Madden’s schedule keeps him away from home a great deal: He is on the road for the entire football season-from the August exhibition games until the Super Bowl at the end of January-and the only time he gets home is when the San Francisco 49ers play a TV game. The autograph-seeker chased after Yarbrough, got his signature and went away satisfied. Madden pointed to his driver who, dressed in his Greyhound uniform, was just leaving the restaurant. An autograph hunter walked up to Madden and asked where the player had gone. When he and Madden stopped at a restaurant there, a rumor began that a famous football player was among the patrons. Before long, it seemed, the whole town was at the Tastee-Freez.īut Yarbrough remembers a time in Kingman, Ariz., when the famous coach-broadcaster was not recognized. The local football coach brought his wife, children, friends and neighbors. Someone had called the coach, who canceled practice because of the famous visitor. Then came the high school basketball team, still in uniform. The shop owner began calling people, and soon a reporter and a photographer arrived. The Tastee-Freez shop where he stopped had its television set tuned to the game but was empty of customers. He once stopped in Sidney, Neb., to watch a Monday night football game. Madden’s celebrity status-he just won his fourth Sports Emmy for best commentator in five years-often causes a stir. He says he likes to get off main highways and go into small towns to meet the people and “to buy a hat or a coffee mug.” He also carries a supply of Maddencruiser hats and shirts to hand out. Though the cruiser’s refrigerator is well stocked, Madden stops several times a day to eat. “I’m going to be bored driving a regular bus run again.” He has worked for Greyhound for 22 years and normally drives a route between Sacramento and Los Angeles. Yarbrough is helping in the search for his successor and will break him in at the beginning of the football season. (Madden spends much of every week on the road watching the tapes of the previous weekend’s football games to prepare for the coming weekend’s broadcast on CBS television.) It has a kitchen, a queen-size bed on which Madden sleeps “very well,” an oversized tile shower, a full galley with microwave oven, a dinette, large chairs, telephone and intercommunications system, two color television sets, a citizens band radio, two laser disc players, a built-in vacuum cleaner, a stereo system and two videotape players. On the outside, the Maddencruiser-which Madden has used since mid-1987-looks the same as any other new Greyhound, except that it is six inches higher to provide extra headroom. I often don’t know till a few days before what my schedule will be. “I love trains,” he said in a telephone interview the other day, “but they are becoming so popular you have to make reservations months in advance.
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