Madden to Join NBC in 2006

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

according to "the Herd"

[BrutuStrength]

Also according to MSNBC.

NEW YORK - John Madden will join NBC as a game analyst when the network begins televising its newly acquired Sunday night football package in 2006.

The network scheduled an afternoon teleconference with Madden to make the announcement.
“John Madden is the best analyst in the history of the National Football League and, in my opinion, the best analyst of any kind in sports television history,” said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics. “John is much more than a football legend, he’s an American icon.”

Madden has spent the past three seasons teamed with Al Michaels on ABC’s now-defunct “Monday Night Football.”

“I have been doing this a long time and when I went to ABC to do ’Monday Night Football,’ I thought I would finish my career there,” Madden said. “But when the NFL did this new television deal, I looked at 'NBC’s Sunday Night Football’ package, and I thought this really fits me well.”

NBC is a partner in the joint venture MSNBC.

Before joining ABC, Madden teamed with Pat Summerall to call Fox’s lead game from 1994-2001. They were the top NFL announcing team on CBS for 13 seasons before that.

Known for his folksy style and his love of football’s grit and grime, Madden has won 14 Sports Emmys.

The former Oakland Raiders coach — he led them to a win over Minnesota in the 1977 Super Bowl — has become a pop-culture phenomenon thanks in large part to the popularity of his video game “Madden NFL Football.” Since its initial release in 1989, the game has sold more than 43 million copies and become the No. 1 selling sports video game of all time.

NBC is reportedly paying $600 million for a six-year contract that will allow the network to broadcast the NFL’s Sunday night game starting with the 2006 season. The Sunday night game was previously shown on ESPN, which will now televise the Monday night game.

NBC also gets two first-round playoff games and the Super Bowl in 2009 and 2012 as part of the deal.

[jlb1705]

It has been painful to watch the death of MNF over the past few years.

With the advent of fantasy football, the NFL and their broadcasts have become a glorified version of a lottery drawing. People watch not because the games are compelling, but because they want to see how their fantasy team does. People will even root against their favorite teams in the name of a good fantasy scoreline. And when the dust settles early Sunday evening, most of the fantasy games have been decided. By the time Sunday night and Monday night roll around, all we're left with is the ashes of our fantasy games and two very [censored]ty pro football games that nobody gives a damn about anymore. The NFL isn't gonna back down from this phenomenon though, because there is huge $$$ to be made. That doesn't make it any less sad though.

Parity has killed MNF. They draw up the schedule, and highlight matchups between the teams that were good last year. This year though, last year's good teams all suck and end up playing like [censored] on national TV, while this year's good teams get buried in the 1PM regional schedule on Sunday. MNF will continue to suck until the NFL brings a little more flexibility to the schedule to accomodate for this.

As a fan though, I'm happy for NBC. My biggest fear was that they were gonna have their putrid Notre Dame broadcast team doing NFL games.

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Meatwad,

Would you rather watch last year's Dolphins v. last years 49'ers or Everyone Loves Raymond? (Thump will assure you making the wrong choice means you're gay)

I think that has something to do with it as well. Any football will show better than the crap they put up against it. fantasy sports or no.

[LoKyBuckeye]

Madden needs to hang it up. It's almost painful to listen to him... all he does is kiss the super stars asses and state the obvious. " you know, if the Packers score more than the Vikings they will win the game tonight!" UGH!