John Madden "touched a lot of lives," fellow sports broadcaster Jim Nantz says
John Madden "touched a lot of lives" as a player, NFL Hall of Fame coach and broadcaster, fellow sports broadcaster Jim Nantz said following his death. Madden died "unexpectedly" Tuesday at the age of 85, the NFL said.
Nantz, the CBS Sports lead play-by-play announcer, remembered Madden for his celebrated career as a sports analyst and his short but successful coaching career.
"The young players today think that Madden is a video game, and then they don't realize that he was this enormous talent in broadcasting for 30 years, starting at CBS, working half of his career at our network, and still so many friends from producers and technicians to broadcasters still remain at CBS who were influenced by John," Nantz said on "CBS Mornings."
Madden was head coach of the Oakland Raiders during a time in the 1970s when there were multiple powerhouse teams, Nantz said.
"He won 103 games in 10 years. That's an incredible record. Still has the all-time winning percentage, best winning percentage for any coach that won 100 games," Nantz said. "So it was short, as far as a career, it was highly successful.
"And I'm sure it was successful because of the things that we saw later on as a broadcaster. He knew about nuance, and he knew about people. He loved X's and O's in teaching, and he loved being able to try to teach people and make them better."
Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.
Ultimately, Nantz said, Madden will be remembered as "a man of the people."
"He could relate to everyone. And he had time for people," Nantz said. Madden loved stopping as he traversed the U.S. on the "Madden Cruiser" "and getting to know people and spending time with them."