Madden still pulling for Raiders
By PHIL BARBER
When John Madden coached the Raiders, the Hall of Fame Game rotated among NFL teams, ensuring that each would get a crack at the annual exhibition-season event every 13 years or so. Now the league selects two teams to play in Canton, Ohio, each year, and Madden did his best to make sure one of them would be the Raiders this August.
Would an ingoing Pro Football Hall of Fame member and famed broadcaster actually lobby the NFL to get his former team into the Fawcett Stadium? "Yes, I did," Madden said by phone Wednesday, the day the league announced that the Raiders would meet the Philadelphia Eagles in the game that kicks off NFL exhibition play.
The first weekend in August just became Madden's ultimate dream assignment. He'll hold his bronze likeness and take his place among the greats in the Hall (along with Reggie White, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Harry Carson and Rayfield Wright) in a Saturday enshrinement ceremony. And the next day he will call his first game for NBC, his new employer, in a game featuring the team that helped make him famous.
"It's the whole package," Madden said. "I mean, just to take part in the Hall of Fame ceremony is incredible. And then to go into the booth for NBC, when they've been out of the league for nine years, and to have the Raiders be part of the game - you couldn't ask for anything more perfect than that."
Madden also divulged that Raiders owner Al Davis will introduce him to the audience at the induction ceremony. It will be the record ninth such honor for Davis, who has also introduced Lance Alworth, Jim Otto, George Blanda, Willie Brown, Gene Upshaw, Fred Biletnikoff, Art Shell (who will be coaching his first game since 1994 when the Raiders play in Canton) and Ted Hendricks.
The Hall of Fame Game is the third high-profile contest awarded to the Raiders in three days, and the NFL has yet to release the bulk of its regular-season schedule. They will also play in the first game broadcast by the new ESPN Monday-night team of Mike Tirico, Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser (a highly charged Randy Moss appearance at Minnesota on Aug. 14), and will host the Chargers in half of a Monday-night doubleheader the first week of the regular season.
All of this for a team that lost its final six games and finished 4-12 a year ago. It's a clear demonstration of the bulletproof power of the Raiders image, and perhaps the curiosity of seeing what Shell can do after five seasons out of coaching.
Though Madden will have had months to breathe deeply and gather his thoughts, he isn't confident about keeping his emotions in check when he takes his place among coaching legends like Vince Lombardi and George Halas in the Hall of Fame.
"I'm not very good at that," he conceded. "You can say, 'OK, stay calm and don't get emotional.' But that's like someone telling you, 'All right, this won't hurt a bit.' Sure, it won't hurt THEM. Saying it and doing it are two different things. But oh well, that's probably how people expect me to be anyway."
Tickets for the Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony will go on sale on Wednesday, April 5, at 8:00 a.m. (PST). They can be purchased online by visiting the Hall's web site at profootballhof.com or by calling (800) 913-9788.
A very limited number of Hall of Fame Game tickets are expected to be available for public sale. Information on ticket availability will be announced soon and posted on profootballhof.com.
