Thursday, April 16, 2009

John Madden Retires, News Outlets Bury the Lede.

It's been a tough year for Frank Caliendo. First, the "comedian" had his overly promoted, underly funny, show cancelled. Then, his best known impersonation retires.

Now the last thing I want to do is belittle John Madden's contribution to football.

He brought countless new fans to the game with the "Madden Football" video game series. He drove Pat Summerall to alcoholism. He was a color commentator that had the ability to entertain both serious and causal fans of the game. He introduced the world to the Turducken.

But the retirement of one of the most iconic voices in all of sporting is softened by the news that Chris Collinsworth would be taking his place in the booth.

Despite the fact that Collinsworth was a Bengal and possibly the twin brother of "Sam the Eagle" from the Muppet's, he's without a doubt my favorite color commentator.

And I can't even put my finger on a specific reason why.

I'm sure that part of it was his unadulterated hatred for Keith Olbermann could be felt through the TV on Sunday night, or the fact that his analysis of what is happening on the field is full of insightful quips and totally lacking in pretension.

Or maybe I'm just looking for a reason to be happy on the day that football loses one of its most iconic figures.

1 comment:

  1. the name "John Madden" gets the Fox Monday night football song stuck in my head

    ReplyDelete