Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but in the case of Frank Caliendo and John Madden, it may have been worthy of a lawsuit.
Caliendo is a very successful comedian and impressionist who undoubtedly saw his stardom skyrocket once sports fans took notice of his Madden impression. But while sports fans loved Caliendo’s version of Madden, the late great NFL coach and broadcaster didn’t seem to think it was flattering.
In recent years, Charles Barkley, who has similarly been parodied by Caliendo, revealed Madden once called him to team up for a lawsuit. Barkley, however, had no interest in joining Madden to file a lawsuit against Caliendo. Instead, Barkley appreciated the added attention he received from Caliendo’s impressions.
“You don’t consider that flattering?” Barkley remembered asking Madden when he broached the topic of suing Caliendo. “He’s like, ‘No! I don’t!’”
This week, Frank Caliendo joined The Sage Steele Show, where she asked him about John Madden threatening the lawsuit. And while Caliendo learned about Madden’s gripe in real time from Barkley, he never planned on making it public.
“Charles came up and told me about that and he’s like, ‘You know John Madden wants to sue you right, man?’ And he tells me the whole story. And I would never tell that story out in public because I didn’t know if I had permission from Charles,” Caliendo told Steele. “He told me that in confidence, I’m not gonna tell somebody that even though it probably would have been good for me to tell it. I held onto that story for like 10, 15 years and then Charles just told it recently on a couple of podcasts and people are like, ‘Did you know this?’ Yeah! I’ve been holding it as a secret for 20 years! It’s crazy.”
Caliendo’s impressions of Madden are never mean-spirited or malicious. But it seems like Madden’s issue with Caliendo was more about him using the impression in commercials or video games. Caliendo did a Madden parody in the 2008 video game Blitz: The League II.
John Madden seemingly got over it at some point after his conversation with Barkley, later meeting Frank Caliendo to hear the impression in person. When Madden passed away in Dec. 2021, Caliendo tweeted about the loss, noting he didn’t know the NFL legend very well, but appreciated getting the opportunity to meet him at Super Bowl XLV in 2011. Caliendo shared the story of that meeting several times, stating he did his impression in front of Madden’s grandkids, receiving approval from the iconic NFL coach and personality.