STEELE SPORTS

If you are a football fan, there is a good chance that you have heard of John Madden.
The legendary Super Bowl-winning coach, sportscaster and NFL video game icon was one of football’s most beloved figures and arguably one of the reasons I am working in the field I am today.
Madden was born in Austin in 1936, a fact many Minnesotans may not remember. However, as a young boy, his family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived until college.
Growing up in the Bay Area myself, I know that many revered Madden as something of a football god.
It seemed that no matter where I went to consume football content, Madden’s distinct voice was somewhere talking football.
I had all the Madden video games. I watched Sunday and Monday Night Football every chance I could. Even on my way to school the next day, I’d hear Madden calling into the local Raiders station on the radio.
It was inescapable, and it made me realize something pivotal in my life: that one can make a living talking about sports.
Growing up, I had the typical adolescent goal of being a professional athlete.
When it became increasingly clear that was not a possibility, I wanted to become a coach.
Then, when college football ended, I hung up the idea of coaching and began to realize that journalism could still allow me to be close to the sport I love and work in a field where I could consume content myself and also be on the front lines of informing the public about what is happening.
It made me think back to when I would sit in front of the TV and listen to Madden break down games as I tried to study what he was teaching me through the screen.
When I discovered that Madden had passed away last week on Dec. 28, a bit of me felt genuinely sad to have lost such an influential sports figure.
As I sat down to write another article, I thought about Madden’s career and the countless hours of joy and excitement that he had brought me as a child, and it made me realize the subtle effects that sports can have on whom we become.
Whether I knew it or not as a young boy, Madden was trailblazing a path into sports journalism that I would walk myself as a young man.
And quite frankly, I am excited to continue progressing down this path. So thank you, Coach.