John Madden Calls It Quits
Thursday, April 16, 2009
You knew the time was coming, but this news still comes as a shock. John Madden has told NBC that he's hanging it up for good, and has officially retired. Via the Associated Press....
John Madden, the burly former coach who has been one of pro football's most popular broadcast analysts for three decades, is calling it quits.Madden's love for the Sport he covers, or covered rather, is unparalleled. It took me awhile to appreciated what he brought to games, but over the last few years his crazy telestrations and inane ramblings, grew on me. Everyone deserves to go out on top, and Madden is certainly doing so.
Madden worked for the past three seasons on NBC's Sunday night NFL game. His last telecast was the Super Bowl between Arizona and Pittsburgh.
"It's time," Madden said. "I'm 73 years old. My 50th wedding anniversary is this fall. I have two great sons and their families and their five grandchildren are at an age now when they know when I'm home and, more importantly, when I'm not."
Madden said he still loves all aspects of the game and his job, and that's why it took him a couple of months to make the decision.
10 Comments:
I'm kind of indifferent toward Madden. He was iconic and to those novice fans who had never watched a game before, he was excellent. To me, at times his analysis was redundant but he's better than the likes of Dan Dierdorf so he has that going for him. Personally, I'm a Randy Cross/Solomon Wilcots fan. Nevertheless, he leaves a legacy of excellence and the NFL will miss him.
Good Riddance. Without Brett Favre to slobber over ad nauseum anymore, Madden probably felt this was the proper time to call it a career. He is still an icon...but it was a good decision to retire.
Now the Captain Obvious cape can officially be passed down to Troy Aikman.
Not sure Chris Collinsworth is a step up ... maybe we could teach Joe Morgan something about football so he won't punish us during the baseball season.
He was much better when he was younger.
RIP John, we loved ya.
CBS and Fox sandbagged Madden by assigning him mainly to Dallas or the Giants. That made him a home-team announcer on the network level (same for his partner/crony Pat Summerall). At the end he bounced around based on his reputation.
NBC has confirmed Cris (no "h") Collinsworth will replace Madden in the booth.
I never hated, Madden, but also never really loved when he was announcing. Personally I agree with others I think he probably should have hung it up when Summerall did. That being said I like him more than Collinsworth and wish he was there instead of him. P.S.: Could ESPN stop making it look like he died seriouslly, they did the same stuff when Dungy and Favre retired. My friend walked in and I was watching ESPN and she asked me if he retired or died.
John Madden ranks near the top of my least favorite analysts. As a matter of fact I couldn't even have the sound on my television during one of his games he pissed me off so much. He's irritating, his stupid comments aren't funny, he had an annoying man crush on Brett Favre to the point I'm surprised he didn't wear a hole in the knees of his pants. And that telestrator... who's stupid idea was it to give Madden this? Enjoy retirement but I certainly won't miss ya John. You sucked for too long and I for one am glad to finally see you go.
the only thing John Madden did better than comment on football was sell anti-fungal foot medication
I never got disgusted with Madden like I do with so many others but I thought he was overrated. He treated viewers like this was their first time watching a football game too often and rambled on about obvious things. I like an analyst to point out things I didn't already see or know. He would never be on my greatest or hated list.