Pleasanton, California - John Madden, an NFL icon who reached the top of his profession in three distinctly different fields – coaching, announcing, and video games – died unexpectedly Tuesday morning, according to the NFL. He was 85.

"On behalf of the entire NFL family, we extend our condolences to Virginia, Mike, Joe and their families," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, referencing Madden's wife and their sons.

"We all know him as the Hall of Fame coach of the Oakland Raiders and broadcaster who worked for every major network, but more than anything, he was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather."

"Nobody loved football more than Coach. He was football. He was an incredible sounding board to me and so many others. There will never be another John Madden, and we will forever be indebted to him for all he did to make football and the NFL what it is today."

Madden frequently said he answered to three different names, each coming from a different generation of NFL fans.

He was "Coach" to the people who followed his Oakland Raiders, "John" to the millions who remembered him best as a broadcaster, and "Madden" to the legions of video-game devotees.

Born John Earl Madden on April 10, 1936, in Austin, Minnesota, Madden was the son of an auto mechanic who moved his family to Northern California in 1942 in hopes of a better life.

Madden was raised in Daly City, and as a teen worked as a caddie at San Francisco Golf Club, quickly realizing he would need a college education to succeed in life. He was a good athlete and earned a football scholarship to the University of Oregon, spending a year in Eugene as a pre-law student. Because a knee injury cost him his football season, and he didn't really enjoy his pre-law studies, he gave up his scholarship and returned to the Bay Area.

Switching his major to education, Madden briefly attended College of San Mateo and Grays Harbor College before enrolling at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he resumed his football career. He was a two-year starter on the offensive and defensive lines, and played catcher on the baseball team. He was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 21st round of the 1958 NFL draft, and spent one year as a professional before another knee injury ended his playing career.

Madden returned to Cal Poly to earn his master's degree in education. There, he met his future wife, Virginia Fields, who also was studying for her master's degree. They married and had two sons, Joe and Mike.

Madden had begun coaching, first as an assistant at Allan Hancock Junior College, then two seasons as head coach. He would parlay that into a job as defensive coordinator at San Diego State University.

There, he caught the eye of Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, who hired him to coach the team's linebackers in 1967. The Raiders made the Super Bowl in his first season, losing to the Green Bay Packers.

After the following season Raiders coach John Rauch quit, believing the owner was too meddlesome, and Davis promoted the 32-year-old Madden, making him the youngest head coach in American Football League history.

In his 10 seasons as coach of the Raiders, Madden led the club to seven Western Division titles, seven seasons with double-digit victories, and eight playoff appearances. In the 1976 season, his Raiders punctuated their 13-1 season by beating the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI.

His tenure ended abruptly after the 1978 season, when he retired from coaching because of a bleeding ulcer and a strained relationship with his sons. He finished with a record of 103-32-7.

Shortly after his coaching career ended, Madden moved to the announcing booth, where he worked as a color analyst, some say the best ever, from 1979-2008 for all four major networks.

Although he was remarkably observant and knew football as well as anyone, he spoke to the common fan and was known for his cartoonish exclamations to describe what he saw.

"That's how his unabashed passion for the game seeped out of him, with 'Boom! Bam! Whap!' " said Fred Gaudelli, Madden's producer with "Monday Night Football" on ABC, then NBC's Sunday Night Football.

Financially speaking, his most successful career was his last, helping create a video-game empire that bore his name: Madden NFL. The EA Sports game, the company's all-time best-selling series, is re-released every season with new and updated players, and cutting-edge technological advances.

By 2018, more than 130 million copies of the game had been sold, generating at least 4 billion dollars in revenue.

Memorial plans for a legend of the game are pending.