For most of us, the summer solstice occurs in late June, but for John Madden, it begins the second he steps on training-camp grass. This is what his body clock is set for, what his biorhythms tell him is right. Early last month, that initial landing was at Soldier Field in Chicago, where the Bears were practicing.
"Perfect place to start," he said in the restaurant-style booth of his bus as it rode along Interstate 80 to Canton, Ohio, where he would be calling the Hall of Fame Game between the Bears and the Miami Dolphins for ABC. "I know this comes off sounding phony, but there's no better smell than that grass - and the smell of a baby's head. It's a great feeling that football's back. You're off for six months. Then my body senses something."
Madden, 69, has built an exquisitely perfect football life for himself. It is monkish in its devotion, sophisticated in its execution.
"Yeah, and none of it was planned," he said in the luxury bus, which has a television (usually tuned to the NFL Network), a telephone, a fax, a bed, a refrigerator and an assistant nicknamed Junk.
Twenty-seven years removed from coaching, Madden has a breadth of renown that has made him perhaps the most enduringly recognizable and well-liked personality in pro football. He lacks the power of Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, and at any given moment, certain players and coaches may be more popular than he is.
But today's stars will retire and fade, and Madden shows no signs of leaving despite his real estate holdings, vineyards and almond orchards. Asked why he bought the orchards, he will tell you about the steep climb in the price of almonds since he went into the nut business, to $3.75 a pound from 85 cents.
"We thought if we got to $1, it would be good," he said, a bag of his almonds propped on his desk.
Madden's multiple careers in the public eye started with coaching the Oakland Raiders for 10 seasons, which led to television commentary, which created the pathway to two decades of commercial endorsements (Ace Hardware, Tinactin and Outback Steakhouse), then to an unexpected incarnation that might be his biggest role yet: the name on the best-selling sports video game ever in North America.
"I'm the luckiest guy in the world," Madden said as he happily watched a Green Bay-Buffalo scrimmage on his satellite feed of the National Football League's channel while piles of papers, media guides and clippings awaited his study.
In Northern California, meanwhile, his son Mike is a real estate developer who oversees the family's holdings. His son Joe runs the production facility where he shoots those commercials. His wife, Virginia, who once owned a bar and flew a private plane, occasionally meets Madden in Manhattan, where they own an apartment at the Dakota.
Through the serendipity of his football realm, Madden's 36 Q score - a measure of his familiarity and appeal - is exceeded in the N.F.L. universe by only Joe Montana's 40 and Brett Favre's 38, and he leads Jerry Rice, who is rated at 35. Among fans ages 12 to 17, his score is twice the average of any other sportscaster.
"The amazing thing about Madden is that he's one of the few commentators who has transcended what he does," said Henry Schafer, the executive vice president of Marketing Evaluations, which produces the Q scores, who added that Madden's appeal means that "you don't have to be a sports fan to know John Madden."
It was not surprising that Fox hired Madden to establish its credibility when it started N.F.L. broadcasts in 1994, that ABC needed him in 2002 to re-establish itself after a botched experiment on "Monday Night Football" with Dennis Miller and that NBC craved his stature for its return to football next year.
"I hired him because he's the best analyst in the history of sports," said Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Universal Sports. "He's able to cut through from people my age, who remembered him as a coach, all the way to 12-year-olds."
That appeal to young fans who never saw him coach is seen most directly with his Electronic Arts video game, which has sold 45 million copies in 16 editions, including 1.7 million in the first week of Madden NFL 06 sales in early August. It was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for best video game soundtrack.
The average age of the Madden gamer is about 25, with more teenagers playing it than ever, said Jordan Edelstein, EA's director of marketing. The release date of each year's new game is like that of a new Harry Potter book, with thousands of stores opening at midnight to accommodate the demand.
By some estimates, half of all N.F.L. players are Madden devotees, playing at home, online, in locker rooms and in training-camp dormitories.
"When you think of John Madden, you don't think of real life, you think of the branded game," said Dwight Freeney, the Indianapolis Colts defensive end who has won two Madden Bowls, which are staged before each Super Bowl.
B. J. Askew, a reserve fullback for the Jets, said: "I think a lot of people growing up know him from the video game and a little from the broadcasts. But my dad was always watching highlights of him coaching; I think it was the Raiders."
The passion that gamers feel for Madden the game, not the man, was born 20 years ago when Trip Hawkins, who founded Electronic Arts, approached Madden with the idea of creating a product imbued with as much realism as possible.
Hawkins first went to Joe Kapp, then alighted on Madden, who gave him a Raiders playbook, invaluable to constructing plays in the game.
"He contributed a tremendous amount to my understanding of football," Hawkins said of Madden, "and how to approach making a game that would have really good plays and be very engaging."
To give the game verisimilitude took four years, not the one or two that Hawkins had hoped.
"Halfway through," Hawkins said, "John got frustrated, and I held up one of the payments because I wanted to wait until we were closer to revenues."
Sandy Montag, Madden's agent, said the delayed $100,000 payment offered an escape clause from the deal, but Madden gave Hawkins a six-month reprieve.
The game, and the company, took off, and Madden recalled Hawkins saying, "You stay with us, you can get as much stock as you want."
Madden said: "I just thought he'd give me the stock in a public offering, but he said I'd have to buy it. Now this is the biggest mistake I ever made: I wagged my finger at him and said, 'I've given you my time; I won't give you my money.' I was so proud of myself."
The realism built into the game, and the improvements made throughout the years, are rewarded with the devotion of gamers like Will Kinser, 23, of Glen Burnie, Md. Kinser is the co-creator of MaddenNation.com, which he says has 32,000 members, and is the co-host of a weekly Internet radio talk show on the game.
"It's become more than a game to us," said Kinser, who said he started playing at age 11. "A large community has built up around it."
Like Kinser, Chris Cambeiro, 16, of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., plays the Madden game online far more than on a console.
"When you play at home, it gets boring, but online you're playing against different teams and different playbooks," he said.
Kinser's Web site has a mix of hip-hop songs about the Madden game, including one he wrote to celebrate the game's release date:
"And just to make it clear that I'm being serious here/I played three days straight with no change of underwear/I don't bother to eat, sleep or even talk to my friends/And if the game is really hot, I might chill out in my Depends."
Madden speaks regularly to EA personnel to keep them abreast of various N.F.L. developments and trends.
"He's tough," said Jeremy Strauser, the executive producer of the game. "If we don't have our stuff together, or if we don't have the scripts right, he lets us know about it. He has editing privileges."
At practice facilities and stadiums, players complain to him that his game gives them a lower speed rating than they deserve. Sometimes, he agrees.
"I told him no way that Tony Gonzalez was faster than me," said Dante Hall, the Kansas City receiver and punt returner, who recalled being awed by meeting "the guy who makes the best football game."
Madden's own complaint is that too many gamers routinely reject punting on fourth down.
"It needs something like 'Doink!' " he said, punching the palm of his right hand, "and the whole game goes haywire."
Hours after his arrival at a hotel outside Canton, Madden sat in a conference room - an unlighted cigar in his mouth, a baseball cap over his wavy hair and a coach's clicker in his right hand - to analyze Bears training-camp videotape on a TV monitor.
This, to Madden, is the essential video game, without flashy graphics, rap music or QB Vision Control, the most advanced new feature of Madden NFL 06.
Madden noticed a receiver who twice lined up at the bottom of the screen, then quickly proceeded to run out of bounds of his own volition.
"What's wrong with that guy at the bottom?" he asked.
"Run it again," Drew Esocoff, the "Monday Night" director, said.
They watched again. "You wouldn't do that in the first day you worked with me," Madden said, chuckling.
"How can you do that?" asked Fred Gaudelli, the producer, incredulous at the receiver's actions.
"I would have cut him," Madden said. "I can't believe there's a coach out there who would let him line up where he is."