John Madden was a Hall of Fame coach and a legendary NFL analyst, but in popular culture, his surname has become synonymous with “Madden NFL,” the football video game series that has sold well over 100 million copies since its release as “John Madden Football” in 1988. In 1984, Trip Hawkins, owner of the company Electronic Arts, pitched the idea to Madden, who initially “didn’t even know what a video game was,” Madden has said. But Madden thought the video game could teach football, and Madden drew up plays and taught Hawkins the game’s intricacies. The result was an 11-on-11 game that enabled video game players to choose their own formations or request play-calling advice from Madden, who initially announced games and was a rival coach. The game’s popularity exploded after its 1990 release for Sega Genesis, and it soon had a tremendous influence on the field as well. With its realistic portrayal of football, “Madden NFL” became a learning tool for players of all ages, who used it to study plays and better understand football terminology, formations, and coverages. “A lot of the kids playing in the NFL now grew up on it,” the Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk once said. “It makes you a better football player."