John Madden is one if not the best NFL Analyst of all time. I can remember as a boy listening to him alongside with Pat Summerall commentating on NFL Football games on CBS on Sunday afternoons.
One of things that stood out to me was watching Madden breaking down the game with a telestrator. He would explain the X’s and O’s behind the play.
In 1998, I picked up my first football video game for the PC. Rather playing the game first, I checked out the plays and formations he was breaking down just like he would do on a real game on Sunday afternoon.
A few years later I would try duplicate what he did, by breaking down plays for football video games with a telestrator program that I downloaded on the web. For some of you who have followed me since my first football game site was launched back in October of 2001, you remember some of those videos I did. I like to tell you the videos were professional looking, but that would be far from the truth. However, what I was trying to achieve, I think I was able to do that.
Since then the telestration technology and overall quality of the video breakdowns I have done have gotten better, but one thing remains the same and that’s Madden influence in the way I breakdown plays. Now I can’t say Madden is the only analyst who has influenced me in the way I breakdown plays, because that would be a lie. Ron Jaworski (Jaws) of ESPN’s NFL Match Up show and Troy Aikman, who is a former Dallas Cowboy great, have both influenced me as well. However, Madden is the first to influence me and will always be the best at breaking down the X’s and O’s of Football.
