Maddenisms

Great thread on Twitter from J.A. Adande (and some additional quotes in the replies, too):

During the 2002 NFL season I kept a notes on random stuff John Madden would say during games, to see if I could learn his philosophy on life through the observations he dispensed in the broadcasts. I recently came across the notebook so here’s a thread of Maddenisms. […]

Some of my favorites:

“When you win [as a coach] you get to be a genius. But if you look at it, you’re a guy that was a PE major in college. Your best class was recess, and then you become a coach. When you win some games you’re a genius. You go from being good at recess to genius…”

“There’s 2 rules in life: You can always be late because you were watching Monday Night Football and the World Series. As a kid, you can always watch those 2 things and it’s okay.”

“When you do lose your hat, you don’t want your head in it.”

There may be football fans who didn’t love listening to Madden call a game, but I don’t know any of them. Madden and his longtime play-by-play partner Pat Summerall will always be the voices of Sunday afternoon football in my mind.

★ Thursday, 9 January 2020