‘I might have cried:’ Former Eagles remember the honor of being named All-Madden

Mark McMillian, then a rookie cornerback who fought his way onto the roster after being a 10th-round pick, sat at his Veterans Stadium locker late in the 1992 season and watched an Eagles staffer distribute gear.

Reggie White, Seth Joyner, Eric Allen, and Fred Barnett — stars of those early ‘90s Eagles teams — had made the All-Madden team. Now they had the sweatshirt, hat, and green Zubaz pants to prove it.

“I was thinking that’s really cool. These guys made the All-Madden team,” McMillian said. “Then the guy comes over and hands me my package with my sweater and hat. I lost it. I was like, ‘Wow. This is unreal.’ ”

Just like today, NFL players back then were recognized with Pro Bowl nods and All-Pro honors but there was something in the ‘80s and ‘90s about the All-Madden team — an all-star squad selected by broadcaster John Madden — that felt different.

“You wanted to be All-Pro, which meant you were the best in the league. You wanted to make it to the Pro Bowl, which meant you got to go to Hawaii. But No. 3 was Madden,” said Keith Jackson, who made the All-Madden team three times as an Eagles tight end. “You wanted John Madden’s respect. He was so revered as a coach and a great commentator that you just went, ‘This is awesome.’ ”

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Madden, who died on Dec. 28 at 85, recognized players who grabbed his attention during the games he broadcast. He filled his team with players he said “love to get dirty, roll around in the mud, and stuff like that.” He wanted players who weren’t affected “by a little blood” and matched the intensity he displayed during his decade coaching the Oakland Raiders.

“He was the best announcer by far and I played Madden on Sega Genesis in college, so to be an All-Madden selection and to meet him was the highest honor,” said Tre Johnson, who starred on Temple’s offensive line before playing eight years in the NFL. “It was a very unique honor. I’ve been to the Pro Bowl and stuff like that and you’re incentivized by money for that. This was truly an honor to have his respect. Almost like street cred.”

Madden started picking teams in 1984 as part of a TV program that aired each January for 17 years. What started as a suggestion by legendary college coach John Robinson, who was an assistant to Madden with the Raiders, grew into a happening.

And the players — even the stars — strived to be included on the team announced a week before the Super Bowl.

“Guys used to get pissed off when they didn’t make the team,” McMillian said.

After McMillian received his swag, Eagles PR man Mark Dalton had one more package to deliver.

“And I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh. Is there a chance?’ ” said Vai Sikahema.

A month earlier, Sikahema had famously punched a goal post after returning a punt for a touchdown. Treating the goal post like a heavy bag was the type of thing Madden loved. And Sikahema believes that’s what earned him that final sweatshirt.

“I’m not kidding you, guys who made the Pro Bowl will tell you this, it was better than finding out you had made the Pro Bowl,” said Sikahema, who made two Pro Bowls. “Part of it was because of how your teammates viewed you. They looked at you differently because they all wanted that sweatshirt. When you walked in with that All-Madden sweatshirt. Man, it was like having a letterman’s jacket but no one else in school had it.

“The truth is, the guys who made the All-Madden team were the guys he would’ve chosen to be on his ‘70s Raiders teams. The greatest compliment for my era is to be tough enough, mean enough, and good enough to play on those teams.”

Sikahema still has his sweatshirt — “Oh, yeah. Are you kidding me?” — along with a box of old VHS tapes of games he played with Madden in the broadcast booth.

“When he said something about you, you remembered it and you remembered the impact that it had on you personally,” said Sikahema, who retired from NBC10 in 2020 and is now a full-time minister and senior leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. “You also remember the impact it had on your career because other coaches respected his opinion. If he said something about you, it not only elevated your career but extended your career. It had the effect of going vertical and horizontal.”

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Barnett, who made made the All-Madden team in each of his first three seasons, remembers debating with teammates if they’d rather be All-Pro or All-Madden.

After Barnett leapt over two defenders to catch a touchdown in a 1993 playoff win at New Orleans, backup quarterback Jim McMahon said, “That catch will put Fred on the All-Madden team.” It meant something to be All-Madden.

“When you were on the All-Madden team, it pushed you to another level,” Barnett said. “It put you in another category to know that that type of guy would say to the public, ‘This is a guy who I want on my team.’ It made me think that if John was a head coach and I was on the draft board, he would say, ‘Take him.’ That’s basically what I think he said every year. ‘These are guys who could play for me.’ ”

On the eve of games, Barnett was frequently one of the players pulled into production meetings with Madden and play-by-play man Pat Summerall. They asked the players about their backstories and how they expected the game to unfold, hoping to find nuggets to share during the broadcast.

For Barnett, it was a glimpse into what it would have been like to have Madden as his coach.

“Every time I walked into the room, I would have a big smile on my face. ‘There he is, Arkansas Fred,’ ” Barnett said as Madden used the nickname given to Barnett by Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan. “I was like, ‘Wow, John Madden lights up when he sees me.’ Just for someone like that with that much credibility on and off the field, it was very gratifying that he would put me in the category that he did.”

So what was it about McMillian that grabbed Madden’s attention?

“I think it was the struggle for me to even get drafted by the Eagles out of Alabama,” McMillian said.

McMillian didn’t play organized football until his senior year of high school, feeling burnt by the sport after being cut from his Pop Warner team. He latched on at a junior college before starring at Alabama for one of the nation’s top defenses.

But the cornerback nicknamed “Mighty Mouse” was just 5-foot-7 and 147 pounds, pushing his draft stock to the late rounds. He made the most of it, impressing the Eagles in training camp enough that defensive coordinator Bud Carson — the architect of Pittsburgh’s “Steel Curtain’' defense — called McMillian the best rookie cover cornerback he ever saw.

McMillian started his rookie season on special teams and ended it starting on the opposite side of Eric Allen. He was the quintessential “All-Madden” player, small in stature but big in fight.

Four years after playing his first football game, McMillian found himself honored on an All-Madden team that included 12 Hall of Famers.

“I think I might have cried,” said McMillian, who now lives in Arizona and owns a company that produces barbecue sauces and seasonings. “I had an opportunity to talk to him in practices and before the games, he always gave me words of encouragement and said he liked the way I played the game. That meant a lot to me. There were so many superstars on that defensive roster and for him to take to me, that just made me want to play a little harder knowing that he was calling the game.”

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McMillian had only worn his All-Madden sweatshirt twice since he received it, but he knew exactly where it was last month after hearing that Madden died. McMillian saw other players post pictures of their gear to social media as a tribute and dug his out to do the same.

Nearly 30 years later, it still meant something to be All-Madden. And McMillian had the sweatshirt to prove it.

“You figure after 1992, we’re in 2022 now and I can still find that All-Madden sweatshirt. Even some of my game balls, I don’t know where they are but I know where my All-Madden gear is at,” McMillian said. “You knew when that Madden Cruiser rolled up to the game, it was something serious. Everyone wanted to make the All-Madden team. You wanted to make sure that you made him proud. It was like he was our coach but wasn’t our coach.”