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Please pray for John Madden:
I didn't realize Diamond Dave was a football fan! Anyway, I hear John Madden is sick and is going to die within the year, so he took the graceful way out... before the hair falls out.
I'm going to say a prayer for the football legend, that his passing is filled with the joy of being surrounded by his friends, and that it's not too painful.
Thanks for 40 years of football, and your soothing nap-inducing style. I would count the naps I've taken during NFL games, but I was asleep. Almost as good as golf for napability.
I'm almost done forgiving you for the Madden NFL video game, but only because there's no blood, yet.
Stay strong, mighty warrior!
I'm going to say a prayer for the football legend, that his passing is filled with the joy of being surrounded by his friends, and that it's not too painful.
Thanks for 40 years of football, and your soothing nap-inducing style. I would count the naps I've taken during NFL games, but I was asleep. Almost as good as golf for napability.
I'm almost done forgiving you for the Madden NFL video game, but only because there's no blood, yet.
Stay strong, mighty warrior!
John Madden Nails the Call on His Retirement
By David Roth
John Madden’s remarkable and remarkably enduring popularity as a commentator had very little to do with his ability to turn a phrase. Yet Madden managed to strike a note of plain-spoken eloquence while announcing his retirement from broadcasting on Thursday. “It will be the first year that I haven’t had a football season since my freshman year in high school,” Madden told listeners on San Francisco’s KCBS radio. And just like that, with three years remaining on his contract, one of the most beloved sportscasters ever was out of the game.
Associated Press
Pat Summerall, left, and John Madden were long-time broadcast partners when they called the 2002 Super Bowl.
“He is 73, secure in his legend, with more money than he could ever count and ready to spend more time with his family in the East Bay,” Monte Poole writes in the San Jose Mercury News. “The most famous sports broadcaster in history, Madden will be missed — even if he no longer was the best and never was the most articulate, the most candid or the most controversial. He’ll be missed mostly because he is the most popular football personality we’ve ever known.”
There’s a good reason for that popularity, Mike Lopresti argues in USA Today. “He seemed like one of the guys,” Lopresti writes, “just a lot smarter about the two-deep defense. It is hard to imagine a more endearing quality for a broadcaster to have. We are a society that is psychologically attached to the public medium. The clouds can be ebony, but we don’t think it will rain until we hear it on television. So the voices and the faces come to mean something special, in sport as much as anywhere. It is fascinating, how the loss of a broadcaster can be felt by the faithful every bit as much as the loss of an athlete.”
Madden’s retirement made an impact even on those who care more about football video games than the actual sport, but BusinessWeek’s Burt Helm blogs that Madden will remain closely involved with his wildly popular Madden NFL title for EA Sports. Madden was also an effective pitchman for various brands, as well as the unique franken-poultry product known as the turducken. Whatever one thinks of Madden — and even bloggier and more irreverent takes on his legacy, such as this (moderately PG-13) one “Madden smashes a huge hole in the broadcasting firmament that won’t be filled by a similarly larger-than-life figure,” Ratto writes.
“Whether this is good is beside the point, and wishing that the past could be the future isn’t really working in any industry these days. You just nod, give out a little whistle of admiration for the body of work and cultural importance, and let him enjoy retirement. It is the most civilized and respectful thing we can do for the man who changed broadcasting, and football appreciation, and children’s leisure habits, and Thanksgiving diets… This is the mega-legacy of John Madden, a man who was a major figure in America’s two real pastimes — football and commercialism — for 40 years.
Try that sentence on anyone else. We dare you.” by Jon Bois at Mouthpiece Sports, wind up being affectionate — there is no other football personality who can claim as deep or broad a cultural resonance. At CBS Sports, Ray Ratto argues that no such personality is likely to come along anytime soon.
By David Roth
John Madden’s remarkable and remarkably enduring popularity as a commentator had very little to do with his ability to turn a phrase. Yet Madden managed to strike a note of plain-spoken eloquence while announcing his retirement from broadcasting on Thursday. “It will be the first year that I haven’t had a football season since my freshman year in high school,” Madden told listeners on San Francisco’s KCBS radio. And just like that, with three years remaining on his contract, one of the most beloved sportscasters ever was out of the game.
Associated Press
Pat Summerall, left, and John Madden were long-time broadcast partners when they called the 2002 Super Bowl.
“He is 73, secure in his legend, with more money than he could ever count and ready to spend more time with his family in the East Bay,” Monte Poole writes in the San Jose Mercury News. “The most famous sports broadcaster in history, Madden will be missed — even if he no longer was the best and never was the most articulate, the most candid or the most controversial. He’ll be missed mostly because he is the most popular football personality we’ve ever known.”
There’s a good reason for that popularity, Mike Lopresti argues in USA Today. “He seemed like one of the guys,” Lopresti writes, “just a lot smarter about the two-deep defense. It is hard to imagine a more endearing quality for a broadcaster to have. We are a society that is psychologically attached to the public medium. The clouds can be ebony, but we don’t think it will rain until we hear it on television. So the voices and the faces come to mean something special, in sport as much as anywhere. It is fascinating, how the loss of a broadcaster can be felt by the faithful every bit as much as the loss of an athlete.”
Madden’s retirement made an impact even on those who care more about football video games than the actual sport, but BusinessWeek’s Burt Helm blogs that Madden will remain closely involved with his wildly popular Madden NFL title for EA Sports. Madden was also an effective pitchman for various brands, as well as the unique franken-poultry product known as the turducken. Whatever one thinks of Madden — and even bloggier and more irreverent takes on his legacy, such as this (moderately PG-13) one “Madden smashes a huge hole in the broadcasting firmament that won’t be filled by a similarly larger-than-life figure,” Ratto writes.
“Whether this is good is beside the point, and wishing that the past could be the future isn’t really working in any industry these days. You just nod, give out a little whistle of admiration for the body of work and cultural importance, and let him enjoy retirement. It is the most civilized and respectful thing we can do for the man who changed broadcasting, and football appreciation, and children’s leisure habits, and Thanksgiving diets… This is the mega-legacy of John Madden, a man who was a major figure in America’s two real pastimes — football and commercialism — for 40 years.
Try that sentence on anyone else. We dare you.” by Jon Bois at Mouthpiece Sports, wind up being affectionate — there is no other football personality who can claim as deep or broad a cultural resonance. At CBS Sports, Ray Ratto argues that no such personality is likely to come along anytime soon.
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