John Madden passed away

[IotaNet]

[MoFugger]

NFL broadcasting has gone downhill fast since he retired.

But true legend!
RIP

[Teddy KGB]

Shit - Madden, Dickerson.

ESPN gotta be shitting their pants wondering who's next - always goes in 3s...

[Grizzled]

Just a great HOF coach and fun broadcaster. I listen to the POS broadcasters today (Collinsworth especially) and really hear the decrease in quality. Eat a turduckin in his honor.

[dplank]

Absolute legend

[docc]

Sad to hear this earlier today... Like I heard..he will live in Madden Football games for years..

[Bears Whiskey Nut]

He was an icon, and made football broadcasting what it is today. Just a legend. I can hear his voice in my head, clear as day.

[G08]

[The Marshall Plan]

I started watching football when I was about 7 years old and I got hooked instantly.

I was blessed enough to start watching during the heyday of the great Bears' teams of the mid-80s.

Mike Ditka and Walter Payton were the reasons why I got into football, but it was John Madden that helped teach me the game during the broadcasts.

He was like a more serious and much more well informed (and sober) version of Harry Carey to me.

He was back then what Tony Romo is to me now. If he called the game, you watched it.

Yeah he had his favorites. (BRET FAVRE---BOOM!) But the guy made watching the game fun.

There was one game and I think we were playing the Bucs when the Bucs were good during the Alstott years. They showed a harbor with a pelican sitting on a post by the dock.

Madden and Summerall started joking about how one could go about eating a pelican. I think there was even talk about integrating it into the Turkducken somehow.

You can't really replace people like that. The world just winds up being a lessor place. RIP.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

All those who heard Madden on game broadcasts will have moments that stick in their memory.

One I recall was when he commented that the QB's jersey was as clean as you could get (i.e. because he wasn't getting hit at all) and then a moment later realised the silliness of his comment because the game was being played on astro-turf so his jersey would be clean regardless. (I think it may have been Montana during Super Bowl XXIV when they were thrashing the Broncos.)

I also seem to recall Madden praising Bears TE James Thornton for making what he described as a 'professional catch' in one game when he went up and made a nice catch high above his head. His point was that it wasn't flashy or exceptional, just that it was a nice play. Odd things you recall.

And of course there was the 'All-Madden Team'. Lots of Bears on those early ones! I always loved the fact that it wasn't just a list of great players, but a list of players who played the game with attitude and spirit and he'd use possible inclusion as a vehicle for praising unsung players during broadcasts.

[UOK]

I mean, it's been discussed 1000 times, but that defense was an atom bomb. Madden basically spends 4 minutes relaying to the audience that the Patriots are fucked. There's no hope for them whatsoever.

It's so charming to listen to Madden talk football. Guy loved the sport like no other, and there's never been another like him since, nor will there be.



And of course who could forget the All-Madden teams? Such a fun concept.

[Grizzled]

Learned this a.m. that Madden was an early guy on the 'make football safer' bandwagon, even advocating linemen not playing in a 3 point stance but playing upright and trying to eliminate helmet-to-helmet contact. When Darryl Stingley was paralyzed in a 1978 preseaon game against his Raiders, Madden went to the ER after the game to visit him. When he learned that Chuck Fairbanks, Patriots HC, was on the charter flight back to New England and hadn't visited Stingley, Madden called, had the flight delayed, and told Fairbanks to get over to the hospital to see his player. As Madden put it, he treated his players like adults regarding their non-football behavior but was death on stupid penalties, could not tolerate sloppy football.

[Boris13c]

very sad news ... RIP

[wab]

Saw this last night. The world, not just football, lost one of the greats.

[dave99]

Great article (should be free), complete with fun link
https://www.wsj.com/articles/john-madde ... _permalink

[o-pus #40 in B major]

Its hard to think of a bigger NFL persona than John Madden. He always seemed kind of a larger-than-life character. We fans were lucky to have him as long as we did.