John Madden Biography: Late NFL coach and voice John Madden passed away on December 28, 2021. He was 85 years old. The media did not give a reason, and the NFL said it was a surprise. With a winning rate of 0.759, the former Oakland Raiders coach had the best record in the NFL among coaches who had more than 100 games under their belt.
16 Emmys were given to Madden for his work as a commentator and expert. He also made the Madden Football line of video games for EA Sports. ESPN says Madden has always seen himself as a coach first and foremost. How much did the famous athlete make before he died?
John Madden Biography
John Madden Net Worth
The late John Madden was a great NFL player, sportscaster, and businessman. He was worth $200 million when he died. He was 85 years old when he died on December 28, 2021. John Madden was a great NFL coach, but some people think he is better known for what he did after he stopped playing. After becoming famous as an NFL analyst, he went on to work with one of the most popular video game brands of all time, “Madden NFL.”
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has long regarded John Madden as a dear friend.
His statement on the death of an NFL icon. pic.twitter.com/t5ZHEK5uoC
— David Moore (@DavidMooreDMN) December 29, 2021
It’s also worth noting that John Madden was a famous author who also appeared in many ads for different goods. Getting paid a million dollars was a big deal for him. He was also one of the first famous people to get jobs that paid more than $1 million a year.
The video game “Madden” made Madden most of his $200 million net worth. Read on for a lot more about this deal…
The Early Years of John Madden
He was born on April 10, 1936, in Austin, Minnesota. His father moved the family to California so that he could look for work as a car mechanic. John was still a child at the time. He had lived in a small town south of San Francisco for most of his childhood.
Before he switched to Jefferson High School, he went to a Catholic school. John Madden quickly moved up the football team ranks when he was in high school. John was a talented young player who could do well on both the offensive and defensive lines. Besides that, he was a great baseball player.
John Madden started playing football at the College of San Mateo as soon as he graduated from high school in 1954. After one season, he moved to the University of Oregon to study to become a lawyer and play football there. Madden’s playing career ended when he got hurt for the first time during his time at Oregon. Getting hurt in the knee meant he missed a lot of the season.
After getting better from his first accident, John Madden went back to San Mateo and played football for another season. After that, he moved on to California Polytechnic State University and played both offense and defense for the Mustangs.
Another time, Madden proved how good he was as a football player by becoming an all-conference offensive lineman leader. In college, he played shortstop for the baseball team while getting his BS in schools. In the end, he got his MA in education in 1961.
John Madden did play professional football at one point, but his career was over before it really started. In the 1958 NFL draft, the Philadelphia Eagles picked Madden in the 21st round. It looked like he would play for a while in the NFL. Things went badly during his first training camp, though. He hurt his knee (not the one that had been hurt before), which ended his career.
John Madden Jobs as a Coach
While John Madden was healing from a knee accident, he finished his college degrees to become a teacher. Norm Van Brocklin, whose career was coming to an end at the time, was also there. The ex-quarterback showed off Madden video games and talked about what was happening in each play. As Madden learned more about football, his training as a teacher began to mix with it. It was only natural that coaching would follow.
Between 1958 and 1960, Madden worked as an assistant coach at Allan Hancock College. After two years, he was made head coach. He was then hired as an assistant defensive coach at San Diego State until 1966, when the team was one of the best in the country. During this time, he worked for the brilliant football tactician Don Coryell. Madden later said that Coryell was the main reason for his success as an NFL coach.
He was hired as the safety coach for the Oakland Raiders in 1967. It was Madden’s head coach, Al Davis, who taught him. Davis learned from Sid Gillman. By accident, Madden was using methods from a man who had changed professional football. Davis had left the team by 1969, leaving 32-year-old Madden in charge. At the time, this made John Madden the NFL’s youngest head coach.
A lot of people think that John Madden was the best Raiders coach ever. Even so, from 1969 to 1975, the team was known for losing important games. That all changed in 1976, when they beat their longtime foes, the Steelers, to win the AFC Championship. They beat the Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl the next year. By 1979, it was clear that John Madden’s job as a coach was bad for his health, so he quit.
Career of John Madden on TV
After he quit teaching, John Madden started a long and successful career as a color commentator and analyst right away. Finally, he worked for all four big networks: Fox, CBS, ABC, and NBC.
He finally became famous and got multimillion-dollar contracts as one of the most sought-after sports TV personalities in the United States. Because John Madden is so afraid of flying, NBC even said they would build him a “luxury train” to get him to join their network.
John Madden used to make $8 million a year as a broadcaster. Today, that amount would be about $14 million after taking inflation into account. Even though he makes a lot of money, Madden’s work in video games has made his years of teaching and commentating less important. The truth is that John Madden got most of his money from the video game business that bears his name.
Since 1988, Electronic Arts has used his name and likeness in NFL computer games. Each book in the series has been a huge hit, and so far more than 130 million copies have been sold.
The video game company EA Sports signed a $300 million deal with the NFL in 2005 to make only video games for the NFL. At the same time, rumors went around that EA was thinking about not using the name “Madden” on any more games.
In the end, it turned out that John Madden had signed a deal worth rumored $150 million that let his name and picture be used in the games forever. In addition, it is said that John Madden got about $2 million a year as a fee until he retired in 2009.
Endorsement Agreements for John Madden
He was one of the first famous people to make more than $1 million a year from endorsements in the 1980s. Back in the 1980s, he had advertising deals with Miller Lite, Exxon, McDonald’s, Canon, and Ramada Inn.
His deal with Tenactin to be sponsored is probably what he is most famous for now. In the 2000s, when he was at the top of his game, his deal with Tenactin alone brought in $2 million a year. Later, Madden worked with companies like Ace Hardware, Outback Steakhouse, Verizon Wireless, Miller Lite, and Toyota as an endorser.
Finally, John Madden, the famous NFL coach and announcer, died on December 28, 2021. He left behind an unmatched reputation in the football world. When he died too soon at age 85, it was the end of an era for sports fans. Madden’s $200 million net worth comes from more than just his work as a coach and commentator, which was greatly impacted by the success of the “Madden NFL” video game series.
