John Madden Retires, Collinsworth Gets the Call

By Scott

The NFL lost a legend today. Not literally, but John Madden did retire from broadcasting after 30 illustrious years. Madden may be the most underrated, yet largest mogul ever to run through the NFL. The hall-of-famer enjoyed wild success in the broadcast booth, partnering with Pat Summerall and Al Michaels to create two of the most memorable duos in sports broadcasting history. All who allowed Madden into their homes every season will never forget his unparalleled enthusiasm, and his signature overuse of 'boom' will forever linger in the sound waves of Sunday. Madden's real success, however, came from the sidelines where he led the Oakland Raiders to 4 AFC Conference Championship games, and a Super Bowl victory in 1976. Finishing his career with a 103-32-7 record, Madden earned himself an enshrinement into the sports mecca that is the NFL Hall of Fame, in 2006.
Madden will probably be remembered most widely for his video game franchise which has endured more success than any other sports game in history. Initially intended for high school football teams to strategize and gameplan, EA Sports' Madden NFL has developed into a culture, spawning a television show, a curse, and 21 years of innovating games. Though Madden left plenty of bloopers behind, he will surely remain a face of football, forever.


In the wake of Madden's retirement, NBC/NFL Network's Cris Collinsworth will replace Madden on NBC's Sunday Night Football. Collinsworth is widely regarded as the best analyst in football, and will make the transition away from Madden an easier one. Contrary to my belief that NBC would further destroy their own reputation by replacing Madden with the... unpopular (for lack of better words) Matt Millen, the network stepped up and made a wise decision. I would love to post a link to some videos of the travesty that NBC calls its Sunday night pre-game show, but NBC has a partnership with YouTube, so all disparaging videos of the show have been removed. Guess we'll have to wait until September to see Matt Millen, Tiki Barber, Keith Olbermann, and Jerome Bettis akwardly discuss football.