Pro Football HOFer JOHN MADDEN touched on several issues impacting the NFL including ratings and the possibility of the Raiders moving to Las Vegas in a recent Q&A with Cam Inman of the EAST BAY TIMES. Madden, 80, was "looking good and feeling good after a year of health problems," during which he was "hospitalized multiple times and had surgeries on his heart, a hip, a knee and, just this week, his esophagus." Madden: "I'm glad I think we're all finished; I hope so." Below are excerpts from the Q&A, some of which have been edited for brevity.
- On the Raiders' possible relocation to Las Vegas:
Madden: Everyone says they want to keep the Raiders in Oakland, and there’s no one that wants to keep the Raiders in Oakland more than I do, unless it’s [Raiders Owner]
MARK DAVIS. Mark Davis wants to keep the Raiders in Oakland. He doesn’t want to move. But there’s no "here" here. There’s not a place to keep them, and that’s the thing that is not understood. They need a new stadium and there’s no new stadium for them to play [in]. So they have to go play where they can get a stadium. The only shot, and I’m not sure how strong that is really right now, is Las Vegas.
- On the NFL’s slumping television ratings:
Madden: What happens is there are not a lot of good teams, and they have too many windows to put these games in. When you think of an early Sunday window, a late Sunday window, a Sunday night window, a Monday night window, a Thursday night window. They all want good games, and there’s not enough good teams. Just look at the list of teams playing. It takes two. It’s not just one good team. You have to have two to have a great game, and there’s not a lot of great games. And we’re spreading it out more and more with fewer good teams, which makes it doggone impossible to have good games.
- On the NFL’s winning formula:
Madden: It’s a quarterback’s league. If you don’t have a quarterback in this league, it’s an uphill battle all the time (
EAST BAY TIMES, 11/24).
