John Madden’s son Mike on his involvement in It’s in the Game: Madden NFL and preserving his father’s legacy

We spoke with Mike Madden, John Madden’s son about Prime Video’s It’s in the Game docuseries and what makes Madden NFL so special.

It's in the Game: Madden NFL / Courtesy of Prime Video

It’s in the Game: Madden NFL, the decades-spanning story of the people that brought us the hit video game series Madden NFL, landed on Prime Video last month and has served as one of the most complete tellings put to screen about the history of the video game to date.

However, as much as it’s a loveable homage to the development of technology and the groundbreaking things the team at EA Sports have accomplished over the years, it’s also about how the game started with one man: John Madden.

Passing in December 2021, Madden left behind an incredible legacy but also a wonderful family who continue to work to protect the name that heads the video game.

We spoke with Mike Madden, John Madden’s son, about his involvement in It’s in the Game: Madden NFL, what makes the game so special, and preserving his father’s legacy. 

Video Games on Sports Illustrated: How did the project come by you? Did someone reach out to you and pitch the idea? Also, were you immediately open to it? As much as it’s about the video game, it’s also about your dad, so that must always come with some level of uncertainty when giving people access to tell his story. 

Mike Madden: Sandy Montag told me that Amazon wanted to do a documentary on the making of the video game. I’ve seen one of the four episodes, and I didn’t know any of that stuff [the archival footage] existed. Seeing it for the first time was fun. I was in college, or just out of college, and at the time, none of us knew the game was gonna be what it eventually became. That was 30 years ago. People didn’t have video cameras in their pockets like we do now. We’ve had a great relationship with EA over the years and dad had a great relationship with Tripp Hawkins his whole life, and the game has never disparaged dad. It’s never been a negative thing. Something that he always worked hard on in years when people thought it was not as good as the year before or not as good as they were expecting; he took it personally and would roll up his sleeves and get to work with the guys. It was kind of like him coaching. Every year you got a new team, you got a new schedule. Last year was last year, and you gotta roll up your sleeves, compete, and he was no stranger to doing that. So yeah, every year the game, you know, he would get with the guys and, ok, we got some rule changes. Don’t screw this up, you know, sort of thing. 

It's in the Game: Madden NFL / Courtesy of Prime Video

What is it about the game and its story that you think is so compelling to people? 

It’s cliche, but it’s in the game. It’s real football. It’s not formulaic. It plays like a real football game, and it has from day one. That’s what dad and Tripp Hawkins set out to do, and that’s where dad hung his hat. You get to coach your own team, and quarterback, and coordinate your team. It’s a realistic experience, or as realistic a football experience as it can be with a controller in your hand. 

It feels like this is the first time that we’re getting a complete history of the game. There’s so much packed into those four hours. Is there anything in there that you didn’t know already? Anything that you learned through the series, or anything that surprised you? 

No, but I’m reminded of the leap of faith that dad took with Trip Hawkins, and the leap of faith that Tripp took with dad. Dad would go on trains, and Tripp would jump on the train and ride with him to Denver, Chicago, San Francisco. Wherever he would ride, that’s where he’d go. Tripp was smart enough to say, hey, if I try to get this guy at his office, he’ll give me 20 minutes, but, if you ride the train with him, you get him 24/7 for as long as you care to ride the rail. So, I admired that. That was a guy that wanted to get his hunk of Madden. There’s just a lot of talkers in the world, and there aren’t a lot of people that would jump on a train with John Madden to get their project or their dream to advance to the next stage. 

The series is so much more than just a story about a video game. It is about relationships. It’s about hope. It’s about legacy. It’s an underdog story. As you were growing up, how did you see your father put his all into making this game what it is today? 

He didn’t believe in compromise. He didn’t believe in pretty good. He didn’t believe in good enough. You know that feeling when you’re in college, when you finish that paper and you hit print, and you’re getting ready to hand it in? That feeling of ‘It’s done’? My dad never knew that feeling. With dad it was never done. Anything you were doing. You could rewrite it again. It’s not due for three hours, so you can print up another copy. He never settled, he never compromised. I think that’s what made the relationship, and ultimately, the project, so successful, is Tripp. In the documentary, that part where originally they could only get seven players on the field, dad said ‘Ok, seven players isn’t football. Call me back when you can get 11.’ He was that way with everything. So, when I’m watching the documentary, it felt good to see all that not leaning on me for once. It’s good to see that he treated everyone else the same way.

It's in the Game: Madden NFL / Courtesy of Prime Video

I could really feel that energy throughout. It really captured him. What do you hope audiences are going to take after watching this? What do you hope it inspires in them? 

When dad passed there were so many versions of John Madden. There was the coach, and then there was the ‘Boom! Bang! Whap! Doink!’, where he would coin these phrases, then he fell in love with the Turducken, and the six-legged turkeys. So he had kind of a schtick. 

I own Muhammad Ali’s training camp in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania, so I have a hand in preserving his history, and it’s really funny how, if you allow it, the myth, the stories, the sound bites can carry the day. It’s just funny to me how you discover ‘Now wait a minute… no, that’s not... that didn’t happen.” I’ve owned the Ali camp for eight years, so I’ve been working on his history and keeping stories straight. So, when dad passed, I was afraid that some of the same things were gonna creep into his legacy and that it was gonna be more of the schtick and less about the brilliant man who created the schtick and knew it was schtick. 

When the docuseries came out, and you heard the stories of the guys that were in the back rooms with dad and had to work with him, that’s who dad was. He was a perfectionist and he was a football coach. He was a teacher. He knew how to get the most out of people. He did it with the Raiders when he was a coach, and then he used the same techniques on the guys you see in the series. These guys weren’t raised on the old football field. These guys were computer guys, so then for them to meet the real John Madden and have some of that, whatever it is, forced on you they had to have some backbone, too. 

So, I’m reminded of the real John Madden when I see the series, and the John Madden that needs to be remembered, and the John Madden whose voice I hear when I think I’m, I’m done with something. I hear, ‘No, you’re not done. You’re not done. Keep going. You can go one more time.’

Because you spoke about preserving legacy, I know that there’s another project coming about your dad, right? With Nicolas Cage playing him. Have you had any input on that? Have you spoken with David O. Russell? 

No, no. I have not.