Mark Schlereth talks John Madden, Arrowhead Stadium and more
On Wednesday, former NFL guard and current NFL FOX analyst Mark Schlereth talked to FanSided about John Madden’s legend, Arrowhead Stadium and more.
Mark Schlereth played for the Washington Redskins and Denver Broncos, enjoying the home-field advantage of RFK Stadium and Mile High Stadium, respectively.
Yet the hardest venue for Schlereth to play in? Arrowhead Stadium.
This makes sense, considering Arrowhead holds the Guinness World Record for being the loudest outdoor stadium on earth, setting the mark in 2014. During his playing days, the Kansas City Chiefs were notorious for having loud fans and a great defense, a tradition which truly began in the 1990s with the arrival of head coach Marty Schottenheimer in ’89.
You can hear Schlereth’s full answer on why Arrowhead Stadium was the toughest play to play in the video below, on YouTube’s Stacking The Box Podcast channel.
Mark Schlereth praises the great John Madden, talks the noise of Arrowhead
Schlereth, who spoke with FanSided’s Matt Verderame on the Stacking The Box Podcast while campaigning for Papa John’s, Slickdeals, Bush’s Original and Grilling Beans and LG Old 65-inch TVs, also went into detail on his thoughts about the late, great John Madden.
While Madden is largely known by the younger generation for his immensely popular video game series, Madden was first a Hall of Fame coach with the Oakland Raiders and then an iconic broadcaster for CBS and later, FOX.
When he played, Schlereth and his teammates revered Madden. Now, as a broadcaster, he feels the same.
“As a player, when John Madden showed up to your game, you knew it was a big game,” Schlereth said. “And when John Madden showed up on your sideline to watch practice, everybody whispered like ‘Oh my God, John Madden is here.’ He was that big, that iconic even as a broadcaster, while he was broadcasting. That’s before all the Madden football and everything else. John was that guy and he was revered for what he brought and the popularity that he created.
“…Still to this day, he is the gold standard of NFL broadcasting. As a matter of fact, I look at myself as a broadcaster and ‘say man, how can I get better?’ I went and downloaded a bunch of John Madden games and watched a bunch of stuff. It’s part of my offseason preparation. Not to mimic or sound like John Madden, but just to go ‘how did he do it, what were the keys?'”
Schlereth will be calling the Week 1 broadcast on FOX between the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions, alongside play-by-play voice Adam Amin.