RIP to a Legend: John Madden

If you haven't heard, John Earl Madden passed away on December 28, 2021. As someone born in the second half of the 1930's it's awesome that he was able to live such a long life and see so many decades + the era's that came with them.

On the field, he was an offensive tackle, while on the sideline he was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders and actually coached for ten seasons (1969 - 1978). He was an icon, multi-Emmy Award winner for his commentary work, and some would add so much more, he's the NFL Legend... John Madden.

Off the field, he was still digitally in the game by way of (the biggest duh of the day) Madden NFL video games. The video game adventure started after EA founder Trip Hawkins approached Madden for an endorsement and all that good stuff. The first game actually came to like in the late 1980s because Madden wanted the game to be up to his standards (Trip approached him four years before that initial release... so he wasn't playing back then about just any game having his name on it).

The billion-dollar franchise continues to stand as a pillar for EA, and when I heard of the unfortunate news about Madden passing, all I could think of is... they have to go harder than ever on the next installment or the one after. It might be too late for the pending game (versus a last-minute nip & tuck), but the one after would have more time for them to give it the love it needs based on the man who gave his endorsement and stuck by that until his last breath.

I'm not some super fan of the Madden Football franchise... but I do appreciate that it keeps some people coming back to support the game industry in some form because some people only play Madden.

You might even be surprised that I played a lot back in the day, maybe not as much as other games, but... I played a lot. If some of you remember Madden 95 (I played on Sega)... it was one of those games that some of us liked to take on the offline competition with. People were die-hard about it too and would put up money to raise the stakes. It was just good times, and with a certain amount of people being there... you know it was going to turn into a party, so the music turned on by itself, and food appeared out of thin air to dial up the fun.

I mention this because while I'm not a super fan, but I had great times that came to life because of the competition that a Madden NFL game delivered, and it's just a reminder to actually aim to have a great time gaming. When I go online to play multiplayer games (and even when I play offline with others), that's my main objective, because you can't get that time back... and tomorrow is never promised. Have a good damn time and aim for memorable experiences.

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