This is really a great column. Some excerpts below, but hit the link for the whole thing. I posted about Madden earlier – John Madden
He was our treasure, an everyman NFL and pop culture icon and institution, and the passing of the legendary John Madden on Tuesday at age 85 leaves an unmistakable hole in America’s sporting heart.
He was the sports broadcasting GOAT.
He was the soundtrack of the sport he helped become the national pastime.
You wanted to listen to him alongside Pat Summerall the same way you wanted to listen to Vin Scully if you were a Dodgers fan, to Marv Albert if you were a Knicks or Rangers fan.
Madden was entertaining and he was enlightening and if he didn’t remind you of your irreverent uncle, maybe he reminded you of the shot-and-a-Miller Lite beer guy plopped on the bar stool next to you.
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“He made meetings with the broadcasters fun,” Simms said. “A lot of laughs, and I think he did so many games with the Giants that the coaches and everybody were comfortable with him, and we told him everything. He would always handle it the right way.”
When Madden and Summerall arrived, it got everyone’s attention.
“There was a vibe that would be around the team when they would show up,” Simms said. “It created energy: ‘Oh, John Madden and Pat Summerall are here.’ ”
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He was one of a kind. I asked Simms why.
“I think a couple of things,” he said. “One, the way he talked about football in very layman terms. And of course, just him. He was a big man, a bigger-than-life figure, had that great voice … he was the first one to do games a little differently. And then gaining the trust of players and coaches where he was able to deliver things in a game that we hadn’t heard people do before probably.”
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