John Madden Says He'd Use 'Madden' Video Game to Help Plan Against Opponents

John Madden, the Hall of Fame NFL head coach, famous broadcaster and the name on EA Sports' titular NFL video game franchise, believes modern coaching staffs should have at least a few hires who play Madden regularly.

Madden spoke with Michael Rothstein of ESPN about the idea:

"You know what I would do? I would kind of do the same thing that I thought when we first started this—I would have a couple of young guys that are good, good Madden players, and hire them and put them on my staff. And each week I would have them play our opponent. If the Raiders are playing Kansas City, I'd have one of them be the Raiders and one of them be Kansas City. And then I would run our players against their defenses and their defenses against our players. And I'd have them just check that out and then write up—this was good, this was bad, had trouble here and trouble there. I don't know how much I would use it, but that's what I would do."

Anybody who has played Madden, of course, could tell you that while the game strives to be a faithful simulation of real football, it's hardly a like-for-like replication of the real thing. Madden is its own singular experience. 

That doesn't mean it doesn't have use for modern coaches. Many players will use Madden to better learn things like coverage schemes and route concepts. Coaches can create custom playbooks in the game to help players study their assignments. The game has always had potential as a teaching tool. 

Whether it makes sense as a scouting option at the top level is another conversation entirely. But Madden clearly still has high aspirations for the franchise as a high-end football sim.