John Madden, the ground-breaking and often-imitated second man in the booth, has decided to retire from broadcasting, NBC Sports chair Dick Ebersol announced this morning.
Madden, who lives in
“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 (Summerall) and Al (Michaels) … 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.”
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In two of his previous roles, he was the lead analyst for NFC games. Obviously, throughout the 1980s and through most of the 1990s, Madden was a regular at 49ers games.
After retiring as Raiders coach in 1979, Madden went into the broadcast booth for CBS. He bounced over to Fox from 1994 to 2002. Madden made the transition to ABC’s “Monday Night Football” for four seasons before finishing up at NBC. His final game was the Super Bowl.
Obviously, we haven’t seen much of Madden for several years. The last regular-season 49ers game he called was a Monday nighter in 2003 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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