Coach driver there. Happy Thanksgiving everybody to you.
We were gonna talk a lot of other things.
But as he always does, John Madden just came
to the table in spirit and we have to discuss
the documentary, his son was just on, but
also your relationship with him. And what may that
conversation? Because I know you were listening. What
it drummed up for you? It drummed up a
lot of great memories. First of all, just
the fact that he's in his dad's office in Pleasant
California. I went there a couple of times visit
with coaches. He mentored me through my, my
head coaching career phenomenal building. It's like a it
, it is you pay homage to the Raiders.
When you get there. He has a seven man
crowd there in the parking lot. He told everybody
that that's a true story. It is true.
I saw it. It's an amazing thing. It
really is. And then you see all the memorabilia
when you first walk in. I mean, it
really is like the Raiders Hall of Fame. He's
got pictures of all the guys, great statues of
a lot of the players he's had. And then
you walk into his office and sure enough, he
has AAA video set up with screens to watch all
the NFL games. It's, it's an amazing thing
. It really is. It's really cool. It's
amazing. And I, we always love talking about
batting this time of year, especially Ron. But
there, there's so many great dignitaries in the league
and so many coaches and so many announcers and yet
there is something just that, that's really special and
magical about him, especially maybe for a young person
who wasn't around for it. Can you explain what
sets him apart from your perspective? Well, from
my perspective, first of all, you remember that
, I remember he was a great coach. I
met him when I was 16 years old, the
very first time he and his family come down to
Monterey to sell right after they just won the Super
Bowl that year and he was just that iconic,
but he was so gracious to me and, and
, and, and I never forgot it. And
then we developed this relationship as a player and as
a broadcaster. And so every time we played,
he would always get a chance to visit me.
That was always really cool. And then as I
became a head coach, I needed a mentor,
somebody to help me get over the hump. It
was John Madden lo and behold and he was so
gracious with his time and treated me so so eloquently
. It was, it just made me feel great
. So every time I see him, every time
I got an opportunity to visit with him, I
did and then I got to know Mike a little
bit. Um, and, and we've become friends
and, and hopefully, uh, we'll get an
opportunity to visit again this, you know, sometime
when I'm back up in Monterey and he's in Monterey
as well. But just the, the those memories
were just an amazing thing. And as you guys
talked with him, I thought that was a tremendous
interview. I really did. I was really excited
about, when did Coach Benton's history come from,
uh, you know, you hear about the,
you know, the trees and coaches tree and stuff
. Like, what did John Madden? Like what
was his biggest influence? I think his biggest influence
was a, a an overall mentor, the people
that he worked with, the people that he helped
. Andy Reid is one of his, one of
his mentees. I mean, if you talk to
coach Reed about, he'll tell you they used to
talk all the time and about some of the craziest
things they talked about. Um, you know,
diners, drives and, and drivers or whatever it's
called. They always talk about those different restaurants that
were on TV. And it, it was a
hilarious conversation to listen to him, talk to coach
about it. It was, it was really fun
. And coach, what was the most impactful if
you can even pick one thing as obviously with coach
Madden being your mentor or a coach that's had an
impact on your life. What's one thing that really
sticks with you when you think about his memory and
how he impacted your life. There's two things.
One is, he's the guy that created riverboat Ron
inadvertently getting me to, uh how important it was
to use the fourth down. No, Kyle.
It's, it's a tremendous story. He and I
talked about at one point my first two years of
my career, I was three and 13 in games
decided by six points or less. And most of
those games were lost in the fourth quarter and most
of those games were lost because on fourth down,
I did what was safe and that was I kicked
the ball, either punted it or I kicked the
field goal. He made me understand how important it
is to go for it. You know, how
much of a flex it is for someone just to
say I needed a mentor and John Madden became my
mentor. Like that's not just a thing like you
, you had that had, you had to work
at that and you had to establish a relationship and
that's really, really amazing that that's a thing in
your life. It's really cool and the cool thing
about it is I've got no from all those times
that he and I talked on the telephone. He
and I talked in person. Um I was fortunate
enough that he, he had me on the Madden
Coaches committee, which is a big thing and,
and it was a big honor to be on part
of that. And that was, that was a
tremendous thing too. Riverboat Ron at the table,
everybody, of course, have to talk John Madden
on Thanksgiving.