{"id":899,"date":"2021-12-29T04:27:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T04:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=899"},"modified":"2025-09-29T04:38:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T04:38:44","slug":"ny-post-on-madden-john-maddens-death-leaves-hole-in-americas-sporting-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=899","title":{"rendered":"NY Post on Madden: “John Madden\u2019s death leaves hole in America\u2019s sporting heart”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

This is really a great column. Some excerpts below, but hit the link for the whole thing.  I posted about Madden earlier – John Madden<\/a><\/p>\n

He was the big ole coach of Al Davis\u2019 Super Bowl XI champion Raiders, then he was the big ole face of football on television and the inimitable, fun voice of football, full of life and larger than life.<\/a><\/p>\n

He was our treasure<\/a>, an everyman NFL and pop culture icon and institution, and the passing of the legendary John Madden on Tuesday at age 85<\/a> leaves an unmistakable hole in America\u2019s sporting heart.<\/p>\n

He was the sports broadcasting GOAT.<\/p>\n

He was the soundtrack of the sport he helped become the national pastime.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Madden was entertaining and he was enlightening and if he didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

***************<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made meetings with the broadcasters fun,\u201d Simms said. \u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Madden and Summerall arrived, it got everyone\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a vibe that would be around the team when they would show up,\u201d Simms said. \u201cIt created energy: \u2018Oh, John Madden and Pat Summerall are here.\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n

****************<\/p>\n

He was one of a kind. I asked Simms why.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a couple of things,\u201d he said. \u201cOne, 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 \u2026 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\u2019t heard people do before probably.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 the big ole coach of Al Davis\u2019 Super Bowl XI champion Raiders, then he was the big ole face of football on television and the inimitable, fun voice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7414,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions\/7414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}