via NBC Sports release:
JOHN MADDEN RETIRES FROM BROADCASTING
NEW YORK - April 16, 2009 - NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol announced today that John Madden, Hall of Fame coach and the most honored broadcaster in sports television history, has decided to retire from broadcasting.
Madden issued the following statement today:
It's time. I'm 73 years old. My 50th wedding anniversary is this fall. I have two great sons and their families and my five grandchildren are at an age now when they know when I'm home and, more importantly, when I'm not...
It's been such a great ride... the NFL has been my life for more than 40 years, it has been my passion - it still is. I appreciate all of the people who are and were such an important part of the most enjoyable, most fun anyone could have... that great life with the teams, the players, the coaches, the owners, The League... my broadcasting partners Pat and Al... the production people and the fans...is still great... it's still fun and that's what it makes it hard and that's why it took me a few months to make a decision.
I still love every part of it - the travel, the practices, the game film, the games, seeing old friends and meeting new people... but I know this is the right time.
John Madden, Hall of Fame coach and the most honored NFL broadcaster of all time, has served as the game analyst for "NBC Sunday Night Football" since 2006. Madden, who has won an unprecedented 16 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sports Analyst/Personality, is renowned by football fans nationwide for his ability to analyze the details of the game with wit, candor and an inimitable style. Madden has been an NFL broadcaster for 30 years. On February 1, Madden earned rave reviews and critical acclaim in his final game, the 11th Super Bowl he called - Super Bowl XLIII on NBC.
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has honored Madden with 16 Outstanding Sports Analyst/Personality Emmy Awards, the most recent from this past season. In all, Madden has been nominated for 18 Emmy Awards. In addition, the American Sportscasters Association named him Sports Personality of the Year in 1985 and 1992. In 1982, Madden became the first NFL analyst to receive the Touchdown Club of America's prestigious Golden Mike Award. Sports Illustrated has called Madden "an American fixture" and said that he "brings an unequaled big-game buzz to the broadcast booth."
Prior to joining the broadcasting ranks, Madden had an outstanding career as head coach of the NFL's Oakland Raiders. He guided the Raiders to an overall record of 103-32-7, leading the team to seven AFC Western Division titles and a victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI. Madden's .750 winning percentage is the best of any head coach in NFL history. In 2006, Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a Head Coach.
A linebacker coach when he began his NFL coaching career with Oakland in 1967, Madden became the head coach in 1969 at age 33, the youngest head coach in the American Football League. Madden retired in 1979 and started his broadcasting career at CBS later that same year. Madden was the lead NFL analyst for FOX from 1994-2002 and the analyst for ABC's "Monday Night Football" for four years before he came to NBC Sports in 2006. He is the only person to work as the lead analyst for all four broadcast networks.
Madden's EA Sports video game "Madden NFL Football" is the No. 1 selling sports video game of all-time with more than 65 million copies sold since its release 20 years ago. Madden is also one of the leading spokesmen in the advertising world, with endorsement relationships including Ace Hardware, Outback Steakhouse, Schering Plough (Tinactin), Verizon Wireless and Sirius Satellite Radio.
Before coaching in Oakland, Madden was the defensive coordinator at San Diego State from 1964-66 where the Aztecs were ranked first among small colleges with a 26-4 record. From 1960-64 Madden coached at Hancock Junior College in Santa Maria, Calif.
Madden started on both the offensive and defensive lines as a player for California Polytechnic College at San Luis Obispo in 1957 and 1958 and was voted to the All-Conference team. He was also a catcher on the school's baseball team. Madden earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1959 and a Master of Arts degree in 1961, both from Cal Poly. The Philadelphia Eagles selected him in the 21st round of the 1958 NFL draft, but a knee injury in his rookie season prematurely ended his career.
Madden is the author of several New York Times best-selling books: Hey, Wait a Minute! (I Wrote a Book!); One Knee Equals Two Feet (and Everything Else You Need To Know About Football); One Size Doesn't Fit All; and All Madden, each written with New York Times sports columnist Dave Anderson. He has also written a cookbook titled John Madden's Ultimate Tailgating.
Born April 10, 1936 in Austin, Minn., Madden was raised in Daly City, Calif. He now resides in Pleasanton, Calif., with his wife, Virginia. The couple has two sons and five grandchildren.
This is a sad state for Football. It feels like one of the greats isn’t going to be there anymore for Sunday Night Football. There seems to be something missing when he’s not there even though in his advanced age he tended to point out the obvious.
wow….
anybody else think that sunday night will go way down w/out madden?
Well we might actually get a broadcaster that doesn’t point out completely obvious observations now!
The end of an era.
Another blow to the peacock.
Since NBC doesn’t have any other current NFL broadcast football analysts, who do they steal from CBS, NBC, or ESPN?
Is Dan Patrick, or Keith Olbermann capable?
Maybe they could bring back O.J. Simpson…
This is terrific news for NBC.
THey have the best analyst in the business stuck in the studio in Chris Colllinsworth. NBC has to do the right thing and name him to replace Madden.
John Madden was a terrific analyst from 1980 through 1998. The last 10 years he has just been a caricature of himself. A big buffoon.
As a football fan, I could not be more excited about this move.
Now, the next step is for Tim McCarver to step down doing MLB games.
He probably got sick of all the Frank Coliendo impersonations – turducken anyone?
At least he went out with a bang announcing arguably the greatest Super Bowl ever.
I would Bob Costus to replace him – he was great announcing NBA game for NBC.
I see no way it will be Costas (unless Al Michaels goes, too). I don’t see them sticking two people who never played/coached football together. Maybe Chris Collinsworth?
Of course, Madden has “retired” before. It wouldn’t shock me to see wind up back at FOX at some point, though with his fear of flying I’m sure all the time on the bus gets old. Who will talk comeback first, Madden or Favre?
Disregard my Bob Costus comment – he’s a play-by-play announcer. I’m guessing they will just have Cris Collinsworth take over since he does the color commentary for the wild-card weekend games anyways.
good. he’s needed to retire years ago. He’s analysis has gone from bad to worse. One of my favorite’s he said was back when troy aikman was playing. It went something like this “now you see, troy wears contacts and it looks like he lost it somewhere. Troy can see better with his contacts in than without them in.”
Thank you madden.
Of course I usually watch sports without the sound on because most of them annoy me greatly.
Yeah, Collinsworth is the natural choice to replace him. I like what Cris does with the color commentary on the NFL Network. (actually, it’s already been announced) Shame they have to break that team up. Bob Papa is a really good play-by-play man, and I hope they find a good replacement.
Of course, they still need to find a replacement for that ESPN crew. Sadly, it’s not because any of them quit.
I like cris Collinsworth but he’s mediocre at best on NFL Network game telecasts.
How about the aforementioned Frank Caliendo in the booth DOING John Madden for the entire game? It would be just like having the real thing, only funnier!
If Cris Collinsworth is doing color commentary, that would be one less guy in the studio. Seriously, NBC had like twenty guys there. They already moved Bettis and Barber to locker room reporting but do they really need two guys (Patrick and Olbermann) to do highlights.
FYI, I really hate Keith Olbermann. He comes off too condescending even doing game highlights with all his reference to Cornell and literature.
I hadn’t seen the Collinsworth announcement when I wrote that comment, but it didn’t take them long at all.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/196368-Cris_Collinsworth_Tapped_To_Replace_Madden.php?rssid=20065
Madden – stay…. Olbermann – leave !
NBC & all it’s affiliates ratings would go up on all their news and sports if they would fire Olbermann…
I’d rather smell maggots in garbage than watch Olbermann on TV…
Definitely an end of an era. One of the most sophisticated and knowledgeable football minds out there. I think the fact that he didn’t fly in airplanes rather traveled by bus all the time finally took its toll. Going from the east coast to the west coast from week to week at his age probably didn’t help matters. I guess we should have seen this coming, when he missed a game last year for that very reason, and Chris Collinsworth replaced him. He was a bright mind who excelled in a lot of areas of life. He was a super bowl-winning coach, an award-winning announcer and a hero in the video game industry. But he was also a family man, which is probably is the reason we are seeing the end of his legendary announcing career.
collingsworth as a replacement, is that a joke?
He’s a great announcer.. No doubt about that.. But he also has his life to live.. He dedicated almost all his life for NFL and its time that he will give the remaining entirely to his family. He will surely be missed but still, we wish him all the luck.. Thank you for being part of NFL and for making all the football fans happy.. We wish you all the best in life.. You also deserve a break..
I always appreciated that besides showing favor towards a certain retired quarterback, he was fairly objective towards both teams on the field. You can tell with some analysts that there’s some favoritism or disdain, even if it’s not outright said. Among all the love and hate comments about Madden, I feel that everyone overlooks that. It’s going to be different and I hope that Collinsworth can provide at least an ounce of that levity.
Madden loved the game and it showed in every broadcast. He may have not been as sharp in his last years, but considering the knowledge that all fans have gained over the years independent of broadcasts (enough scouting reports and YouTube clips could make all of us seem like experts), is it that much of a shock that he seemed to make these ‘obvious observations’?
Those of us that are fans and/or involved in the media should appreciate what he’s done. And as News Review said, he has well earned this break.