Top 45 John Madden Quotes

Having been in football all my life as a player and a coach and having been on the sideline, I think the closer we can get to bringing people what it’s like standing and watching the game on the sideline, with a better view, would be the perfect situation for television football.

Football isn’t nuclear physics, but it’s not so simple that you can make it simple. It takes some explaining to get it across.

It’s been the video game ever since I got out of coaching. Even when I was an announcer, fewer and fewer people remembered me as ‘Coach,’ and as the years went on, people just started knowing me from the game.

The quarterback has to get rid of the ball quickly, so there’s not a lot of time to make moves to gain separation.

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.

There’s so many kids who only know me from the video game.

Don’t worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon.

When people watch football, they’re looking for fun things.

One of the biggest gaps in sports is the difference between the winning and losing teams of the Super Bowl. They don’t invite the losing team to the White House. They don’t have parades for them. They don’t throw confetti on them.

I don’t know that the referee can be watching holding on the offensive line and get back to the quarterback. I think watching the quarterback is a full-time job.

I’ve always said winning’s the great deodorant, and conversely, when you have a bad record, everything stinks, and everything starts to unravel, and everything falls apart.

If you look at tailgating, everyone does it. It’s for everyone who likes to cook outdoors. It could be a 4th of July picnic.

Both of my sons used to coach high school football. When they started, I’d say things I shouldn’t have. So I learned my lesson.

If you go back to the history of the ‘Madden’ game, I was probably on the cover of it half the time. So if I was to believe there was a curse, I would also have to believe I’d been cursed. And I’ve never had that feeling.

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.

If a guy doesn’t work hard and doesn’t play well, he can’t lead anything. All he is, is a talker.

Even when I was a little kid, I hated to dress up. I hated to put on regular shoes. I wanted to play all the time. I hate to wear any kind of coat or sweater. I’ve never liked hot. I’ve never liked to be warm.

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.

If you play the video game, you become more interested and you want to know more about it. You want to read as much about it as you can, see it live and watch as many games as you can. If you’re the type who wants to be as involved as you can in the sport, you’re probably going to want to play ‘Madden NFL.’

You’re not going to eliminate concussions. Anytime you hit your head, you have a chance of getting a concussion, in any sport, too. I think we have to learn more about it. Part of it is rules, part of it is equipment, part of it is medical studies, knowing more about the brain.

I’m sure that had I not been a coach, I would have been some form of a teacher.

It’s a lot easier to get a suit than it is to get a coach.

I never professed to be perfect. I do something wrong or something stupid, I laugh at myself.

I’m not afraid of flying; I just fear I’m going to die. I think I’m – vulnerable. I admit it. I don’t fly. I got claustrophobia. I don’t go in high buildings. I don’t do those things. I’m just myself, whatever that is.

Baseball has better opening days and All-Star Games than the N.F.L. does. Ours stink.

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.

When the going gets tough, I’m not always sure what you do. I’m not saying that I know how to fix everything when the going gets tough, but I do know this: when the going goes tough, you don’t quit. And you don’t fold up. And you don’t go in the other direction.

I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I never really had a job. I was a football player, then a football coach, then a football broadcaster. It’s been my life. Pro football has been my life since 1967. I’ve enjoyed every part of it. Never once did it ever feel like work.

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

There’s so many kids who only know me from the video game. And they want to know if I’m home – and if I have a video game I can give them on Halloween. And sometimes they’re surprised to learn there actually is a ‘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.

Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.

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.’

If you see a defense team with dirt and mud on their backs they’ve had a bad day.

If you win a Super Bowl before you’re fired, you’re a genius, and everyone listens to you. But a coach is just a guy whose best class in grammar school was recess and whose best class in high school was P.E. I never thought I was anything but a guy whose best class was P.E.

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.

Al Davis has been the biggest influence in my professional football life. I mean, he was a guy that gave me an opportunity, one, to get into professional football in 1967 as an assistant coach, and then at the age of 32, giving me the opportunity to be the head coach.

They’re on the right road, but there’s a long way to go on concussions, not only in the NFL, but college football, high school football and all football.

I’ve often said, ‘If I had one drive to win a game to this day, and I had a quarterback to pick, I would pick Kenny.’ Snake was a lot cooler than I was. He was a perfect quarterback and a perfect Raider. When you think about the Raiders, you think about Ken Stabler.

Any defensive coordinator is worried about two things: a running quarterback and a deep ball. You know, don’t get beat deep and don’t let the quarterback run, because a big part of your defense can’t account for the quarterback as a runner, so he gets a free run.

Sometimes you can be one of the best, but you don’t accept that if you don’t get the ring or win the Super Bowl. There’s a lot of good teams between the Super Bowl winner and other teams. Once the Super Bowl is over, we lump everyone into the other 31, and that’s not fair.

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.

If someone remembers me as a coach, they still call me ‘Coach,’ but if they know me for the video game, they just call me ‘Madden.’

Justin Smith was one of the most underrated players in the NFL for what he did. He would sacrifice and do the dirty work, then someone else would clean up off it.

I get a certain feeling when I go to Lambeau field in Green Bay. Soldier field in Chicago is special to me. Those are the places that I really like. The stadiums.