Episode 22: The NFL Regular Season - Madden's Game

"The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else."

John Madden, Super Bowl XI winning coach, broadcaster and Pro Football Hall of Famer

The richest sports league on the planet, the most elite group of athletic talent in any sport, anywhere, and a competition never far away from controversy or legend.

There are over a million High School football players that every season vie for one of the 50,000 Division 1 College roster spots. Each Spring, around 260 of them get drafted into the NFL. Their average career length is barely three seasons, and those who don't make it have very few alternatives to remain in professional sport. There is no pyramid, no farm leagues, few overseas options and none that even remotely stack up to it in terms of prestige or recompense. Those who make it are the best of the best, putting their bodies on their line for a shot at a starting spot, another contract, and for those lucky few maybe even a ring.

Ben and Jack talk money, scale, structure, cheerleaders and records and how much Jack hates loving the New York Jets, as well as profiling one of the most fascinating men every to have graced the sport - John Madden, a name familiar to anyone with even a passing knowledge of football, with a story and legacy like few others. There is simply no league in the world of sport quite like the NFL.