always trying to look for that new thing. That's
like the telestrator with all the different camera angles, the
fucking camera that goes in behind and everything, like all
(08:54):
that stuff. You could. He's a pioneer a lot of
that shit, you know what I mean. The Madden game.
I mean, I mean John Madden so legendary. They already
have a movie coming out about John Madden. You got
Nicholas Cage playing Madden, and I've seen some pictures of him.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
He kind of looks exactly like Madden. I don't know
how they do that.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Nicholas Cage is a skinnier guy, and like, what do
they do?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Fill them up with pillows?
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, I mean when I might just fill myselfself up
with pillows. I'd be in one corner, my brother would
be in the other corner, and we call it zooms,
and you just get as big as you possibly can
and stuff as many pillows as you can, and you
would run full speed at each other and just crash
right into each other, kind of like Mark Allstop versus
any linebacker, and you would meet at the line of
scrimmage and then we would just go flying backwards. But
(09:37):
our protection was the pillows. So that's what I guess
Nicholas Cage is.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Doing right now.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Let me explain something to some people out there. For
all you people that think, like, oh, I got a
baby grounk in my house, look at this kids. His
form of entertainment was running full speed into a wall
with pillows.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Into another person, not a wall built different into another
and to another person.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Ship mm hmm. He literally the former entertainment was playing
hockey downstairs and fucking running into each other. That looks
like Madden.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
That's Nicholas Cage.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Holy ship. They got his titties and everything.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I'm gonna be watching the movie.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
He used to have man boobs. We all love Maddens
man boobs.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Would you have rather played for John Madden, as you know,
with him being the head coach, or would you rather
have been his broadcast partner?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I'd rather play with him, played for him. I heard
he was an awesome players coach. I took a picture
recently in a bathroom I forgot where I was and
it was a quote of John Madden. He goes, guys,
what was it? I think it was like, you can't
break if you don't make a lot of rules, guys
can't break them. It was something like along that line.
(10:53):
Didn't I send it to you guys?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
The fewer the fewer rules a coach has, the fewer
rules there are for players to break.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Keeps it simple, keeps his because the rules that he
has probably get fouled so well because there's not so
many rules.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
And I think he did only have three rules.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
What were they? They were simple, be on time, pay attention.
This is like kindergarten. I love it. Yeah, I could
have thrived. That could have gotten an a you know,
playing for John Madden back in.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
The day, and play hard when I tell you.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I like that. So what if he doesn't tell you
to play hard? You don't have to play hard.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You're probably just playing your game.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
But then like when he really needs like that team
to step up, his team to step up to another level,
brings him in the huddel. Hey, motherfuckers, I need you
guys to play hard right now, and whoop the motherfucking
asses and then they go out there and play hard.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
I bet you he had. He probably had some great
like pregame speeches.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
I mean, the guy knows how to talk savvy, savvy, clever.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
And it was like always like entertaining tokue like the booms,
and you know, he would come up with names and
he would like he analogized the regular man shit to
like I really.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Look up to people like John Madden that just have
that wittiness to them. There's a lot of people like that.
Greg Olsen has a straight hand, has it, you know,
Terry Bradshaw has it. Like you put them in any
situation and they can just be witty with whatever's going
on or figure out a way to explain what's going
on or a way to ask a question of what's
being evaluated right there.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
John Madden had that.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
The words he would come up with, the way he
would explain things. You got to be born with that trait.
I mean, you can develop it a little bit. I
got it in a way, like but they have it
to a whole another level and it's.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Like I envy it.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
I love it. I love what they just do. And
John Madden had that and that's what made him so
great as well. And that's what made him such a
great speaker and a guy to explain the game and
broadcaster and coach, because you can relate to people when
you can, you know, speak like that.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And I I I loved I love people like that.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
And it's crazy. He's he's one of the only he's
the only broadcaster to go on the four big networks NBC, CBS,
ABC and then go into Fox. He did all four.
He did the Big Four. That's when you know you're
good hearing old stories from Shanks, one of our bosses
at Fox. He used to say that like John basically
(13:29):
gave the template of how we're gonna call the game
like and it was basically like a playsheet of like
how they you would prepare for a game, like the
information groups, like building a scouting system. There's he taught
the people on like what information he wanted to see,
like what the coaches request for all the film guys
(13:50):
for when they're breaking down an opponent. I heard like
he was a huge part of all that. I could
be completely wrong and may have just thought that through
my my brain, but I remember Shank's talking about a
lot of about Madden.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
No definitely.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
He was one of the first guys that brought into
interviewing with the players the night before. Whenever you hear like, oh,
were you talking to this guy? You know like that
was John Madden.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
And that's a true inside perspective into the game is
when you get inside the heads of a player. And
John Madden started that, like you said, and that helps
you out in the booth as well, and it gives
you know, a better perspective to the fans in the sports.
It's in the game all right, before we get on
though and figure out what type of guy he is. Jules,
I got a question, what was your best Madden rating?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I don't know? Yeah, you do know, I really don't.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Come on, you don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
It was in the nineties.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I'll tell you mine.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
You were a ninety nine club.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, I was a ninety nine club or babe. That's
why I asked you that soth boost my ego up
a little bit. Ninety nine club a couple of times
as well. What was I I don't think I really
deserved it, like one of the years, but I was
a ninety nine er a few times.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
My best what was my best ninety five?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Ninety five that's not bad. Ninety five is really good overall.
It must have been your speed that knocked you down. Yeah,
your quickness is definitely ninety nine should be elite. What's
your speed? What was your forty? By the way for
four eight? Oh that's not bad. Actually won Yeah, but
your quickness is just through the roof, through the roof.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Jewels ninety five. Overall, that's not bad. You run the cover.
What year twelve it was? You run the cover of Madden?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yes, yes, Jules, so much cool shit I forget, yes, yes,
thanks man, I appreciate it. It was really cool man.
I think it was twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
You didn't get hurt after the curse was gone.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
It was it was gone. I forgot the guy before
me broke it who was on it the year before?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Remember that?
Speaker 1 (15:44):
But yeah, I was grind spiking on the cover. I
mean it was special, dude. It was really special to
be on the cover of Madden. So I just want
to give a big shout up to John Madden for
creating Madden and giving me the opportunity to be on
the cover. And it was special, dude, It really was
just just you know, it's an honor be in that category,
(16:08):
you know, to be recognized like that, you know, that
was one of the coolest things that happened to me
while I was playing, you know, in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
It really was.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Hell yeah, I mean that's a huge honor. And I
didn't know my score, but like I remember, back when
we were playing, we all looked at our score. I
knew I was on a high ninety of some sort
at my best, but like, that was a huge thing
in the locker room. I mean, you got guys that like.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
That's all they care about.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Now, that's all they care about, is God damn.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I mean what was it the New York Giants they
were or was it the Jets? They were cutting guys
based on their Madden score.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I mean that's what they said. I mean the grandson
was running it.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, I mean that that just shows how influential, yeah, influential,
and how legit Madden is.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Let's get to do. What kind of dude is John Madden?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I think this one's easy easy.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
I mean he's he's definitely a stud, drafted in the
twentieth round. Maybe a freak. We all see the man
boobs that's out of love. Uh, definitely had some dogging
him because I've seen a mother f some people. You
see a mother f in the old footages. He used
to yell, and he used to remember he used to
have all those great commercials. He used to have a
lot of great commercials. He's definitely a dude's dude. But
(17:27):
I think it's easy what he is. It is on
three one, two, three whiz. Why do you think he's
a whiz.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
He's a whiz.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I mean, like you said, he broadcasted for all you know,
four of the major stations. He was a head coach,
he was a player, and just the way he broke
down games. You got to be a smart and intellectual
guy in order to do that. And I would say
that's his number one aspect of who he was was.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Just his knowledge. And when you got that knowledge, you're
a whiz.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
He literally got inside the game, as EA would say,
because of John Madden.
Host
Julian Edelman
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