The correlation between the rise of Madden and the growth of this Madden generation and the growth of the NFL into the American powersport, if not pastime is undeniable. As has the Madden series (and the gaming industry in general) grown in popularity, so has the NFL. Where pro football is the favorite sport of 24% (one percent more than second favorite baseball) of Americans that followed multiple sports, 31% of Americans in this year’s Harris poll call football their favorite (baseball still second place dropped to 16%.) By no means is Madden or any other football video game the cause of this. A combination of factors including better packaging of the game for TV broadcasts and cable sports networks, better marketing, and disillusionment of baseball fans who turned on it due to the 90s baseball strike and steroids controversy. But rest assured John Madden as a celebrity and the Madden games are as much a part of that marketing as anything. So much so that Electronic Arts now hold exclusivity rights to the production of NFL video games. But what may have been most drastically overlooked in that sports culture shift is John Madden’s influence in making football more accessible and expanding football literacy with the help of various development studios though the platform of games

What Madden’s broadcast partners credit as his greatest strength and appeal in the booth may well be the reason his games have been such a success. The common thread in the April 17th ESPN reflections of Summerall, Michaels, and ABC sports broadcaster Brent Musburger on Madden as an on-air personality was his gift as a communicator. Specifically, they praise his ability to transform the complexities of a football game into something simple enough for the most casual viewer to understand. That approach has not been without critics who over the years have seen him as more of a character and prefer someone to explain the sport as a complex science.

As Madden has studied and taught the game as a coach and broadcaster, the John Madden Football/Madden NFL series in many ways has been a teaching tool. As a person described by colleagues to obsess over football, Madden from the beginning insisted on realism in his game or no involvement at all. Travis Fahs’s article “IGN Presents the History of Madden” quotes the series’ namesake as insisting “If it isn’t 11 on 11, it isn’t real football” in response to the desire to limit player counts for the sake of game speed. He has had his hand in implementing real plays, player ratings, and of course his and his real life broadcast partners’ own voices for in-game commentary. What military generals are to war shooter and strategy games, John Madden has been for years to football sims.

The result became a product that started to teach the game of football through the experience of playing a simulation. In attempting to win games players would learn plays, read defensive and offensive formations, and learn clock management. As consoles grew more powerful and games became more complex, so would the lessons. Simple decisions to blitz or use pass coverage in defensive plays evolve the ability to learn and use zone blitzes, pinches, bump and runs, pre-snap reads. Suddenly, details of the game only really understood by players, coaches, football reporters, and the most hardcore fans was readily available and understandable to 9-year-old kids competing in Madden tournaments.