John Madden has answered to three names over the course of his five-decade career in the NFL.
To the people who remember him leading the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl victory, he's Coach. To those who know him best as a broadcaster, he's John. And to Generation Xbox, he's Madden.
But who is he now?
Madden, 73, surprised the football world last month when he called it a career, retiring after 30 years in the broadcast booth -- and with three years remaining on his contract with NBC. He said it wasn't a health decision, or that his passion for the game had diminished at all. He simply said it was time.
In the immediate aftermath, he spoke about his decision on his Bay Area radio show and also to the Contra Costa Times. Other than that, he said, he hasn't done any interviews since. On Monday, he talked by phone from his Pleasanton office to Times NFL writer Sam Farmer about what he plans to do this season, the effect of Bill Walsh's death on his decision and whether he plans to return to the NFL in any capacity.
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You've had three distinct chapters in your NFL life, as a coach, broadcaster and video game personality. Is there a fourth avenue?
You know how people say, "You have to let it come to you"? I think that whatever is going to come up is going to come to me, and it hasn't yet. People say, "How do you feel now that you're retired?" Well, I'm really not retired yet because this is my normal off-season right now. When I'm really going to feel the effect of retirement is when August comes and I miss that first game in Canton, [Ohio], and then I miss the preseason games, and then the regular-season games. That's when retirement starts.
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Can you see going to an NFL team?
No. I can't see going to a team. I have too much respect for the game and where it is today that there's no way that I'd think I could go to a team, because I wouldn't want to go full time. There's no other job in pro football that's not a full-time job. You're either in it and you're playing, or you're a coach on the sideline watching. There's no place on a team for someone like me.
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How about as a consultant?
A consulting position might work in another profession, but not in pro football. There's no such thing. They give a guy a parking spot and put his name up as a consultant, and in six months they erase the name. Guys are working 16, 18, 20 hours a day. You can't come in and say, "When they go to cover 6 on that side, you ought to run a bob trail and then go play-action . . ." They're not going to listen to that B.S.
