In today’s NFL, the strategy of intentionally losing certain games often comes into play. The late John Madden once called the strategy the “worst thing” you can do in football.
During Madden’s memorial service on Monday night, a video clip showed one of his proudest moments. It happened all the way back in 1976 during a Monday night game.
Madden’s Raiders were battling the Cincinnati Bengals. By that point, the Raiders had clinched home-field advantage in the playoffs, so there wasn’t much on the line. There was also a belief the Raiders would be better off losing because if they did, the Steelers – who had eliminated the Raiders from the postseason three of the last four years at the time – would lose the division to the Bengals and miss out on the playoffs.
Madden hated the optics. His Raiders went on to beat the Bengals that night. Later on that season, they played the Steelers in the AFC Championship, beat them, advanced to the Super Bowl and won it all.
“The thinking was, ‘They don’t want to play Pittsburgh, they want to play Cincinnati, so they’re going to go lose,’” Madden said in a video played at his memorial, via Pro Football Talk. “That’s the worst thing you can say about someone, that they lost on purpose. Just for the sake of the organization, just for the sake of football, just for the sake of what’s right, you’ve got to go win.”
Madden went on to call that Raiders’ win the “most proud game” he ever coached in.
“That Monday night game was the most proud game that I ever coached in my life,” the late John Madden continued. “I don’t know any other way to play. And thank goodness, my players didn’t either.”
Today’s NFL could learn a thing or two from John Madden.
The point of the game is to win the game. Finding reasons to lose is a dangerous spiral to the league’s basement.
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