Fare Thee Well John Madden

So everyone is grateful that John Madden has thrown in the towel.  Don't count me as one of them.  Madden provided three amazing contributions to the NFL every year.

The first is obvious; I'll give you a hint: "E A SPORTS IT'S IN THE GAME."  If you are a male aged 12 to I would venture as high as 30 and have any interest in video games and sports you can probably do a spot on impression of that.  John Madden has been to football video games what Jason Statham has been to cheesy action flicks.  He may not have been the first one, but right now if you asked someone to name the top name in movies involving ridiculous stunts, fast cars, and creepy women, Handsome Rob would be the first they say.  Same goes to Madden.  Techmo Football was first, but (partially thanks to a monopoly on football games purchased by EA in 2004) Madden is the first name in sports video games.

The second contribution is also obvious.  Madden is good for the greatest unintentional humor in sports.  Sadly when ABC paired him with Al Michaels they paired him with someone who took great pains to make John sound less ridiculous.  Remember the good old days when Pat Summerall was drinking in the booth to try to handle Madden's comments?  I can still remember when Madden said of Troy Aikman "here's a guy who when he puts his contacts in sees better."  Madden said the most painfully obvious things.  Plus his love of Turduken and six legged turkeys was quite humorous.

The third, seems contradictory after the last contribution.  Madden was one of the best announcers in the game.  There are very few color guys these days who actually teach you something when you watch the game.  The same hilarious telestrator doodles actually taught you something if you listened.  As far as I can tell only Chris Collinsworth and Ron Jaworski do this anywhere near the same level (and Merrill Hodge, but he does it the next day on Sportscenter).  Aikman can do it at times, but isn't consistent.  Dayrl Johnston and Tony Siragusa, or "Moose and Goose" are terrible; they just seem like they are competing for saying what I'm sure people in the know understand but they can't say it layman's terms.  That is why Madden was so great.  He said things as simply as he could. Sure sometimes it came out as completely unnecessary to say, but he was seldom wrong and often insightful on matters of strategy, technique, and play calling.  He could explain exactly how the routes ran during a play were so critical at placing the defense to allow the guy who does get the ball the best chance of success better than anyone.  So say what you will about Madden, his ability to literally coach the audience is going to be sorely missed.