The afternoon of April 16th proved sad for me as a sports fan and gamer. When John Madden, longtime NFL broadcaster and the namesake of the most successful sports franchise of all-time, retired from NBC Sports it ended a career. However, the cultural force tied to his legacy (part of which helped launched the NFL into the most popular sport in United States) is alive and well.

I am a member of the Madden generation. This is a generation of gamers and sports fans that grew up watching the broadcaster as half of the most legendary sports broadcasting team of all-time with Pat Summerall traveling through CBS, FOX, and ABC Sports before ending with Al Michaels on NBC Sunday nights.

The Madden generation also grew up through the late ‘80s to now on what started as Electronic Arts’ experiment in breaking the mold from what at the time was an arcade football market championed by the Tecmo Bowl franchise. As the game grew into more of a complex simulation with Madden’s heavy hands-on input, so exploded the popularity and sales (peaking with Madden NFL 07 selling 7.7 milllion units -- ranked 3rd in all-time U.S. sales -- in the United States according to NPD) of the game into the largest franchise in the EA library.

Interestingly enough, many of the Madden generation grow up completely unaware of what launched Madden’s initial popularity. He rose to prominence as a Super Bowl winning coach of the Oakland Raiders, and retired with the highest winning percentage in NFL history, which was finally rewarded in 2006 with his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.