NEW YORK - John Madden’s last game as a football announcer was a thrilling Super Bowl decided in the final seconds.
The perfect ending to a run as one of sports’ most popular broadcasters, now that Madden called it a career Thursday. Yet it didn’t fit Madden’s style to think about his retirement that way.
“I’m a grinder,” he said on his Bay Area radio show. “You just grind and get through it and when it’s all over, you think about it. You don’t rush into any decisions.”
Madden’s exuberance for football and blue-collar persona endeared him to TV viewers for three decades. Boom! As sudden as his signature call, he’s leaving midway through a six-year contract with NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.”
“I think his work ethic and passion and love for the game made him apart from everybody else,” said longtime broadcast partner Pat Summerall.
Madden said his health is fine, but at the age of 73, he wanted to spend more time with his family. His 50th wedding anniversary is this fall, and his five grandchildren are old enough to notice when he’s gone.
“The thing that made it hard is not because I’m second guessing: ‘Is it the right decision?’ But I enjoyed it so damn much,” Madden said. “I enjoyed the game and the players and the coaches and the film and the travel and everything.”
Cris Collinsworth will replace Madden, moving over from the network’s studio show, NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol said. Collinsworth filled in when Madden took a game off last October.
Ebersol called Madden “the absolute best sports broadcaster who ever lived.”
Madden traveled by bus because of a fear of flying, and with the two Bay Area teams struggling and not hosting any Sunday night games, he would be on the road and away from his family the entire season.
Not that Madden expects to sit at home all the time. He’ll keep using the bus and stay busy with his many endorsements. His “Madden NFL Football” is the top-selling sports video game of all time.
Still, he noted this will be his first season away from the sport since he was a freshman in high school.
Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006. He began his pro career as a linebacker coach at Oakland in 1967 and was made head coach two years later, at 33 the youngest coach in what was then the American Football League.
11 comments:
I have loved and admired John Madden since I was a boy and I've been dreading this day. I had a feeling last season that his broadcasting days were short. Chris Collinsworth is a good broadcaster, but you can never replace an icon.
I agree, how do you replace an icon such as Madden?
Blessings.
What baseball team did he cover?
Was he Howard Cossell's replacement on Monday Night Football... or did he join later?
Hmmm. I guess not. All I remember is that after Cossell finally left and Madden started, football tactics and strategies became so much more understandable to the viewers... Cossell was SUCH and egomaniacal idiot.
Ducky -- The kansas City Royals are actually in 1st place in our division for once. Of course it probably won't last but they are looking better than they have in several years. I suppose you're a Red Sox fan?
Makes me a little old but I remember him as the coach of the Raiders. Great man.
Chuck...move over. But do NOT tell anybody! heh
I hope I can retire when I'm his age. It isn't looking very hopeful at the moment.
I don't think "fan" quite covers it Papa. The first time I heard the da swear was when Moose Skowron hit one over the wall first time he took me to a game.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, POPS!!
From Z's house to yours! The world's a better place for your being in it! xx
All good things must come to an end. Is it just me, or does it
seem like we're seeing a lot of that recently.
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