Sunday, Feb. 19th, 2012

BRYAN BURWELL

“The John Madden you are about to discover is nothing at all like the person you think you know.”

-          Pat Summerall

Nobody has had as much impact on the world of football in the last 50 years as John Madden. With incisive wit and superhuman energy, this one man football factory has seen and done it all. As a coach, he has the highest winning percentage in history, and he led the Oakland Raiders to a 1979 Super Bowl Championship. He followed that up by becoming the most beloved and popular football announcer in the country, experiencing unparalleled success in a broadcasting career that lasted for parts of four different decades.

In Madden, longtime sports columnist Bryan Burwell has written the first comprehensive biography of this living legend. From his days as a star athlete in Daly City, California, Madden was driven to succeed, a trait that helped him persevere during his tumultuous years with the Raiders under Al Davis and compelled him to try his hand at broadcasting after his coaching career was over. Madden’s incredible football knowledge, down-home sensibilities, and tireless work ethic made him arguably the most popular sports analyst in any sport and led to a long and storied career as a TV pitchman. In the third stage of his public life, the Hall of Fame coach became known to new generations of fans through his eponymous line of groundbreaking video games, which are among the best-selling titles of all time.

Madden is a behind-the-scenes look at the man who put the “Boom!” in our Sundays. From Al Davis and the Raiders to Canton, from the booth to the bus to Turduckens on Thanksgiving day, this is the definitive Madden book, a wild collection of stories from a legend’s 50 incredible years in the NFL.

About the Author:

Bryan Burwell is an award-winning sports columnist with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The author of two books, including At The Buzzer! The Greatest Moments in NBA History, Burwell’s work has also appeared in several sports anthologies, USA Today, the New York Daily News, The Sporting News, and Sports Illustrated. On television, Burwell is a regular contributor to ESPN’s The Sports Reporters and spent 14 years with HBO Sports. In 2007, he was the host and writer of a nationally syndicated TV documentary on the Negro baseball leagues called The Color of Change, which won two 2008 Telly Awards.