A sad week for sports fans
Final telestrator sign off?
Earlier this week, Philadelphia sports legend Harry Kalas died of heart failure. Current and former players Nick Adenhart and Mark Fidrych also died. Minus the tragedy of death, another sports legend has moved on – John Madden has retired from National Football League broadcasting. There will be a hole that no personal loan of sports knowledge can fill; no way to repair credit with the fans who will miss what he brings to their homes.
Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle recently discussed what Madden and Kalas have meant to the development of sports broadcasting. While their styles were quite different, both earned the admiration and respect of millions for how they elevated their own love of the game into homes, night after night. Both were true American personalities who changed the way broadcasters relate to fans.
Boom! You’ve got Cris Collinsworth
But he will never replace Madden. Where Madden was both an announcer and a personality, Collinsworth is more firmly the former. As a former player, he can pass him knowledge of the game on to viewers, but he won’t pack the same punch. In a sense, there will be a cultural void.
Honestly, more people worldwide know John Madden by one word – his last name. Since the video game “John Madden Football” appeared on the Apple II computer in 1988, “Madden” has been synonymous with cutting edge sports video gaming. Aside from that, he’s been a commercial pitchman for scores of products, from Ace Hardware to Tinactin athlete’s foot spray. Oh, and he’s a Hall of Fame coach who led the Oakland Raiders to victory in Super Bowl XI (1976).
Wither Dick Vitale?
Ratto suggests that broadcasting still has Dick Vitale to fill the affable (loud-mouthed?) role of broadcaster/entertainer, but he doesn’t mean as much to his sport (basketball) as Madden does to football. His departure “smashes a hole in the firmament” of sport, says Ratto. Significantly, John Madden bears the “mega-legacy” of being a major figure in “America’s two real pastimes: football and commercialism.” And he kept the bus running for 40 years. Drive into the sunset, coach.
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Madden retiring – I am going to miss him. Not only does he deserve a place in the hall of fame of sports broadcasters, and he more than deserved the spot in the hall of fame for his coaching. He has the highest win percentage of any coach in history – not even surpassed by the great Vince Lombardi. He’s a legend of the game – even if his video game series supposedly carries a curse.