I've been watching football on TV for 30 years, and John Madden has been calling NFL games on TV for 30 years, and it's hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of an NFL weekend without hearing Madden's voice. Al Michaels, Madden's on-air partner for the last seven seasons, offered a powerful testimony about Madden's importance, but first let me just offer my own recollections.I met Madden twice, once when I was about 10 years old and once this year at the Super Bowl. The first time, my dad had taken me to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Madden was there shooting a TV special. People crowded around him asking for autographs and pictures, and Madden obliged them all. But then he did something far beyond just signing autographs, something I really can't imagine any other person of Madden's stature ever doing: He invited us aboard the Madden Cruiser.
Dozens of fans hopped on the bus, checked out the kitchen and the bedroom and the TVs and VCRs that he had on board, and Madden couldn't have been more welcoming. Remember, the bus is Madden's home for half the year. How many celebrities do you think invite complete strangers into their homes? But that was Madden, the regular guy who was happy to be surrounded by other regular guys.
At this year's Super Bowl I was there as a reporter, and I interviewed Madden about the game. And although I remember thinking that he looked his age (he turned 73 last week), I also remember thinking that he was just as sharp in his analysis as ever, and just as passionate about the game as ever.
It's those two experiences that I thought of first when I heard the news that Madden was retiring, and those two experiences combined with 30 years of viewing are the reasons I don't consider what Michaels said about Madden to be any kind of hyperbole. Here's what Michaels said Friday on ESPN's Mike and Mike in the Morning:
"I don't think there's been a more important figure in the history of the National Football League. I know people will say, 'What are you talking about? There was George Halas and Paul Brown.' And of course, the pioneers, you can't discount what someone like George Halas brought to the game on so many levels. Paul Brown, the great innovations, through they years to the contemporary coaches, the modern-day coaches, Chuck Noll and Bill Walsh, etc.I'm going to miss him, too. Madden was an American original.
"But when you combine all of the aspects, when you take a look at John's career as a coach: He still has the highest winning percentage of any coach who coached a minimum of 10 years. He has a Super Bowl ring. He could have coached as long as Don Shula. But what he's meant to the game over the past three decades as a communicator, not just a broadcaster, but as somebody who could make people more interested in the game, more excited about the game. He brought far more entertainment value to the game than anybody I can think of. Then you throw in the video game as well, maybe the best-selling of all-time, which John was really hands-on with, and how many fans that made.
"Here's a guy who just cuts across every demographic. It's too much of a cliche, I think, to call him an everyman. Yes, John was able to relate to every man, but John was also one of the most intelligent, book smart human beings I've ever been around. And a man who I think was a great observer. In a world where there was a lot of self-absorption, John was just content to sit in a lobby or sit in a restaurant and have dinner with a group of people and observe and listen to everything everybody else had to say. He was a curious man and of course everybody knows that he traveled across the country and was in contact with the kinds of folks you just don't get to see when you make a 3,000-mile round trip in an airplane. So John, in his own way, was a renaissance man. And I'll tell you one thing on a personal level: I'm going to miss him like crazy."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-17-2009 @ 10:56AM
Michael said...
Two iconic voices gone from the NFL in the same week....Kalas and Madden. Sadly, Kalas is gone from this world, but his voice will forever ring in our minds through the countless collection of NFL films.
I feel badly for Collinsworth....those are some mighty big shoes he has to fill.....LITERALLY!
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4-17-2009 @ 11:20AM
Mr. Valedofsky said...
I've listened to this blowhard since the early 80's. Al Michaels' gushing compliments aside, Madden's retirement reminds me of that short-lived TV show entitled "It's about Time."
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4-17-2009 @ 11:25AM
Adam said...
I can't really compare who is more or less important than who, but Madden certainly helped to keep football relevant to a wide audience for decades. The 'Madden' name is ubiquitous among people young and old, and he has been able to appeal to all kinds of football fans. I think a lot of people are playing down the game since it's just a 'silly video game,' but it's helped bring about a passion and knowledge about football that other sports don't have in their fanbase.
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4-17-2009 @ 11:40AM
"Big C" said...
I well remember and I hated him, Al Davis and even Cliff Branch ( a CU Graduate that got away from from us in the early 70'as I lived and worked in Denver.
My wife and I saw every Bronco game in those days. Our offense wss: "Little left, Little right,Little up the middle and punt.Floyd was all we had for offense then.
Kenny "The Snack" Stabler along with Madden in his always Navy Blue "triple X" golf shirt and light blue slacks, long hair and ugly disposition on the field,no jacket unless it was O,would always take us. Great football!
Nevertheless, it was a given , even then, that "big John" had a Godgiven talent for football and I have enjoyed and respected him him for 40 years now. My wife and I met he and his wife in Vegas and shared a table for a Don Rickle show at The Golden Nugget a few years later and Rickles chewed him up. Ha!
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4-17-2009 @ 11:54AM
azwnaas said...
John Madden made watching an NFL game a special experience no matter who was playing and no matter the score. He was one of us, a fan, and he said the things we were thinking as he watched and reacted to the game. He was the best at what he did, and I will miss him very much every time I watch a game. The world needs more people like John Madden.
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4-17-2009 @ 12:56PM
Trogdor said...
He was great, and he'll be missed. I know many have complained about him in recent years, but for me it still always seemed like a more important game if he was calling it. And my wife found him amusing, so that was a plus.
Have you gotten any sense that he might pull a Keith Jackson semi-retirement? Since he obviously still has a passion for the game, and the biggest reason for his retiring is the travel, could you see a network offering to let him call a few games a year close to home?
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4-17-2009 @ 1:02PM
Michael David Smith said...
I've thought about that, Trogdor. The sense I got is that Madden is pretty much set on his decision to retire, and that NBC is pretty much set on putting Cris Collinsworth in the booth.
Having said that, this is going to be the first autumn of his life without football. I absolutely think he'll miss it. He lives in the Bay Area and might take some kind of job with the Raiders, but if he doesn't, I could see NBC working out some kind of arrangement that allows him to do some on-air work without having to travel across the country.
4-17-2009 @ 1:15PM
kinkboy1121 said...
Al Michaels must have sniffed glue or crack.... Madden definitely 1 of the greats , but not the greatest ever..... and Al Michaels do us a favor we'd welcome your retirement..... maybe John would come back if he didnt have to work with such an arrogant guy like u
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4-17-2009 @ 2:09PM
Nate said...
You would expect Al Michaels to say some nice, gracious things about Madden, since he was his partner, and maybe even his friend. But he must have indeed indulged in some serious hallucinoginics to blow Maddens supposed effect on the game so wildly out of proportion. Then again, the man is used to occasionally having to try to hype up some mediocre NFL matchup so that we will want to watch it, so maybe its just reflexive saturation hype.
The truth is that Madden wasnt even a decent announcer for the last 10 or 15 years and was coasting on his over-rated reputation in a serious way. He was good when he first started out, with his different style and down to earth,everyman appeal. But Pat Summerall carried his butt and made him what he was. Without Summeralls professionalism and reputation to carry the broadcast, Maddens babbling and rambling would have never amounted to much, or got much attention.
One final thought. Some people talk about Madden being able to make the Xs and Os of football more understandable to the fan, since he was a great coach. But I honestly dont think of that when I think of watching a game he called. I think of him yakking away about some nonsense that didnt have very much to do with the game I was trying to watch. In short, Madden provided more distraction that illumination.
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4-17-2009 @ 5:04PM
Greg said...
I didnt realize that Al Michaels was a moron. I can think of at least 100 people who have had a greater impact on the nfl than fat boy Madden.
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4-17-2009 @ 5:25PM
50 Million said...
This is the funniest thing I have heard in ages!
John Madden walks on water!!!
When he is announcing a game I turn the sound OFF!
He is passable as an announcer, not the worst, not even close to being in the same league as some of the local talking heads doing football
games across the league. Is he the equal of Phil
Simms or Chris Collingsworth, or even for that matter, Ron Jaws Jaworski? I think not.
Bye, Bye, Bye.
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