John Madden retired Thursday. My honest response to that statement: SO WHAT!

Look, I understand that the 73 year old has had a long-storied career. But the broadcasting portion of it just hasn’t inspired anything more than fits of laughter or a few “what the heck is he talking about” moments.

Now I understand that others want to celebrate a legendary coach’s long run on the boob tube. Unfortunately, Madden has been nothing more than a living caricature of the latter. Right along the lines of say John Cheney looking like an Owl while coaching the Temple University men’s basketball team.

What do you honestly think NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol is going to say? How about calling Madden “the absolute best sports broadcaster who ever lived.”

Then there’s Al Michaels’ gushing review that “there’s never been anyone like him and he’s been the gold standard for analysts for almost three decades.”

Sorry John, I’m not going to take a knee on this one. You know, the knee that you wanted Tom Brady to take during Super Bowl XXXVI. The Super Bowl that Brady won an MVP for following his last-minute drive for a 20-17 win over the St. Louis Rams.

I read a little deeper into Madden’s comments on his Bay Area radio show: “I’m a grinder. You just grind and get through it and when it’s all over, you think about it.”
Exactly, you just grind through a game not really talking about what’s happening on the field, but instead filling air time with verbal diarrhea and booms and bams. Oh, and throw in circling random items on my TV screen that I don’t care about, while the game is going on.

Honestly, I’ve been praying for Madden’s retirement for years now.

I guess now that it is official, I should be careful what I wish for. Why? Well, along with the retirement notification came the announcement that Cris Collinsworth will be taking over the in-booth duties.

So what is worse - begging Madden to stay in the booth or letting him ride off into the sunset only to let Collinsworth take over?

Collinsworthless or Madden? Hmmmm that’s a tough question to answer. That my friends is a lose-lose situation for all true football fans.

Tags: Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, Dick Ebersol, John Chaney, John Madden, NBC Sports