John Madden played football for California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) where he was a standout offensive tackle during his college career. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1958 NFL Draft but never played in a regular season NFL game due to a knee injury that cut short his playing career. Later, he became famous as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders in the NFL, but his actual playing career was primarily at college level at Cal Poly and briefly with the Eagles before injury.