He sure was. Weathers played two seasons for the then-Oakland Raiders before moving on to the CFL in the 1970s. That meant that the great John Madden was his head coach while Weathers played linebacker for eight games.
And per a story from Sports Illustrated, it was Madden who helped push him into acting when he was cut from the team.
Here’s the story, along with the quote that motivated him to look for work outside of football:
When Weathers was with the Raiders, future Hall of Fame Coach John Madden went to see him play the lead in “Othello,” and reportedly told him afterward to pursue his second career because Madden didn’t believe he was tough enough to be an outstanding pro football player.
“I was good enough to fool ’em, but never dedicated enough to become a great player,” Weathers recalled of his pro career. “Up to a point, everybody can capitalize on the fact that nobody knows what’s going on. I could make coaches believe I could do what they wanted me to do, but that’s not the same as pushing yourself. The great ones are willing to work harder.
Carl Weathers had John Madden and Ken Norton to thank for his role as Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” franchise.
Weathers was cut from Madden’s Raiders after dropping 20 lbs to play strong safety. Two days before camp, he was put at LB.
Belichick, 71, and Saban, 72, are easily two of the greatest coaches that the sport has ever seen. Next season, college football will look very different without Saban coaching Alabama. Meanwhile, the NFL will also look very different without Belichick coaching the Patriots.
Both teams will have huge decisions about how to fill these massive shoes. While there are some interesting candidates for the gig in New England and the job in Tuscaloosa, can either live up to the reputation that Belichick and Saban built?
We looked back at some of the most legendary coaches in football history, both in the NFL and in college football, to learn how these replacements have typically fared.
The results are a fairly mixed bag but if there is one thing we learned, it is that it is not easy to replace someone as accomplished as either of these two Hall of Fame-caliber coaches.
There are countless NFL memories we’ll all have from Thanksgiving, but when you think of the late John Madden calling games on the holiday, you might associate him with one word: Turducken.
That’s the Frankenstein-like combination of duck, chicken and turkey that gives eaters a taste of each.
It was over two decades ago that Madden first tried the turducken, leading him to talk about it on the air and show it during many a Thanksgiving game, popularizing a dish that was familiar in Louisiana before thousands of turduckens were mailed around the world.
How did the turkey-duck-chicken make its way into Madden’s hands (literally)?
Let’s go farther back than 1997 for a second. First, you have to ask where the turducken originated from. The story isn’t completely clear.
Paul Prudhomme, the famous Louisiana chef who died in 2015, claims he invented it in the 1960s while working in Wyoming. Here’s part of the claim from a 1994 Times-Picayune article reprinted on NOLA.com:
The original Turducken was introduced here in the 1970s by chef Paul Prudhomme. He invented the concept a decade earlier in Sheridan, Wyo., while working on a restaurant buffet line carving meats. Everything looked pretty except the turkey, he said. So the inventive chef set out to create something smashing. He eventually ended up with three birds, each with its own dressing. After moving back to New Orleans, Prudhomme gave it its name, then copyrighted Turducken in 1986.
“It’s that wild imagination I have and the physical abuse I give myself to make it happen,” he said, explaining the creation. “One of the greatest pleasures of my life has been to be able to do things like the Turducken that make people happy. It’s a huge effort but once you taste it, it is literally the best.”
But there’s also a story that in 1985, a farmer came to Hebert’s Specialty Meats and asked for the shop to combine all three fowls.
And that’s where Glenn Mistich comes in. Mistich’s wife Leah is from the family that owned Hebert’s, and he opened his Gourmet Butcher Block in 1994, where he used some savvy knifework to debone the trio of birds, line them up with various types of stuffing in between and sew them together.
He told For The Win that before Madden popularized the turducken, he sold 250 of them a year.
Then, in 1997, he heard longtime radio personality Bob Delgiorno talking on-air about getting Madden to try the dish before the Hall of Famer was set to broadcast a Rams-Saints game from the Superdome. Delgiorno told For The Win that he had interviewed Madden a few times on his show and that Mistich used to advertise the turducken on the station.
“Bob got in touch and we went to Superdome,” Mistich recalled. “Madden grabbed a piece of it with his hands and fell in love with it.”
Madden — who declined an interview request from For The Win in 2017 — confirmed that was true to the New York Times in 2002.
“‘The P.R. guy for the Saints brought me one. And he brought it to the booth. It smelled and looked so good. I didn’t have any plates or silverware or anything, and I just started eating it with my hands.”
(AP Photo/Intelligencer Journal, Suzette Wenger)
There’s also this anecdote to add to that moment via NOLA.com:
“I’m there eating this turducken with my fingers,” Madden recalled. “(Saints owner) Tom Benson comes in and I have all this stuff on my fingers and I’m doing that thing in my head where I’m wondering, ‘Do I shake his hand?’ ”
(For the record: Madden did shake Benson’s hand, sticky fingers and all, and he said the two haven’t spoken since.)
The next day, Mistich got a phone call he thought was a prank.
“I really loved it,” he remembered Madden saying. “Can you send one to me in California?”
Two weeks later, there was a FOX camera crew in his shop because Madden chose turducken to be the official “All-Madden Team” food. This year, he estimates he’ll sell between five and six thousand turduckens, two of which were shipped to Madden himself.
“Every year, he gets one for Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Mistich said.
“I’m very grateful,” Mistich added. “I can’t say enough about what he’s done for our business. He’s definitely put it on a national level. Turducken is even in the dictionary now.”
And it’s that holiday on which the NFL has decided to continue honoring Madden. Last year, there were Madden field logos and helmet decals on Thanksgiving.
This year? A Madden jersey patch will be worn by all six teams playing on Turkey Day. A special Madden coin — heads is his head, tails is a turducken — will be tossed. There will also be Madden tributes on the broadcast and on the field for all three games:
In honor of #MaddenThanksgiving, a special coin featuring a silhouette of John Madden on one side (Heads) and a six-legged turducken on the reverse side (Tails) will be used for the coin toss before each Thanksgiving game. pic.twitter.com/pcFQ0Zf5Jq
We’re looking at all Madden NFL covers from the last two decades.
Editor’s note: This post was updated for 2023.
The Madden series has been around since EA Sports released John Madden Football on MS-DOS in 1988.
For the first decade, Madden himself graced the cover. The Super Bowl-winning coach-turned-fan-favorite-broadcaster-turned-Turducken-evangelizer is also something of a master at building a personal brand. Even though he hadn’t broadcasted a game since 2009, he remained a household name thanks to EA’s best-selling franchise.
After 2000, Mr. Madden finally started to share the screen with NFL superstars. Here’s a look at every player who’s been on a Madden cover. And remember: Patrick Mahomes is among the athletes to show the “Madden Curse” is just a myth.
New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch and three other members of Escape Artists — Todd Black, Jonathan Shukat and Jason Blumenthal — are slated to produce a new Amazon/MGM theatrical feature on the late John Madden.
The film will be directed by five-time Oscar nominee David O. Russell and comedian Will Ferrell is currently in talks to play Madden, reports Deadline.
Madden is produced by Escape Artists’ Todd Black, Jonathan Shukat, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch. Latter is the co-owner of the New York Giants, and the expectation is that the NFL will embrace the feature film on one of the sport’s most beloved figures.
The film will center on Madden’s post-coaching career and focus more on his broadcasting and, specifically, his creation of John Madden Football (later renamed Madden NFL), the extremely popular video game franchise.
Although he’d never played a video game in his life, Madden helped changed the videogame landscape when he became the figurehead for Madden NFL, a perennial top seller that this fall gets its 24th incarnation through Electronic Arts.
Tisch has most recently served as executive producer or producer for the television series Servant, as well as the films Cassandro and The Man from Toronto.
Some of the more popular films produced by Tisch include American History X, Forrest Gump, Risky Business and Seven Pounds.
The film will reportedly be titled Madden and be directed by American Hustle filmmaker David O. Russell.
The project is going off a 2022 Black List script by Cambron Clark, though Deadline shared that Russell was reportedly doing rewrites on the project before the WGA strike started earlier this month.
Rather than focus on Madden’s coaching days, Deadline says the film will follow the football icon after he left the Oakland Raiders and built a new career for himself as a broadcaster, product spokesperson and pioneer in the sports video game world.
The original Black List-recognized script from Clark focused on Madden getting his self-titled NFL video game franchise off the ground.
While you can guess what Brady brings to the table, O’Connor has plenty of experience telling sports-based stories, having directed the Disney hockey drama Miracle, the MMA drama Warrior and the Ben Affleck-led basketball drama The Way Back.
While a broadcasting home and casting have yet to be finalized, Brady spoke to why he’s so engaged with working on the project (via Deadline).
“I grew up admiring John Madden, first as a coach, then as a commentator. I loved John’s passion for the game, especially his insatiable appetite for educating audiences about football. He welcomed fans with that warm smile, infectious laugh, and exceptional knowledge of the game, making everyone feel as if John were watching the broadcast right next to them on their living room sofa.”
The major question now is who will play Madden in the project?
Whether it’s Oakland Raiders-era Madden or Monday Night Football-era Madden, we’ve got some ideas for who might lead the project.
A new limited series about the life of John Madden is on the way, with Tom Brady’s production company leading the charge
Just weeks into his second retirement, Tom Brady is already hard at work in the next chapter of his life.
The latest feather in the GOAT’s cap will be a new limited series about the life and career of legendary football icon John Madden, with Brady and his production company at the helm.
“I grew up admiring John Madden, first as a coach, then as a commentator. I loved John’s passion for the game, especially his insatiable appetite for educating audiences about football,” Brady told Deadline. “He welcomed fans with that warm smile, infectious laugh, and exceptional knowledge of the game, making everyone feel as if John were watching the broadcast right next to them on their living room sofa. On behalf of 199 Productions, I’m honored to collaborate with Virginia and Mike Madden, my co-founder at Religion of Sports, Gotham Chopra, and the rest of the creative team, in telling the iconic story of a family man who revolutionized not only the game but the culture of football.”
Madden was a gridiron revolutionary in myriad ways, as a Super Bowl-winning coach, a Hall of Fame broadcaster, and the face of football video games with his “Madden NFL” series.
The series doesn’t have a landing spot in terms of distribution yet, but will be determined after the episodes are filmed, according to Deadline.
#Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid spoke about John Madden’s legacy and Turducken ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
The NFL is honoring the legendary John Madden on Thanksgiving by introducing the “John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration,” which is a yearly celebration of his life and legacy. Each of CBS, FOX and NBC are set to create segments dedicated to Madden ahead of each of their Week 12 matchups on Thursday, Nov. 24.
Asked about Madden’s legacy in relation to Thanksgiving, Chiefs HC Andy Reid had one thing on his mind — Turducken.
“Turducken. I mean, you think about Turducken,” Reid said. “I still have my Turducken in the freezer in tribute to him. I’m debating stuffing it. He’s my guy. I appreciate everything he did for me and just a good human being and for the game. Think about what he did for football, for our jobs in here, the thing you guys do for TV, (it was) phenomenal at changing it and then as a coach, Hall of Fame coach.”
Asked a similar question, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes revealed that he’s having a special Thanksgiving dinner in Madden’s honor.
“Yeah, he meant a ton,” Mahomes said. “I got Madden the video game like right when Madden the video game became ‘it,’ which it still is. And so, I played it all growing up. Hearing his voice, it’s ingrained in me now. I watched a documentary this last year and I’m doing the Turducken this year. So I’m going to try it out. I’m not cooking it — I can’t cook — but my chef is already preparing it and getting it ready to go, and I’ll let you know next week how it is.”
