John Madden: An American Original

Terms such as "legend," "icon," and "American Original" are thrown around so loosely and thoughtlessly that there is a danger that those concepts lose meaning and relevance. John Madden, the Super Bowl-winning Hall of Fame coach, 16-time Emmy Award winner, and face/likeness of perhaps the most successful sports video game ever, without question earned the right to be classified as a legend, icon, and American Original. 

Madden, who passed away yesterday at 85, reached the pinnacle in three distinct arenas: coaching, broadcasting, cultural touchstone. 

I am too young to remember Madden's coaching career, though I became well-versed about his accomplishments as part of my sports history self-education. I never played Madden Football, as in general I am not a big video game enthusiast. Thus, my greatest personal familiarity with Madden pertains to his lengthy and decorated broadcasting career during which he was the lead color NFL commentator for CBS, FOX, ABC, and NBC, but before reflecting on those years I will briefly discuss the other two facets of Madden's legacy.

Madden posted the highest winning percentage all-time among NFL coaches who coached at least 100 games (.759). He coached the Oakland Raiders for 10 years, winning seven division titles and never finishing worse than second in the division. Madden's Raiders lost once in the AFL Championship, and they lost five times in the AFC Championship, including three defeats at the hands of the Steel Curtain Pittsburgh Steelers and one to the powerhouse Miami Dolphins. Madden's greatest season was 1976, when the Raiders went 13-1 before routing Minnesota 32-14 in the Super Bowl. Madden's fear of flying plus health issues that he experienced as a result of the stresses of the job convinced him to retire in 1978 when he was just 42. If he had never done anything else of note the rest of his life he would have still been remembered as a Hall of Fame coach who was spectacularly successful during a highly competitive decade.

Starting in 1988, Madden not only lent his face and likeness to football video games produced by EA Sports but he was actively involved as a creative consultant for the games. Madden viewed the games not only as fun, but also as a way for fans to become educated about football's strategic nuances. Madden has not had a publicly active role in the NFL as a coach or broadcaster for more than a decade, but his name still appears on the video games, and that will probably continue to be true for a long time, a tribute to his lasting impact on the sport and the way that his name resonates deeply with the public.

My most vivid memories of Madden date back to the 1980s, when he and Pat Summerall provided the soundtrack for powerhouse teams such as the San Francisco 49ers, the Washington Redskins, the Chicago Bears, and the New York Giants. Madden and Summerall were the number one broadcasting team for CBS, the network which then owned the broadcast rights to NFC games. After CBS lost NFL broadcasting rights, that same duo did the big NFC games on Fox in the 1990s. Madden and Al Michaels teamed up on Monday Night Football on ABC from 2002-2005 before Madden and Michaels moved to NBC for the network's new Sunday Night Football package. Madden retired as a broadcaster after the 2008 season, and his last game was Super Bowl XLIII in 2009.

Madden was folksy and down to earth, which contributed to his popularity, but make no mistake that he understood football strategy at a deep level. He could make the complex things seem simple, which is the touchstone of his greatness (and the touchstone of greatness in general: the great ones make the complex things seem simple, while the average ones make the simple things seem complex).

In Competitive Greatness: Why Tom Coughlin Should Always be More Respected Than Tony Dungy, I recounted a situation that reveals much about Madden, Coughlin, and Dungy:

The NFL Network series "A Football Life" is a wonderful tribute to Steve Sabol's visionary genius. The Tom Coughlin episode includes a great story about the final game of the 2007 season. Coughlin's New York Giants could not improve their playoff position but instead of resting his starters Coughlin played the game straight up. The New England Patriots defeated the Giants 38-35 to clinch the only 16-0 record in NFL history but Coughlin's approach earned him a powerful phone message from Hall of Fame Coach John Madden: "Yeah, Tom, this is John Madden calling on Sunday morning just to congratulate you and your team for a great effort last night--not good, but great. I think it is one of the best things that has happened to the NFL in the last 10 years and I don't know if they all know it but they should be very grateful to you and your team. We were getting too much of that 'Well, they're going to rest their players because they don't need it.' That's not sports and that's not competition. Anyway, I'm a little emotional about it but I was so damn proud of what you guys did. It is something that we all ought to thank you for because, believe me, the NFL needed that. Congratulations." Coughlin saved that phone message and played it for his entire team; Coughlin explained to the NFL Films interviewer, "When John Madden calls you, that brings it right to mind again that that's really what football is: it's sport--and what is sport all about? We're trying to win. That's what this league is about, competitive greatness and always putting your best foot forward." The Giants eventually beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, Tony Dungy's well-rested Indianapolis Colts watched New England defeat San Diego in that season's AFC Championship Game; instead of truly competing in the final week of the 2007 regular season, Dungy made sure that Reggie Wayne won the receiving yardage title and then Dungy shut his whole team down. Every time Dungy pulled this stunt his team lost in the playoffs; despite their great regular season records under Dungy, the only time his Colts won the Super Bowl was the one season that the situation forced Dungy to actually act like every game really matters. Sports is not about trying your best some of the time or acting like some games matter while other games don't matter; Tony Dungy may be a wonderful human being but he should never, ever be ranked alongside Tom Coughlin--or New England's Bill Belichick--as a head coach.

I wrote John Madden: Style and Substance after he officially announced his retirement as a broadcaster:

...It was a treat listening to Madden talk about what made a young Bill Parcells a good coach or why Walter Payton was so special. Although Madden was always very energetic and enthusiastic during telecasts, if you paid attention to what he was saying you could learn something about the game: he had a keen, quick eye for what was happening on the field and his folksy way of expressing himself should not delude you into forgetting just how much he knows about the sport's strategies.

Madden also understood the human element of the game. Whenever he did Super Bowl telecasts, at the end of the game he would always say something to the effect that for the winning coach this was the greatest feeling in the world, something that no one could ever take away from him.

It was always hilarious to hear Madden carrying on during the annual Thanksgiving game about the "turducken." I first thought that he had just made the whole thing up but there actually is such a thing as a de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck stuffed with a de-boned chicken. Madden obviously had a lot of fun during the broadcasts but I respect the fact that he did his homework thoroughly before games, meeting with the coaches and key players so that he knew exactly what to expect from a strategic standpoint.

The All-Madden teams honored players who Madden felt played the game the right way and it was always interesting to hear his take about that.

During his coaching career, Madden had just three rules for his players:

1) Be on time.
2) Pay attention.
3) Play like hell on Sunday.

Micromanagers often lose sight of the bigger picture, and thus never achieve their most important goals. Madden understood that punctuality, attention to detail, and supreme effort are the three most important prerequisites for success, and he brought that same perspective to his broadcasting career, which elevated the production value not only where he worked but across the industry. 

When Madden did a Super Bowl broadcast, he seemed to take special, personal joy when the winning coach was doused with Gatorade and/or lifted up by his players. Madden typically said something to the effect of, "This moment is the greatest feeling in the world, and it is a moment that no one can ever take away from you for the rest of your life." Madden experienced that moment in 1977, and then he shared his perspective on such moments during a broadcasting career lasting more than 30 years. I will never forget his insights, his humor, and his passion not just for football but for life. John Madden is very much a legend, icon, and American Original.

Magnus Carlsen Defends His World Chess Championship Title for the Fourth Time

Magnus Carlsen defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi 7.5-3.5 in the best out of 14 games World Chess Championship match that concluded last Friday. Carlsen first won the title in 2013, and he has now successfully defended his title four times. Carlsen has been the highest rated chess player in the world since July 2011, more than two years before he won the World Chess Championship for the first time.

The Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi match began with five straight draws, and computer analysis of those early games suggests that some of them are among the most accurately played games in the recorded history of the World Chess Championship. Of course, this match will not be remembered for the high degree of accuracy that the players displayed in those closely contested games, but rather for the series of blunders by Nepomniachtchi that resulted in him losing games six, eight, nine, and eleven.

However, even when the players were playing with an unprecedented accuracy level no one should have interpreted that to mean that Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi are superior to all of their predecessors. Carlsen and Nepomniatchtchi have access to computer engines and other resources not available to their predecessors. Carlsen and Nepomniatchtchi deserve credit for working hard to learn, memorize, and understand the computer engine analysis, but it would be foolish to suggest that great champions such as Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker and Bobby Fischer could not have performed at a similar accuracy level if they had been provided access to similar resources.

Given the resources available at the time, Lasker dethroned Wilhelm Steinitz in the 1894 World Chess Championship match and then held onto the title until 1921, when the 53 year old Lasker lost to the 33 year old Jose Raul Capablanca. Lasker's 27 year run as World Chess Champion remains not only an unbroken record 100 years later, but it is a record that has not been seriously challenged, though it should be noted that Steinitz did not lose a match from 1862 until Lasker bested him in 1894, and that Steinitz was likely the best player in the world from 1866-1894 even though his "official" reign as World Champion did not begin until 1886. Lasker and Steinitz demonstrated both great talent and tremendous work ethic to stay on top for so long, and those traits would serve them well in the modern era.

Similarly, given the resources available at the time, Fischer took first place in the last eight tournaments that he finished, he won 20 games in a row against elite competition, and he soundly defeated Boris Spassky to win the World Chess Championship in 1972. Perhaps the best measurement of dominant superiority is the distance between the top ranked player and his closest contemporary. When Fischer was at his peak, his rating (2785) was 125 points higher than the second best player's rating. A rating class is 200 points, so Fischer was more than half a rating class better than the rest of the world!

In contrast, Carlsen--who set the record for highest rating (2882) and currently has a rating of 2856 (not including the games from the 2021 World Chess Championship)--has never been ahead of the rest of the world by more than 75 points, and the margin between him and the second rated player has sometimes been as small as single digits. Yes, 40 or 50 points is a large margin at the very top, and it is significant that Carlsen has had an unbroken grip on the top spot for more than 10 years, but he has never been as far ahead of his contemporaries as peak Fischer was. 

Carlsen is a consummate sportsman who is enjoying a lengthy run at the summit thanks to his intelligence, steady nerves, and superb physical conditioning. Nepomniachtchi may come close to matching Carlsen's intelligence, but during the course of the match Carlsen showcased his significant advantages in the other two areas.

After clinching the championship with a game 11 win, Carlsen said, "I didn't expect it to go quite like this. I think it was just a very good professional performance overall. No regrets at all, just very satisfied." He added, "After five games there were five draws and I'd had very, very few chances to play for anything more. Then everything kind of clicked and after that it all went my way. You don't expect to necessarily run away with it in a world championship."

Nepomniatchtchi tried to explain why he not only blundered so frequently at key moments but also why he made some mistakes that are shocking for a player of his caliber: "The match of course consists of many aspects. It's not only chess preparation but physical and psychological preparation. Of course it's really tense and it's a little more tense than I expected. But I guess anyway the tension is not a reason to overlook some simple things that you would never overlook in a blitz game. What can I say? I should find out why it did happen and improve."

Viswanathan Anand, who Carlsen dethroned in 2013 to become World Chess Champion, once noted that winning a World Chess Championship match is "just a question of nerves." It is worth remembering that Anand had a disastrous breakdown in his first World Chess Championship match, losing four games in a five game stretch versus reigning World Champion Garry Kasparov in 1995 en route to losing the match 10.5 to 7.5, but Anand recovered to win the FIDE World Championship in 2000 before defeating Kasparov's successor Vladimir Kramnik in 2008 to become the 15th World Chess Champion. In other words, while this may have been Nepomniachtchi's one and only chance to become World Chess Champion it may instead turn out to be a painful lesson that helps him take the final step to the chess immortality that each World Chess Champion enjoys.

One might think that the amount of computer-assisted preparation in modern chess makes playing at an elite level easier than it used to be, but in fact the players are under a lot of stress and strain to not only remember many intricate prepared lines but also to be prepared for unexpected moves by the opponent; such unexpected moves can be particularly dangerous because those moves are computer-vetted before being tried out against a human, so when a human is faced with a computer-tested line that he has not seen that is a different challenge than being presented with a novelty that has not been verified by strong computers. Casual fans/observers are often frustrated by modern chess because they do not understand what that they are watching; when the players drew the first five games, casual fans/observers complained about the large number of draws in recent World Chess Championship matches, but then after Carlsen won four games many fans/observers mocked Nepomniachtchi for playing too fast and crumbling under the pressure. 

The reality cannot be accurately described without looking at the match as a whole: Carlsen's strategy was to play solidly but with tempered aggression, and to count on his steadier nerves plus superior physical conditioning to wear down Nepomniachtchi. Nepomniachtchi did not make the most of his chances in the early games, and his game six loss foreshadowed the match's outcome: game six was the longest game in World Chess Championship history, and Carlsen wore Nepomniachtchi down in that battle much like he wore Nepomniachtchi down in the match overall. Nepomniachtchi did not blunder in a vacuum; he blundered because of the mental, psychological, and physical pressure that he felt while combating Carlsen.

Further Reading:

Magnus Carlsen Retains World Chess Champion Title After Sweeping Fabiano Caruana 3-0 in Rapid Tiebreak  (2018)

Carlsen Retains World Chess Championship in Spectacular Style (2016)

Magnus Carlsen Convincingly Retains World Chess Championship (2014) 

Magnus Carlsen Captures the World Chess Championship (2013)