John Madden Quotes

Author Image

John Madden

Profession : Entertainer

Birth : April 10, 1936

Jim Harbaugh has done a great job of coaching in the NFL no matter how you put it.

John Madden

Any time you get a new running back, whether it's a rookie or hasn't played a lot, that's the first thing you test, is their pass protection. That's big.

John Madden

I would never be one to critique the announcers when I watched games. I try to watch the play and listen to the broadcasters and what they are pointing out. I was never one to say this one was good or bad.

John Madden

Nothing jazzes me up like football. I've acquired more passion of the years, not less. Not to love it wouldn't make sense.

John Madden

In all the years that I've been in football - I went directly from coaching to broadcasting - I never really had a lot of experience watching it.

John Madden

I respect coaches; I respect what good coaches do. I know that you don't learn to be a coach in an hour and a half.

John Madden

I've got five grandkids. They play baseball, they play football, they play basketball. I go to all the games. You always have that urge to say something when you're watching them. But I've learned to keep it to myself. I've blurted out some things and embarrassed myself.

John Madden

In Oakland, Al Davis was a genius. We had Ron Wolff there, too, and he was a genius. There was no room for me to be a genius.

John Madden

The best thing about getting older is knowing history. The longer you live, the longer you have been in a sport, the more you know, and the more you know where things started.

John Madden

You wouldn't do something for a receiver to catch the ball if the quarterback couldn't throw it.

John Madden

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.

John Madden

I'd like to work with kids in special education - younger kids.

John Madden

Knowing his coach likes him is more important to a player than anything else. To me, it was important to be able to chew out a player for screwing up and for him to accept it because he knew I liked him anyway.

John Madden

I like to hear about what people do. That's more interesting than talking about what the hell I do.

John Madden

Since 1981, I've spent every Thanksgiving Day broadcasting a game, and it is one of my favorite days. You can say, 'Woe is me, I never get to be part of the tradition,' or you can say, 'Heck, we've got our own tradition, and it's pretty good.'

John Madden

Coaches have to watch for what they don't want to see and listen to what they don't want to hear.

John Madden

I have this set-up at my house where I have one big movie theater screen that's 9 ft. by 16 ft. Then, I have nine 63-inch monitors around it; four on either side and one underneath. So I get all nine one o'clock games, and I can switch them onto the big screen. That's what I do on the Sundays during the season.

John Madden

It takes about three times as long to explain to someone why you won't give them an autograph as it does to actually give them an autograph.

John Madden

I would never bet against Peyton Manning. You know about the age and the neck and the strength. But I had George Blanda, and as he got older, he got smarter, and he just got rid of the ball quicker. I watch Peyton, and I see George Blanda.

John Madden

That's the biggest gap in sports, the difference between the winner and the loser of the Super Bowl.

John Madden