Would you like to hear John Madden call one last NFL game? Sorry, but it's definitely not going to happen.
Recently, Sports Illustrated writer Richard Deitsch caught up with the legendary NFL coach and broadcaster to talk about what he's been up to. And he discovered that, back in 2012, NBC actually approached Madden about calling a Thanksgiving Day game with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth. Michaels, Collinsworth, Sunday Night Football producer Fred Gaudelli, and SNF director Drew Esocoff even took Madden out to dinner in San Francisco to pitch him the idea. But Madden turned them down immediately.
"We were shot down in five seconds," Gaudelli said.
And why did he shoot them down? It seems Madden doesn't think he's up for calling NFL games anymore.
"I don't do that anymore," he told SI. "I really have too much respect for the craft. I know what goes into it and I know what you have to do to do it. To assume I could not do it for six years and then come back and do it one time would be a stupid assumption on my part. The game changes. And the game not only changes from year-to-year but week-to-week. It is a complicated and complex thing. To think you could come back and broadcast at any level that would be accepted, I don't have that kind of ego."
So if you're waiting for Madden to make a comeback, stop. It's just not going to happen.
[via Sports Illustrated]
