John Madden Retires

John Madden announced his retirement today.

Although he is well known for some of his antics (The Madden Cruiser, The All-Madden Team, Tinactin and Ace Hardware commercials), Madden is one of the most important men in football history.

For people who are a few years older than me, Madden is known mainly as a Super Bowl winning coach of the Oakland Raiders. For people a few years younger than me he is known mainly as the face of the most successful sports video game franchise of all time. But for football fans my age, Madden was the voice of the NFL. We grew up listening to Madden call games. I learned just as much about the game of football, and watching the game of football, from listening to John Madden as I did from playing the game in high school. It was from him that I learned to watch the game from the inside out. Watch the offensive line at the start of a play and then move out from there. Ninety-percent of the time I am able to pick out the offender of a false start before the ref confirms it (a fact my wife can attest to). This is because of what I learned from him. Madden had a unique combination of technical football knowledge, accessibility, and humanity that made everyone like him.

Madden will have a legacy for a long time because of his videogame. But for people like me he will always be the voice of football, and he will be missed.

America, John Madden has retired. Boom. Roasted.

- Gabe

(Dave, feel free to agree or rebut.)

Note: I somehow got through this without mentioning Frank Caliendo. Until now. Damn.