Editor’s note: Throughout the month of November, we remember some of the best NFL, college football and sports culture occasions around the Thanksgiving holiday in Thanksgiving Sports Moments.
For three decades, former Raiders coach and NFL broadcaster John Madden traveled across the country in one of his famed Madden Cruisers.
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Madden used five Cruisers over the years. The first one parked for good in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018, the Madden family still owns two and the whereabouts of two others Madden traded in when he upgraded are unknown.
Recently, a sixth Cruiser joined the fleet.
This reimagined Madden Cruiser was built recently by EA Sports — producers of the popular Madden NFL video game — to travel to select NFL games and the Super Bowl so fans could pay homage to the late Hall of Famer’s spirit and legacy.
“He was so important to the history of the league,” said J.J. Johnson, one of Madden’s original bus drivers. “Fans would swarm us at every stop, it meant so much to have Coach traveling around the country.
“Everybody was celebrating his love of football as well as their own, and the reimagined Cruiser helps that nostalgia continue.”
The NFL is also honoring and commemorating the late Madden with the second annual “John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration” on Thursday. Fox, CBS and NBC will celebrate Madden’s contributions to the game, on the field and in the broadcast booth, with tributes throughout each game on Thanksgiving Day.
Madden once said, “There’s no place that I would rather be today on Thanksgiving than right here, right now, at a football game.”
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And that meant being on his bus before and after the game. Or on the many stops along the way, as NFL commissioner Roger Goodell experienced when he joined Madden on the bus in 2010 for a tour of NFL training camps.
“Nobody loved football more than Coach,” Goodell said in August in a recorded interview with EA Sports. “I think his favorite part of the bus was to stop at different places and meet different people. He wanted to know what they did and what their hobbies were. He cared deeply about people.
“People loved seeing the bus pull up. It was like Elvis showing up. People went crazy.”
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During Madden’s last season as a broadcaster in 2008, there were so many fans that Johnson had to park the bus far away from the stadium and have Madden escorted into the stadium in a police car.
“One game, the Cruiser was making its first appearance in Buffalo in 15 to 20 years,” Johnson said. “The fans just wanted to see Coach, and we had to get extra security to help get him into the stadium. It was awesome how many people were there.”
John Madden's world-famous bus, The Madden Cruiser, has arrived at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, where visitors can tour the bus in person.
Here, the late Madden provides a narrated tour of the famous vehicle, which remains unchanged.
Visit the Hall: https://t.co/WCCdGEshjB pic.twitter.com/PpQpRvIprp
— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) June 1, 2023
EA Sports thought fans would enjoy seeing the bus pull up again. It’s made stops at six games so far and will be parked at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas.
“With Coach Madden’s passing in 2021, we wanted to do something special to commemorate and carry on his legacy and this reimagined Cruiser seemed like the perfect way to do that,” said Sarah McLaughlin, the director of brand marketing for Madden. “The rich history of the Cruiser was so synonymous with who he was.”
Madden’s family was involved in the brainstorming and planning of the new bus.
“EA came to us with the idea, and it was a cool way to keep his legacy alive,” said Mike Madden, John’s son. “The first bus is in the Hall of Fame, and this one is a newer, different version that will be going around the country that more fans can enjoy.”
Madden said he and his mom, Virginia, still have two of the five original buses.
“Dad always traded them in, and the first one was then used as a mobile home by one buyer before he passed away,” Madden said. “His wife called, and Dad got nostalgic and bought the original bus back. I don’t what happened to (Nos.) 2 and 3, and then the fourth one … he wanted the trade-in value again, but my mom said, ‘Nope, we’re keeping that one. You can afford to just buy a new bus.’
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“So we still have 4 and 5. Mom considers 4 hers.”
The family still uses the buses for annual golf trips to Scottsdale, Ariz., and other gatherings that pop up.
“J.J. is always calling me with ideas for more bus trips,” Mike Madden said.
Goodell hopes the new bus makes a stop at a Chili’s restaurant.
“I can’t remember if it was Baltimore or Pittsburgh, but were getting hungry and we had run out of junk food,” Goodell said. “We were on our way in, it was late and I was talking to someone else, then you could hear his voice: ‘What?! You don’t have chili? Chili’s doesn’t have chili?!’ And he went on for like 10 minutes. And then another three hours on the bus.
“He had fun with everything.”
Goodell loved his visit on the new Cruiser, and it brought back memories of his time with Madden on the bus 15 years ago.
“We hit five training camps in five days, and all I did was sit in the front with him the whole time,” Goodell said. “He just wanted to talk football and that was so much fun for me. And when he wasn’t talking, he was watching games for breaking down film. No one worked harder than him. … This is pretty cool.”
There are three external gaming stations and monitors on the side of the bus for fans to walk up and play Madden NFL, along with a phone booth for fans to leave a voicemail to make their case for a ratings boost for their favorite player.
And there is a mural of Madden on the back side.
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Inside the bus, there is a museum-style timeline of Madden’s career from college coach to NFL coach to broadcaster. There is a glass display of all the video game covers from over the years, along with two gaming stations. In the back, there is a production studio capable of live broadcasting.
“Younger generations that may not have grown up with him love the memorabilia that is on the bus,” McLaughlin said. “Kids were excited to play the games and also learn everything that he brought to the game.”
Mike Madden thinks young gamers will be surprised by how many wins — 112 — Madden stacked up as a coach.
“The video game was great and his broadcasting career was fantastic, but he still has the best winning percentage of any coach in NFL history,” Mike Madden said. “The game and the broadcasting and all the turducken and all that stuff is great, but I would want to remind people that he was one of the greatest coaches that ever coached.”
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Madden was only 32 when he was hired as the Raiders’ coach in 1969, and his .759 winning percentage during the regular season does rank highest among coaches with 100 career victories.
Goodell is quite sure that his old friend would like the new bus.
“I think he would be very happy with it, that this is a cool way to celebrate his life,” Goodell said. “The EA game meant a lot to him and the fans meant a lot to him and he always wanted to be real and authentic. My guess is he’ll be watching fans enjoying his bus from upstairs.”
This series is part of a partnership with Accenture.
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(Top illustration: Sean Reilly / The Athletic; photo of John Madden: Focus On Sport / Getty Images; other top photos courtesy of EA Sports)