[listenallyall]

Hall of Fame coach with the #1 highest winning percentage in league history, rarely had anything important to say. Unbelievable. You'd probably come out of a personal lecture by Albert Einstein saying, all he talked about was that ancient E = mc2 stuff that we covered way back in high school.

[silisili]

Did you actually ever listen to his broadcasting, or did you just read wikipedia and decide to make a hateful comment?

While you're wikipedia'ing, check out the Packers current coach.

[listenallyall]

Dude, nothing I said was "hateful." If you choose to publicly insult successful, highly-regarded, widely-loved people, don't be surprised when others point out that you sound stupid and are likely in the wrong.

[silisili]

So in other words, you've never heard him broadcast. Thanks.

[listenallyall]

No idea what gives you that impression. Why would I be defending a random person I simply read a Wikipedia article about? Of course I heard him broadcast football games. Hundreds of times, from the mid-80's on. I have a pile of videotapes of games he did with Pat Summerall (who was also amazing in the booth). I was lucky enough to have a personal conversation with him once.

He increased my knowledge and understanding of football immensely, and I'm certainly not alone. His contemporary broadcasters, like Cosell & Meredith, had no idea how to break down a nickel defense or the ability to point out the key block that opened a hole for Walter Payton or gave Troy Aikman an extra second in the pocket to find a receiver deep. John Madden did that consistently for two decades, with a passion and exuberance that was unmatched. He was able to clearly explain why Lawrence Taylor and Reggie White were so effective at causing chaos defensively -- but also, in the rare cases when they were neutralized, how o-lineman did so and what blocking schemes were frustrating them. He brought attention to players, especially lineman, who were generally ignored, and explained the concepts of blitzing and stunting and pulling and various defensive fronts to the masses, both why they worked and also how opposing coaches strategized around them.

If you weren't able to absorb any of his concepts and wisdom, if it wasn't "important" to you, well, that's your problem, but publicly posting so doesn't take away from Madden's greatness.