During the show, all of the monitors viewers at home can see of the Bristol, Connecticut studio are filled with graphics – specific to show or teams and topics being discussed. On Wednesday, every monitor will be filled by collages of Madden’s drawings.
“No matter what you’re seeing on the air, his drawings will be in the background,” “NFL Live” director Tim Farrell told USA TODAY Sports.
A topic of discussion will obviously be the upcoming draft. A New York Giants logo will be imposed over Madden’s work, for example.
“There won’t be one graphic in the entire studio that is what we would normally use on our show,” Farrell said.
The idea came about last year after Farrell saw Orlovsky post one of Madden’s creations based on a “Toy Story” scene featuring Woody and Buzz Lightyear, a comic-strip-esque series of drawings. Orlovsky remembers Madden showing it to him while he was playing catch with his two other sons, Hunter and Noah, whom along with Madden form 13-year-old triplets of Orlovsky boys.
In Orlovsky’s social media post, he overlayed it with the audio from the scene Madden recreated.
“I was like ‘Holy smokes, Madden, this is sick,’” Orlovsky told USA TODAY Sports.
Madden, 13, was diagnosed with autism more than a decade ago. It wasn’t long after Orlovsky and his wife Tiffany realized Madden’s passion for drawing. Art is an outlet for him, Tiffany said, because although he is verbal, he’s not overly talkative.
“He expresses himself that way,” Tiffany told USA TODAY Sports. “Also, we get to see some more interests that we might not have known he had and that will spark conversations. Sometimes, even his emotions are shown in it. He’s very creative with his characters’ facial expressions, so that’s neat to see, how intuitive he is with emotions and other people’s emotions. Honestly, it just creates a conversation or a starter for us to kind of relate to him.”
Farrell approached Orlovsky with the idea in the second half of the 2024 NFL season with the goal of doing it sometime in April, which is Autism Awareness Month.
“I lost it,” Orlovsky recalled. “I looked at him – I didn’t even know him that well – and I looked at him like ‘You have no concept of what you just did’ in an unbelievably kind way.”
Characters from Disney movies or Nickelodeon shows are Madden’s favorite subject to draw. And he’s always working on something. The boxes of drawings in the Orlovsky family’s basement are the Madden archives.
“Probably every day, there’s at least three new drawings or cartoons,” Tiffany said.
Farrell sent Orlovsky home with a drawing pad from Staples. Madden opted for his own canvas – sheets of printer paper – but judging by the amount of drawings Farrell received, he took the assignment seriously. Some drawings unfortunately couldn’t make the air because of intellectual property rights, Farrell said.
“My office at home is filled with all of these papers,” said Farrell, who picked out ones for use on the show.
Madden began drawing his father a lot. Tiffany requested drawings of “Uncle Swagu” (Marcus Spears) or “Miss Laura” (Laura Rutledge), Orlovksy’s “NFL Live” teammates. Mina Kimes, another fellow analyst, sent him a watercolor paint set and pad along with a drawing of her own.
Orlovsky brought Madden – not named after John Madden or the video game, even though he loves video games and is an elite Mario Kart player – to work Wednesday and Madden left school early. (The Orlovskys chose to live in Westport, Connecticut for the school district’s services and approach; Madden excels in school.)
“The way I tell people, if you spend 15 minutes with him, you’re like ‘Oh he’s a goofball,’” Orlovsky said. “He’s got, like, the sweetest heart in the world.”
That doesn’t make having a child with autism easy or any less frustrating.
“He can’t control it. It’s part of that lifestyle,” said Orlovsky, who was a backup NFL quarterback for 12 years before becoming one of the sport’s most celebrated analysts. “I always say to him, ‘Dude, when you’re happy, everyone’s happy.’
“When he’s on, there’s nothing better, because he just has these special powers to make people feel good.”
The Orlovskys don’t always broadcast Madden’s diagnosis because they want to see it as a “superpower” rather than a disability. His brothers and sister, Lennon, 9, are supportive.
Aging has also made him see differences between himself and his brothers and peers.
“That’s hard for him because he’ll ask questions ‘Am I weird?’ ‘Why am I so weird?’ And that’s tough,” Tiffany said.
But Madden’s parents remind him that he’s special and different and that there’s nothing wrong with the way he is.
Tiffany wants parents of children with autism to know not to give up and every child is different. Giving kids the freedom to be who they are and not putting them in a box – exhibiting patience – is important.
“You’re not alone,” Tiffany said. “There are so many people out there that will support your child and support you. And don’t be ashamed. Because they really are so special and cool.”
And come Wednesday, Madden’s passion will receive the ESPN treatment.
“It’s going to be an awesome day. It’ll be an emotional day,” Orlovsky said. “I’m an emotional person, so at some point I’ll lose it on TV like a complete idiot.”
