John Madden to miss first game after 476 in a row
 

Favre aint got nothin' on Madden.


NBC: Madden will miss 'SNF' game

John Madden will miss Week 7 after working 476 in a row.

Madden travels by bus because of fear of flying and will skip cross-country trip Cris Collinsworth will replace Madden in booth at Tampa Bay


NEW YORK (AP) -- John Madden will miss calling an NFL game this weekend after working 476 in a row.

The 72-year-old Sunday Night Football analyst, who travels by bus because of a fear of flying, will take a break to spend time with his family instead of making three straight cross country trips, NBC said Monday.

Madden went from Jacksonville, Fla., to San Diego last week; he would have had to return to Florida for this Sunday's game at Tampa Bay. There's no Sunday Night Football game the following weekend, so Madden would have then headed home to the Bay Area.

NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol first approached Madden in the spring with the suggestion of skipping the trip.

Cris Collinsworth, normally a part of NBC's studio show, will fill in for Madden.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200....ap/index.html

In other news, Madden to get fatter.

what a wussy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great victory day for football.

It's really difficult to sit on a bus....or hey man take a plane and be a man.

His bus probably has multiple tvs, bathroom, beds, couches, buffett etc...hehe

Suprised by the fear of flying

Be a man? :rolleyes:

A guy I work with has the same fear of flying. A week before he has to fly, he starts getting worked up about it, gets a wild eyed postal worker look about him and has to drink himself into a coma before he gets on a plane. It's the only time the guy ever drinks.

Should be the best NBC Broadcast in years.

They should use Pat Summerall!

good for him. the man pretty much dedicated his life to football. i think he deserves ONE day off.

Anyone else find Collinsworth's fake smile and exaggerated enthusiasm to be a bit much?

I never have warmed up to Collingsworth either. The guy always comes across as a complete tool.

SLACKER!!!

collinsoworth should be replaced by the guy that sounds like he is whispering all the time on arrested development

No shit. Must be rough as hell to lounge in the back of a fully-stocked ginormous RV that's nicer than most of our houses. It's not like he's doing the driving.

But I'm all for the old fart taking a game off. Perhaps could take the rest of them off as well. Collinsworth may be a smarmy prick but he's definitely one of the most knowledgeable broadcasters.

Um didn't Madden fly when he was coaching the Raiders? How else did he get to all those cities?

It's why he quit.

Oh, thanks. But he did fly before right?

Do you think he did?

So you're fine then?

The guy is the most overrated analyst of all time. Another reason to look forward to Sunday.

I think 72 is just too old for a job as demanding as NFL analyst.

Honestly, if I was Madden, I wouldn't fly either.

When he was working for the Eagles, he was supposed to take a plane, and missed it for some reason, and it crashed, killing several people.

I know that you can intellectually rationalize the odds of plane vs. auto travel, but that would still spook the hell out of me.

not like he analyizes anything, most of the time he just babbles and drools on himself......

Madden really provides very little insight to the game unless you have never watched or played organized football in your life...

'bout damn time.

And stay out. Boom!

Really? I read that he just suffers from extreme klosterphobia and freaked out on one particular flight. Rode the plane out and swore to never fly again.

"It was back in 1979 that the poster child for the claustrophobic, fear-of-flying set had what he described as "a full-blown panic attack" when about to fly out of Tampa.

"It wasn't about flying, bad turbulence or anything. The flight attendant closed the door and before we'd even moved I knew I had to get off the plane, but I gutted it out. You think you're going to die. I was sweating, shaking, the whole thing.

"It was about being encased and not being able to get out."

Madden landed, turned in his frequent flier card, and grounded himself forever."

Madden did not have a "Final Destination" like experience cheating death ala a freak plane crash with the Philadelphia Eagles (in fact I see no record of such a team plane crash). The man just doesn't like the idea of having no control over getting out of confined spaces while in flight.

"His problems with claustrophobia began in 1960 when football players from his alma mater were killed in a plane crash that Madden should have been on."

He'll spend his day at the Ace Hardware, have a Dr. Pepper, stop by Walgreen's for some touch actin' Tinactin....BOOM!

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He would have made the trip if Brett Favre was playing. Probably Tom Brady too. Madden loves him a Farve/Brady yogurt bath.

I'm not buying that. It took 19 years to manifest?

Imagine being stuck sitting next to a a sweaty, vibrating John Madden for 2 hours. I'm willing to bet he's not the only one who swore off flying that day.

I would like to see the NFL run a contest for each team, where knowledgeable fans of each team and the sport would try out for an announcer spot for each game.. Say 2-4 fans per team would make the booth at some time during the season..

This would pit a fan of each team in the booth during the game to help broadcast the game and comment, and also talk smalk back and forth(within reason).. There would also be the standard announcer there to fill in if there is a void or to keep the conversation going..

I think it would be entertaining.. And it would also allow the rest of the country to learn more about each team and the players.. Since most of the ignorant announcers get names wrong and know nothing about certain teams..

Everybody knows that the reason Madden doesn't fly is because he is actually a robot. To many metal detectors in the airport and him being a robot interferes with the radio communication of the aircraft.

I think Brady's driving the MaddenCruiser.

I rather like Collinsworth.

That's not easy to say for a guy who grew up a Browns fan.

Kind of like Esiason as well.

But don't go by me. I really like Dierdorf.

For that matter, I'm fine with Kornheiser and I really enjoyed Dennis Miller.

You're really just wanting people to argue with you aren't you?

I liked Miller (especially after he settled down) but can't stand Kornheiser.

Hasn't he had a long CC trip before?

Give me Dierdorf, Collinsworth, and Al Michaels in the booth, and I'd be a happy guy.

I actually kind of liked Dennis Miller, too. I don't know enough about Kornheiser to have an opinion since I haven't been seeing much MNF the past couple of years, but I do remember watching one and really wishing he'd shut up.

Dierdorf?

ROFL

That guy is a total flaming tool!

give me Madden, Dierdorf and McGuire in the both..

I wouldnt know what was going on down on the field, but would sure know alot about reerunation...

I would take Al Micheals, Jaws, and Dan Fouts...

that would be very informative and insightful....

The best lineup was the Sunday night line up of Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann, and Paul Maguire for me....

Vermeil is actually a hell of a color guy. If you put him with Jaws and Gus Johnson, you'd have a ****ing balla ass team.

Same here, mostly because I tune them all out.