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John Madden, who hates to fly, was heading south to Miami aboard his custom-built bus when Wired News caught up with him to talk about technology. On 31 January, he'll call Super Bowl XXXIII with Pat Summerall, his longtime play-by-play partner, for Fox Television.
Madden, who coached the Oakland Raiders to victory in Super Bowl XI before moving to the broadcast booth, is the most knowledgeable and passionate football commentator today, perhaps ever. What shouldn't be overlooked, however, is the ol' coach's contribution to the innovations in broadcast technology.
In particular, the Telestrator and the coach's clicker -- two mainstays of modern football broadcasting -- are largely products of Madden's inspiration. The Telestrator allows the color commentator to superimpose lines indicating movement or direction when a play is shown again. The coach's clicker allows him to rapidly show a play, stop the action, back it up, and show it again.
And even though the virtual first-down stripe was developed by ESPN (and Fox won't have it for Super Bowl XXXIII), Madden's influence can be felt with that latest technology tweak as well.
It's not that Madden is some kind of closet geek; he isn't. It's just that he knows what he wants to make a football broadcast more efficient and entertaining. And what Big John wants, Big John gets. Besides, he has a heckuva lot of fun with all that stuff.
Wired News: In the case of both the Telestrator and the coach's clicker, you have driven the design of the technology. The Telestrator used a pen-based system at first, but you wanted to use your finger.
John Madden: Even before [the Telestrator], it was driven in that I wanted it. If you wanted to get into [talking about] line stunts and blitzes and guards pulling, there's no way that you could explain that without pointing out who to watch. So, that was how the Telestrator came into being.
