John actually has two sons, Mike and Joe. Here is more about John....
Ex-coach expected a call but learned of Hall of Fame selection from TV
Ira Miller, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, February 5, 2006
Detroit -- John Madden is never at a loss for words, but he was close Saturday. He stood on a podium in a hotel ballroom, arms flying, waving, gesturing, talking not in complete thoughts but in stream of consciousness.
This was the essential Madden, the Everyman to football fans, trying to keep from losing it while explaining what it meant to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, 27 years after he coached his final game with the Oakland Raiders.
"I'm in shock," he said. "I was coming over here, and I said, 'They can't take this away, can they?' At some point, you just gotta let it go."
He talked about watching the announcement on TV, about players he coached, about his family, and about his pal, former Rams coach John Robinson who is here as Madden's Super Bowl guest, Madden laughing, "that here's two doofuses from Daly City."
Finally, he said, "I'm not going to make a lot of sense, but I don't care. Believe me, it comes from my heart. I'm humbled and I'm grateful. I gotta sit down."
Madden was one of six men elected to the Hall of Fame after a five-hour selection meeting that started with 15 candidates in what the 39 selectors agreed was, top to bottom, the strongest group on the ballot in years.
It was an overdue honor for Madden, and then it was more overdue.
While the votes were tabulated, Madden was at Ford Field, site of today's Super Bowl, with ABC partner Al Michaels and their crew going through pre-game preparations. He was, meanwhile, waiting for a telephone call from the Hall of Fame, or so he thought.
But there was no call.
"Somebody in the room said, 'If it's good news, they're going to call,' '' said Mike Madden, one of John's two sons. Still, the phone did not ring. Then they noticed on the television, which was tuned to the NFL Network, that the Hall of Fame press conference was about to begin.
"We (thought we) were about ready to watch a train wreck," Mike Madden said.
Just about then, Ron Dougherty, interim executive director of the Hall of Fame, began to read the names of the new enshrinees. Troy Aikman ... Harry Carson ... John Madden.
"He literally, probably stood there in shock for about four or five minutes," Mike Madden said.
More than an hour later, delivered to the headquarters hotel with a police escort, John Madden still was quivering. This is the guy who looks so cool on Monday night, tie loosened, jacket opened, shoelaces untied, having the time of his life, and he was suddenly reduced to a jabbering mass of emotion.
Of course. There was no rehearsal for this show.
"You talk about someone that appreciates this, and maybe it's waiting a long time, and you have no control over it, waiting, and when you finally get it, thank you, thank you, thank you," he said.
"My legs are shivering right now. ... It's the anticipation, the phone call, no phone call, then here, you got the TV on and you're in a production meeting, and here it comes."
John Madden's other son, Joe, was at home in the Bay Area. So was John's wife, Virginia. They spoke shortly after the announcement, although there might not have been many words exchanged. "She was crying," John said. "She couldn't control herself."
Madden said he never thought about how he'd react if he got elected because he didn't want to prepare himself and then have to "go through the low of the disappointment," he said.
"If I get too high in expectations, then I wouldn't want to handle the low of disappointment, so I never let myself do that," he said. "And doing so, I think that's why I'm having these feelings I'm having now. I am so high, so emotional, so grateful, so everything, that maybe that's natural, because I didn't plan.
"Had I planned, I probably would have been more together than I am now. I've got a feeling from the top of my head all the way down to my feet. At some point, that has to go away, and I have to get back to normal. I don't know how to do it. I'm not normal."
Presumably, Madden will be back to normal for today's telecast. His friends were planning a surprise party for him to celebrate Saturday night and, after the game, his bus will head west, beginning the trek home to Pleasanton. Normally, all the new Hall of Famers go to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl, but Madden doesn't fly, so he'll take part in the introductions by satellite.
"If they said, 'You have to be in Hawaii, or we're taking it back,' I would row over there," he cracked.
Discussion on Madden in the selection committee, where he was presented by your correspondent, was almost entirely positive and largely centered on his 10-year coaching career that produced a winning percentage second in NFL history only to Vince Lombardi. There was brief talk about the role Madden has played as football's greatest ambassador, but his election was based on the coaching record.
"I know as a coach that it's all about players," Madden said. "I firmly believe that. The game isn't about a lot of stuff on the outside. It's about players, and I had great players. ... They all made this possible. As a coach, if you ever start to think any other way than that, you're off base."
The Hall of Fame induction is scheduled for Aug. 6 in Canton, Ohio. Madden said he probably would choose Raiders' owner Al Davis or Madden's son, Mike, to make his presentation introduction. When Davis was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1992, Madden made the presentation, but Davis may not be up to it physically to reciprocate.
