NBC Needed To Think Outside The Box For Madden's Replacement

The news first broke at around 9:30 in the morning yesterday. John Madden, after 30 years as a color analyst for CBS, FOX, ABC, and NBC, was retiring. I immediately started texting a number of my friends in radio. The reactions were very different.

One said it was time for him to go. Another figured it had to have something to do with his health. Yet another (he was the only one) was surprised. Look, it doesn't matter why Madden made this decision. It doesn't matter if his better days were behind him (and they very well might have been). All that matters is that he's gone.

And the NFL will miss him greatly.

There are many fans who only know Madden as 'the video game guy.' There are plenty who know him from his last few years on ESPN and NBC, when he clearly wasn't what he was when he started out in the booth thirty years ago. Almost no one remembers those days. And, nearly nobody talks about the career he put together as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders.

Madden was a great coach who was inducted into the Hall of Fame many years after he should have been. When he left the Raiders and moved on to CBS, he became a true character. He wasn't as 'stuffy' as some of the analysts that were around at that time. He wasn't polished. He made mistakes. He used words that weren't even words. He was, simply, an average fan who just happened to be in the broadcast booth. Television viewers related to him. His popularity went through the roof in the 1980's.

Did he change over the course of thirty years? Absolutely, but everyone does. Are you the same person you were five years ago? I didn't think so. Madden - even though he became less of a character and more of an analyst - never lost the charm that made him the phenomenon he was in the eighties.

NBC didn't waste any time in replacing Madden with Cris Collinsworth. But Collinsworth will have a tough time filling Madden's shoes. NBC - in my mind - needed a 'home run' in terms of a replacement. Collinsworth isn't a home run.

He's convenient. He's already under contract, and has plenty of experience calling games for FOX and NBC as well. Plus, he's a cost efficient replacement, and in this economy that means a lot.

But he's not Madden. He's more slick. He might not relate to the average fan in the same way Madden did.

There are others NBC should have looked at, even if they were under contract to other networks. Troy Aikman does a great job for FOX, but in my mind he's just like Collinsworth. A little too slick to have been the guy that replaces Madden. The same could be said for Phil Simms, or any of the other top analysts in television right now.

NBC should have taken some time to think about the direction they wanted to go in, as opposed to just naming Collinsworth and moving on as if nothing had really happened.

If it were me, I would have gone in one of two directions. Joe Theismann is out there. ESPN let him go a couple of years ago and he has wanted back into an NFL booth ever since. He is smart enough to know he can't repeat some of the mistakes he made while he was at The Worldwide Leader. He would have needed co-analyst, just as he did at ESPN. Why not Paul Maguire? Sure he's a little bit older, but he's a character and has worked with Theismann before. And, I have a pretty good feeling they would have meshed with Al Michaels.

Another guy I would have thought long and hard about would have been Tony Siragusa from FOX. Is he a huge name? No. But, anyone who has seen his work knows that he brings a lot to the table. He knows football. And, more importantly, he's more than just an analyst. He's a character. He's a guy who fans can relate to. He's a big guy (I'm being kind here). He also doesn't necessarily use The King's English all the time. He has a great sense of humor. He's someone fans can relate to.

NBC needed to look outside the box. Madden wasn't the classic broadcaster. His replacement shouldn't be either.

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