Back in 2008, I landed my first college coaching position as an intern, and one of the other candidates that interviewed actually brought his gaming system with him and was in the process of hooking it up to TV in a coaches office when the coach walked in to find him unplugging stuff in the back of his TV.
The reasoning? He wanted to show off his playbook and dynasty record as a part of his resume for the intern position that paid $1,000 per month.
That is no joke, and to this day I'm not sure if I should be proud or embarrassed about landing the job over that guy.
It seems like every year there is a guy out there that lists his video game accomplishments on his resume for a major head coaching job once a FOIA request is made by a media member and candidates are shared publicly.
But consider this...Maybe that candidate was just ahead of his time. As video games have boomed into a $180 billion dollar a year industry, surpassing the global movie industry and North American sports industry combined in 2020, what if there was a coach out there that actually valued the time grinding away on a console to become a better Madden player?
Well, if Hall of Famer John Madden had his way and he were still coaching, he would bring a few young guys that were really good at the game that carries his name on staff.
"I would have a couple of young guys that are good, good Madden players, and hire them and put them on my staff. And each week I would have them play our opponent," Madden explained in a recent ESPN Q&A.
"If the Raiders are playing Kansas City, I'd have one of them be the Raiders and one of them be Kansas City. And then I would run our players against their defenses and their defenses against our players. And I'd have them just check that out and then write up -- this was good, this was bad, had trouble here and trouble there."
While even that remote possibility is enough to make the heart of even the casual gamer flutter with excitement, Madden admits he's not real sure what he would do with that info.
"I don't know how much I would use it, but that's what I would do."
If Madden was the head coach of the school I was interviewing at to start my head coaching career, I may be in a different line of work today. Now, if only we could get Nick Saban to say something similar, maybe we'd have a real shot at putting NCAA College Football back on the shelves.
A man can hope...
Head here to read the full ESPN bit, including what Madden sees as the next steps for the ever-popular game and how the game has genuinely helped the career of coaches and players.