Today’s NFL coaches reflect on John Madden’s…

(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Without any provocation, the Patriots’ head coach began his Wednesday press conference with this long statement.

“I’ll just start with our condolences to the Madden family. It’s a huge loss for the NFL and professional football. John is just a tremendous person to be around. I think we all, probably, set out to try to have a good professional career. John had about five of them. He set the standard for coaching in his era. They had the best record, best teams, championships, and all that. Raiders had a great style of play that was very, I’d say, captivating. He, certainly, did a lot for the league and the competitiveness of the league. He was a great champion for minorities and minority scouting.

“Some of the great players that they had with the Raiders from the smaller black colleges, he and [Al] Davis brought into the organization. Then he moved to broadcasting and, certainly, increased the popularity of the game, singlehandedly, by quite a bit. I don’t know how you’d ever measure that, but I think everybody that liked football enjoyed John’s commentary. A lot of people who probably didn’t even care about football found John entertaining and watched football because of him. He brought a lot of people to the game. He brought a perspective to the game that was very unique. Loved by all. I had a great opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with John. It seemed like he and Pat [Summerall] covered our games with the Giants every week. It was like a weekly broadcast crew.

“Going out to John’s bus and just spending time with him there and through the years, all the way up to Super Bowl XXXVI, all the other things that he’s done for the league… I particularly enjoyed the Top 100 conversations with John. There were about five or six of us that watched some of the players from the 20s, 30s, and 40s and those eras, decades. We had a lot of great conversations about the games that we saw, the players that we saw, the way the game was played, comparisons, comments, and so forth. John did a lot for player safety. I know he was on several committees in the league, advisory, and so forth, and studying the safety of the game, player safety. I know he’s instrumental in a lot of those changes, improvements to help player safety, specifically the defenseless receivers and protecting the quarterback, things like that. Just a very well-rounded person that had a great love of life, love of football, love of the history of football. He was always such an enjoyable person to be around and converse with unless you were standing across the field from him. That was a little different story.

“So, it’s a sad day for all football fans and, of course, the Madden game has to be one of the most popular things going. I think most of the current players in this generation knows John Madden through that and that’s a big part of it. Certainly, the popularity of football through the Madden game is pretty outstanding as well. He put it all together. Great person. Multiple great careers. Most importantly, just a great influence on the game of football and professional football. He was a good friend.”

Belichick was then asked why Madden had such an impact on the game.

“You can probably ask everybody that question. I think it was his enthusiasm and love for football. He just had a great perspective on the left foot spot, the right foot spot. He had so many things that just were obvious, but when he brought them to light, he did it in a humorous, yet educational way. Just always seemed to say the right thing and had the right mix of whatever the situation called for, whether it was emotionally or analytically. Whatever was called for, he always seemed to have the right words, the right perspective, and did it in a way that was easy to understand, concise, and as I said, a lot of times, humorous.”

Belichick said that he had received coaching advice from Madden, but that he’d rather keep that to himself. He also said that he’d played the Madden video game, but “I haven’t played in quite a while. I know when my kids were growing up, they would play it. I’d watch them and they’d beat me.”