Remembering NFL legend John Madden and his contributions to the game

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• Amna Nawaz:

  NFL legend John Madden died yesterday at the age of 85.

  Jeffrey Brown looks now at what he meant to the game, particularly after he stopped coaching.

• Announcer:

  This is it, Curtis.

• Amna Nawaz:

  January 9, 1977, Pasadena, California.

• Announcer:

  The 11th Super Bowl is under way.

• Amna Nawaz:

  The Oakland Raiders hoist head coach John Madden onto their shoulders, celebrating the team's first Super Bowl championship.

  Ten years later, Madden told the "NewsHour" of his straightforward philosophy of dealing with players.

  John Madden, Pro Football Hall of Famer: They show up when I told them to. And if when we talked and taught, if they paid attention, and then if they went out and played like heck, when you — what else is there? What other rules do you need?

  I mean, I didn't care if they had beards or sideburns or bell bottom pants or tied their shoes or not.

• Jeffrey Brown:

  But a decade of coaching at a Hall of Fame level was just the start for John Madden.

  In a three-decade career as an exuberant everyman broadcaster, he would go on to change the way the game was watched and understood, becoming a preeminent face and voice of football.

  He started at CBS alongside the late Pat Summerall. They quickly became the network's top announcing duo. From 1979 to 2009, Madden won 16 Emmy Awards and covered 11 Super Bowls for four networks.

• John Madden:

  Here's, a corner, safety, corner.

• Jeffrey Brown:

  He broke down complicated plays using his Telestrator video chalkboard an entertained millions with his signature sound effects.

• John Madden:

  And, boom, the ball is there. He gets walloped. Boom. Stay on your feet. He gets knocked right out of the screen.

• Jeffrey Brown:

  He told the "NewsHour" how he saw his job in the booth.

• John Madden:

  What I try and do is not show the obvious, that I know, if Joe Morris runs the ball around the right end and has a big play, everyone's going to see that anyway.

  What I try and do is look ahead to find how it happened or why it happened.

• Jeffrey Brown:

  And there was more that continues to this day, with "Madden NFL Football," one of the most successful video game empires of all time.

  Today, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a somebody that: "Nobody loved football more than coach. He was football."

  One of his great partnerships at both ABC and NBC was with Al Michaels, who told me earlier today why he thinks Madden was — quote — "as important as anybody in the history of football."

• Al Michaels, NBC Sports:

  Well, there have been a number of really great coaches, so John gets into that category because he had the highest win percentage of any coach in history who won 100 or more games.

  So, on one level, you have him on the pantheon of coaches. On the next level, he created a new template in broadcasting and became maybe the most iconic broadcaster of his time. So, you have got that.

  And then he went out and created a video game. And he was immersed in the production and the development of that game. He didn't just lend his name to it. And that made millions and millions and millions of young fans for the National Football League.

  So, when you combine all of those three, that's why I say, when you look at the whole body of work, there was no more important man in the history of the National Football League.

• Jeffrey Brown:

  He is often credited so much with changing sports broadcasting for bringing in that everyman aspect, the preparation for each game.

  You were there with him. What did — what was the most important lesson or thing you saw in him?

• Al Michaels:

  I think what made John, John, among other things, was his genuineness.

  And he worked very hard in preparation. He already knew a ton going in. And then he would immerse himself to the nth degree and get into the forensics of everything. And I think one of the things with John is, he would take things that were seemingly complicated and make them simple and relevant and accessible to the audience.

  So when you hear a broadcaster talk about a three technique, only a football coach or a football player or somebody totally immersed in the game would know what that is. John would never use phrases like that. He'd explain what that was. And then he had a lot of fun doing it, and with the Telestrator, and the buckets of Gatorade dumped on coaches and Telestrating what took place right there.

  John was the whole package.

• Jeffrey Brown:

  He's one of those people, so many millions in the culture feel like we know him personally, but you really did.

  What was he like personally? Was the person we saw on TV, was that really him?

• Al Michaels:

  Exactly. Jeffrey, that was him.

  And, to me, one of the most wonderful things about having been his partner for seven years is the meals that we would have away from the work environment. Obviously, we were in the game, we were in the booth and preparing for it. That's one thing, but just to go to dinner or to lunch or to breakfast with John and talk about anything and everything.

  John was a very well-read man. John was a man who understood everything that was going on in the world. John was a very curious man. And he traveled across the country in that bus, and he got to see what we call, those of us who live on either coast, flyover country. We fly over it. John drove through it back and forth and back and forth hundreds of times and got to know the people and what made people tick.

• Jeffrey Brown:

  You spent so much time with them. You're talking about in the booth. You're talking about on the bus, I guess, and restaurants, hotels.

  Give me an anecdote.

• Al Michaels:

  We're having dinner one night in Green Bay, and French onion soup.

  I don't — I don't want the onions. I hate the onions. But I love the broth, the crouton, the cheese. So, we're at dinner, and I ordered French onion soup without the onions in Green Bay. And he said: "What? What are you doing?"

  I said, John, I just love the other parts of it.

  So, he had the chef come out. And John was laughing hysterically. And he had the chef command and explain how you make French onion soup without the onions.

  So, that was John. He was just — he was a riot in so many ways.

• Jeffrey Brown:

  That's a great story, X's and O's of French onion soup too, huh?

  (LAUGHTER)

• Al Michaels:

  Right. You name it, he had it, I know.

• Jeffrey Brown:

  It's interesting to think that, for younger generations, of course, he's better known for the video games than for the broadcasting that he did with you and so many others.

• Al Michaels:

  With John, even though you might not remember him as a coach, and maybe you caught him toward the end of his broadcasting career, but he's made millions of fans with that game.

  People — everybody I know, every kid I knew through the years, and even to this day, they play "Madden." They have learned football through the Madden game. And that's made the NFL millions and millions more fans.

• Jeffrey Brown:

  All right, Al Michaels on the life and legacy of the great John Madden, thank you very much.

• Al Michaels:

  Thank you, Jeffrey.

• Amna Nawaz:

  A man who clearly loved the game and made us love it too.

  Our thoughts are with his friends and family.