One clip from ESPN’s NFL Live is going viral for reasons that have very little to do with football.
Madden Orlovsky, son of ESPN football analyst Dan Orlovsky, was on-hand to design the studio graphics on the Thursday, April 2, episode in honor of Autism Awareness Day. He stole the show in a moving four-minute segment as Dan, 42, and the crew watched 14-year-old Madden, who has autism, sing the Philadelphia Eagles fight song, “Fly Eagles, Fly” on live TV.
Madden is one of four kids that Dan shares with his wife, Tiffany Orlovsky. The couple welcomed Madden and sons Hunter and Noah in 2011, after originally being told they were having fraternal twins. Then, one embryo split, resulting in identical twins and a third boy. Their daughter, Lennon, was born in 2015.
Dan, watching from the set, was in tears as he acted as the faux conductor while Madden proudly belted out the lyrics.
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When he was done singing, Madden spoke directly to the camera, shouting out his entire family as Dan jokingly pointed to himself to make sure Madden wouldn’t forget his dad.
“If you’re watching this, mom, I love you,” he said. “Hunter, you’re my favorite twin. Noah, I do like you. And Lennon, you’re a good sister. Thank you all for supporting me.”
And just so there was no confusion, he ran and gave Dan a hug as well while cohost Laura Rutledge also struggled to contain her emotions.
“Madden, I just want to tell you how inspiring you are to so many people,” she told him. “There’s a lot of people watching right now that may think they can’t do something like this or they can’t go on TV and talk and sing and you’re up here being absolutely awesome.”
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This is the second time that Madden has joined the NFL Live set. He also appeared on Autism Awareness Day in 2025, when Dan opened up about his son’s affinity for drawing and his autism, both of which Dan has called superpowers.
“His favorite thing in the world is to draw, to create characters,” he said. “It’s his superpower, it’s his favorite thing to do and he’s incredibly talented at it.”
Tiffany added in a 2025 interview with USA Today that Madden’s art is his way of expressing himself.
“Also, we get to see some more interests that we might not have known he had and that will spark conversations,” she said. “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.”
