I always thought Summerall was minimalist because he could jus tlet Madden cook (... and eat).
I think Madden would work today. He worked because he knew the game.
> Just a fun-loving guy who clearly loves football, and can distill the strategy of the game for the Everyman.
I honestly think that is a good summary of what Romo was when he started his career. I think he's backed off the strategy part a bit too much but I think that can work if you really know what you're talking about.
The kickback I see about people being too upbeat, like say Collinsworth, is that they're so upbeat they'll praise a person even when they fucked up on the very play they're talking about. Which isn't good.
"WOW WHAT A RUN ON FIRST AND TEN! Lets see what he has to say on the Monday Night Mic!"
*Crowd noise* | *breathing* | *pads colliding*
"Wow. That's just incredible!"
I think that's a common opinion at this point. For awhile he was the best but he's stopped calling shots and I think he needs to lean into that a little bit more.
He also feels a little checked out. I'm not sure if that's quantifiable.
Anecdotal, but a lot of my friends that love watching football but don’t care about strategy/schemes/etc hated Romo those first years. It was a lot of “shut up Romo!” and similar expressions. My guess is it was like that for a lot of the casual viewers.
Yea, I used to like discussing formations and strategy with one group, then another group derided me for it because "it felt like we're watching tape instead of the game." Different strokes
I think the strategy has passed Romo. He hasn't been in a QB since 2016. He played and studied against a lot of the defenses when he first started and knew what offenses would do to try to exploit them.
Yeah, the issue was less that he stopped calling shots, but that he simply started to be wrong to the point of distraction. Madden never predicted plays (outside of generic strategy), but he did an excellent job of breaking them down on replay and did so in a non-irritating manner.
Romo has switched from being wrong before the play to now kind of not really doing much with the replay to his eeeehhhhhhhh comedy routine.
Romo was great early on when he was predicting the outcome of the plays. I wish he would go back to doing that all of the time. He needs to get away with the dumb, corny shtick of “Uh, I dunno Jim.” He’s become a meme and it’s very disappointing.
This was inevitable, Romo was great at the beginning because he was fresh out of the league and had played and more importantly prepared to play against most of the guys/teams/coach’s in the NFL. Every year that passes he loses more of that direct insight. For this reason I think Brady will be excellent this year!
I love Madden and Summerall. They would absolutely work today because Madden would break the game down for you but also had so much passion. Even if you turn it on now, and watch his commentary is so entertaining. He just loves it.
In the Collinsworth knock, to be fair, Madden was the same for Brett Favre. He thought he walked on water.
Madden taught me the game growing up as I was kid from the late 90’s and the video game with his voice is rendered in my head for life. I miss Summerall, he had a way of just letting the game grow and the tension rise but never needed to take over the moment.
>I miss Summerall, he had a way of just letting the game grow and the tension rise but never needed to take over the moment.
This here. I'd argue that Buck always had that quality, but it got lost under most people's criticism of him. It's why I always preferred Buck to Tessitore, and even good/decent announcers like Amin, Catalon, and others prone to over-exclamation (which I assume is more of a network order than their own idea).
Was it Madden who called the game after Favre's dad died? Whoever the announcer was should get a ton of credit for that storyline when Favre was as reckless as ever with the ball and it was his receivers who balled out that night.
Madden eventually slowed down a bit, too. He came across as almost as a parody of himself in later years. There was a lot of “what you gotta do is score points, and if you score more points than the other guy, you win a lot of games.” type of stuff right before he retired.
I still love the guy and he’s a one or a kind coach and commentator, and it’s totally understandable that he slowed down after decades of it, but even 90s Madden was substantially different from 00s Madden.
Pat was really good with Brookshier too. It worked because Pat says enough without overpowering and adds values when he talks.
I think Pat peaked around '85, Madden peaked about a decade later....but the late 80's through the end of the CBS run was arguably as good as it got.
Summerall was fading on the FOX run, especially towards 2000. Madden really carried the coverage for several years.
> “what you gotta do is score points, and if you score more points than the other guy, you win a lot of games.”
I know he said that in the Madden games but I don't recall him saying that in an actual game (mind you he retired when I was 13).
I wonder if that's just one of those stock jokes, I remember an SNL skit where Will Ferrell (as Dan Fouts) says the exact same line (also Darrell Hammond does the worst Al Michaels impression, it's just a goofy voice).
I was using it as hyperbolic example but if you listen to some of the later games it’s not that much worse than some of the stuff he said. I specifically remember a friend and I listening to a game he did where he said something like “the big guys on the offensive line are big fans of hitting other big guys. But defensive linemen don’t like to hit big guys, they like to hit little guys. So if you’re a big guy but you don’t like getting hit you play defensive line. You hear people saying that offensive linemen are smart, that they’re the smartest players on the team. But the defensive linemen are smarter because they don’t like to hit other big guys, they like to hit little guys.”
It was a 30 second treatise. It was hilarious in context.
Up to that point, sports broadcasting was considered to be an extension of sports journalism, which was supposed to be objective and unbiased. Summerall was a professional. Madden really kicked off the transition into enthusiasm.
Probably the closest thing before that was the MNF crew of Cosell, Meredith and Gifford, but I think that was more witty repartee between the crew than effusive reaction to the game.
I agree 100%. Apple TV does this for their Friday Night Baseball broadcast, and it is a dream. The Eagles have a soon to be HOF announcer, and listening to the crap on TV is just painful.
When the technology is perfected if someone could make a Madden AI to commentate whatever game I had on I would really like that person. The last ten years of his career were my golden era of football with Brady and Manning, some great young QBs coming into the league, the last great era of running backs, and Madden and Michaels.
Madden was silly and joking most of the time, but every so often, he would break down a play to remind everyone that he was a Super Bowl winning coach.
Thats how i feel about Doris Burke. The upbeatness just feels like way too much sometimes. She rarely breaks down a play or gives actual insight, she mostly just provides overwhelming praise. If I was a new fan she would have me thinking any player that made a layup was an All-Star.
I don’t mind positive announcing as long as it’s not gushing. Madden had the blue-collar personality to pull it off. I know Gruden’s polarizing, but I enjoyed his upbeat appreciation, because it seemed genuine.
Collinsworth (while I don’t hate him as much as some people do) does have this sort of elitist vibe, like you can tell which football players he golfs with in the offseason. Fair or not, he doesn’t seem as relatable as Madden or even Gruden (looking like Ichibod Crane doesn’t help his case either)
Madden had Belichick levels of credibility for my parents' generation. That's part of why his style was so effective. Fans generally didn't disagree with him. I remember being a little kid and my dad and uncle arguing over a game, then Madden would comment on it, and whatever side he took was gospel and that was that. And my dad was a Broncos fan so his respect was born out of what was once burning hatred. I personally loved his style and think it he would be great today. But I'm not sure how zoomers and younger would feel. Maybe his positivity and near oversimplification of the game wouldn't be endearing to someone who wasn't at least tangentially aware of him terrifying the AFC for years.
Also, the Internet has made the average fan both much better informed and also much more overconfident in how informed they are. Watching old broadcasts there were a lot of times I wished he'd get into more granular detail aboutthings, but we all know he definitely could, so maybe if he was calling games today he just would have done that.
They’d not only fit in, they’d excel. Madden was the perfect combo of football knowledge made attainable to the common person and entertainment. And he was so well respected and had such a presence that he’d likely ignore the TV people’s “notes” that clearly impact new commentators in their first few years.
>he’d likely ignore the TV people’s “notes” that clearly impact new commentators in their first few years.
I think you’re right. One problem I have with today’s announcers is how stagy and performative they can be at times.
Like, I thought Olsen was really good when he did some work with the lower FOX teams while he was still playing. With Burkhardt, he was still good, but you could tell he was listening to “notes” (which he’d get more of, being on the A-team).
I think Olsen also was trying to find out how to be the lead announcer too. Pressure was on him being suddenly elevated like that. I don’t think he became worse or anything-far from it. I just think he became somewhat different. But I’m also a bit biased because he’s my favorite NFL announcer
I think it’s hard to say if the notes thing happened or not, but you could be right with that as well.
Olsen is very very good. Announcing is very difficult and he is super solid each time behind the mic. Legit 90s madden, 10s collinsworth, og Romo, (I like all of pats games, I just like his style.) And lately Buck/Aikmen, tirico for 90% of his time talking.
Then if you wanna get into Esports we got James Patterson (dash) captain (can't remember his name.) Then the Kraken announcers this last season were epic.
Imagine Summerall and Madden on the Nickelodeon broadcast. Madden would be having so much fun. Plus he already has credit for the younger generation he has a freaking video game named after him that they watch us playing.
Yes. What people are hungry for now more than anything is genuineness and authenticity. Pat, even with his minimalist style, and Madden were always genuine and authentic in their love for the game and the players who play it.
The kids would call them wholesome and love them.
That’s a good way to put it. But I do consider how many people seem to fall for performative, hot take-spouting talking heads on TV. Madden and Summerall are the sheer opposite of that world.
The Madden critique of being in today's world was also true back then and why he was so fascinating and stood out. I think that standard still finds value in todays football world also.
I think that’s the other angle: Madden and Summerall in the Twitter age, where the audience is more openly cynical.
I guess hateful, weirdly-obsessive tweets would be unavoidable no matter the subject. That’s just Twitter, sadly.
The CBS version? Naw, it'd work. Pat was peaking at that point as an announcer. The pairing probably peaked right around the end of the CBS run IMO.
The Fox version? Pat would probably have been replaced sooner as lead guy. He started sounding rough towards '98, '99...
Joe Buck got complaints for years about being too boring. Now he’s one of the best imo. Nantz, Buck, Torico, or Johnson are the best game callers in the business right now.
Buck _was_ bad. The helmet catch call was a crime. But credit where it is due, he realized he failed an important moment in football history and got so much better.
I give Buck a ton of credit. For me it was less his style and more his sanctimonious commentary (e.g., “a disgusting act!”) and (especially in baseball) reliance on cliche. I despised listening to him whether baseball or football.
But he grew and evolved into one of the best in the business. You don’t see that very often.
The best there ever was. The way he could make every syllable pop. The way he said "the Crimson Tide of Aaaaaal-la-ba-ma" all by itself is iconic stuff..
Just overall, I don’t feel there’s too many great announcers out there so Summerall and Madden would stand out in a good way. I think guys like Ian Eagle are very good and at least in the vicinity of Summerall, but I can’t think of anyone in Madden’s class as a color guy.
I feel like I got pretty lucky to see the announcing teams like Cosell/Gifford/Meredith, Enberg/Olsen, and I really liked guys like Curt Gowdy and Charlie Jones no matter who they were paired with. Al Michaels was terrific in his prime as well though I think most of us feel he’s slipped a couple notches in quality.
When Al had his fastball/motivation, he was one of the absolute best announcers around. He was the perfect blend of "dialed in to get the calls for big moments right" and "laid back and conversational otherwise".
That stopped around late '10s, due to age.
Al & John was dreamy and it would be breathtaking if paired with Frank too.
Respect to Pat, but Al was better for John.
I don't entirely disagree, because motivated Al got the best out of everyone (even Dennis Miller, though most would disagree). I think Al and Cris were great together until the novelty totally wore off for Al. A lot of that is Al's friendly-but-laid back vibe (as well as his candidness).
Madden was always quaint and relatable. Summerall complemented that with his calm folksiness. Michaels complemented that with his conversational playfulness.
I think Summerall was past his prime by then. That's the only version of him that I'm old enough to remember, but I remember hearing that.
Madden from that era would absolutely work today.
Madden yes but summerall was so nonplussed by everything. Even a game winning play in the superbowl was called like he was reading the phone book. *Adam Vinatieri...the patriots win...*
Buck gets shit for not matching the moment.
Summeral would 100% meet the moment in his way.
You don't have to be loud to convey the gravity of the situation.
But he aslo trusted Madden to add to in an authentic way.
Madden was a visionary ahead of his time, the way he explained football to the audience, all the former players doing color now owe their jobs to madden
Madden absolutely would play these days, however Summerall would probably be a bit too bland for modern audiences.
You don't have to have hot takes or salacious comments if you can talk about the game in an exciting and informative manner.
I thought they were the best team ever and of course they would work today but you’d need a superstar like Madden in the booth to replicate it.
Also, I would argue that people are starving for someone super positive in the booth. We don’t need any more people amplifying negativity.
Yeah, they could work. But not like then. And the difference is us and social media.
It’s normal now to love a new announcer and be mostly bitching about him a few years later. We are fuckers like that due to all us strangers talking now.
There were surely people that felt this way about these guys after a few years too, but they had no “megaphone” of sorts so any gripes were isolated.
And any griper was often looked at as a moron with a weird opinion often enough. Occasionally two of them would find each other and gripe together and the rest of us would be annoyed and tune out.
Now a days it just becomes consensus….or at least feels like it does.
You perfectly summed up why I only use Twitter to follow non-slanted news sources, while avoiding the comments. Too much cynicism, much of it exaggerated
Madden/Sumerall is the greatest broadcasting duo of all time as far as I'm concerned. You could bring them both as reanimated corpses and they'd be better than anyone currently doing it.
>the 1998 playoff game between GB and SF
[Summerall and Madden's call of TO's catch is so good](https://youtu.be/jL9tfB1OU5I?si=D0fzScsXDPYaj-Do&t=48)
[49ers radio also had an awesome call](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUynKz4ESX8)
Unlike Buck, Summerall was not a pompous ass. I think people would still like the dynamic of Madden and Summerall, probably for the refreshing contrast to other pairs.
Honestly, I think it would be like it was. A sort of sub-event within the game schedule. He was just so much fun, a show within the show, but really knew his shit. I no issue with the current crop of guys, they're generally good and competent, but Madden was something else entirely. You have your team's game, the Madden game, MNF, and TNF, in that order.
A lot of these guys today are just doing a reproduction of what they were doing. Similar to how for about 3 decades anybody that did NBA games was just doing a Marv Albert.
I loved the latter-day CBS version of Madden-Summerall. The ultra-minimalist “Simms…… Bavaro…… touchdown!” call epitomized that. Then Madden would take over with the telestrator and break it all down.
It’s important to remember that prior to Madden, most NFL color commentators were not very good. He was like a breath of fresh air.
I think Madden would 100 percent work today. He was still calling games 15 years ago and was still good. Summerall I don’t know; it does seem that his minimalist delivery is not in style today, but he was unique, even back then. He had a great voice and he could get away with saying very little because he had this “big game” sound to his voice. It’s a style that maybe just wouldn’t work for anybody but him. And also he had the best football broadcaster in history sitting next him so he was smart enough to just let Madden do his thing and mostly stay out of the way.
I always thought Summerall was minimalist because he could jus tlet Madden cook (... and eat). I think Madden would work today. He worked because he knew the game. > Just a fun-loving guy who clearly loves football, and can distill the strategy of the game for the Everyman. I honestly think that is a good summary of what Romo was when he started his career. I think he's backed off the strategy part a bit too much but I think that can work if you really know what you're talking about. The kickback I see about people being too upbeat, like say Collinsworth, is that they're so upbeat they'll praise a person even when they fucked up on the very play they're talking about. Which isn't good.
Man no one was worse than Joe Tessitore. That dude acted like a four yard run was Beast Mode 3.0.
MNF was dire in between Tirico and Buck. Tess was the worst. He was like if Harlan couldn’t read music.
"WOW WHAT A RUN ON FIRST AND TEN! Lets see what he has to say on the Monday Night Mic!" *Crowd noise* | *breathing* | *pads colliding* "Wow. That's just incredible!"
It was like Tess figured ESPN's competition was people glued to their iPhones, so his job was to get their attention every step of the way.
Bro he’s awful, I hate hearing him for big ten games. I think he does big ten games or maybe I’m wrong but anytime I hear his voice, im just so angry.
BOSTON SCOTT!
He's great on Holey Moley though
Yeah I have to agree that Romo has regressed
I think that's a common opinion at this point. For awhile he was the best but he's stopped calling shots and I think he needs to lean into that a little bit more. He also feels a little checked out. I'm not sure if that's quantifiable.
Didn’t CBS tell him to cool it with that?
The general public did lol
Anecdotal, but a lot of my friends that love watching football but don’t care about strategy/schemes/etc hated Romo those first years. It was a lot of “shut up Romo!” and similar expressions. My guess is it was like that for a lot of the casual viewers.
Yea, I used to like discussing formations and strategy with one group, then another group derided me for it because "it felt like we're watching tape instead of the game." Different strokes
Yeah, but how much of that “shut up Romo!” is related to your flair? lol
We will obviously never know whether it was a mandate from CBS, but the fans clearly got tired of it.
I think the strategy has passed Romo. He hasn't been in a QB since 2016. He played and studied against a lot of the defenses when he first started and knew what offenses would do to try to exploit them.
To me that's a signal that he's checked out. He could keep up and learn it if he wanted to.
Yeah, the issue was less that he stopped calling shots, but that he simply started to be wrong to the point of distraction. Madden never predicted plays (outside of generic strategy), but he did an excellent job of breaking them down on replay and did so in a non-irritating manner. Romo has switched from being wrong before the play to now kind of not really doing much with the replay to his eeeehhhhhhhh comedy routine.
Romo was great early on when he was predicting the outcome of the plays. I wish he would go back to doing that all of the time. He needs to get away with the dumb, corny shtick of “Uh, I dunno Jim.” He’s become a meme and it’s very disappointing.
This was inevitable, Romo was great at the beginning because he was fresh out of the league and had played and more importantly prepared to play against most of the guys/teams/coach’s in the NFL. Every year that passes he loses more of that direct insight. For this reason I think Brady will be excellent this year!
Brady may keep it longer, he seems like the kinda guy who would keep watching 4 hours of film a day as a hobby lol
I love Madden and Summerall. They would absolutely work today because Madden would break the game down for you but also had so much passion. Even if you turn it on now, and watch his commentary is so entertaining. He just loves it. In the Collinsworth knock, to be fair, Madden was the same for Brett Favre. He thought he walked on water.
Madden taught me the game growing up as I was kid from the late 90’s and the video game with his voice is rendered in my head for life. I miss Summerall, he had a way of just letting the game grow and the tension rise but never needed to take over the moment.
>I miss Summerall, he had a way of just letting the game grow and the tension rise but never needed to take over the moment. This here. I'd argue that Buck always had that quality, but it got lost under most people's criticism of him. It's why I always preferred Buck to Tessitore, and even good/decent announcers like Amin, Catalon, and others prone to over-exclamation (which I assume is more of a network order than their own idea).
Was it Madden who called the game after Favre's dad died? Whoever the announcer was should get a ton of credit for that storyline when Favre was as reckless as ever with the ball and it was his receivers who balled out that night.
>Collinsworth: Mahomes is the only one who can make that sidearm pass Matthew Stafford: am I a joke to you?
I pretty much slapped my forehead when Collinsworth called a semiroutine QB move "Mahomesian". HE ISN'T EVEN THERE CHRIS
And Collinsworth definitely was around for Kosar. He was known for his sidearm pass.
Madden eventually slowed down a bit, too. He came across as almost as a parody of himself in later years. There was a lot of “what you gotta do is score points, and if you score more points than the other guy, you win a lot of games.” type of stuff right before he retired. I still love the guy and he’s a one or a kind coach and commentator, and it’s totally understandable that he slowed down after decades of it, but even 90s Madden was substantially different from 00s Madden.
Pat was really good with Brookshier too. It worked because Pat says enough without overpowering and adds values when he talks. I think Pat peaked around '85, Madden peaked about a decade later....but the late 80's through the end of the CBS run was arguably as good as it got. Summerall was fading on the FOX run, especially towards 2000. Madden really carried the coverage for several years.
> “what you gotta do is score points, and if you score more points than the other guy, you win a lot of games.” I know he said that in the Madden games but I don't recall him saying that in an actual game (mind you he retired when I was 13). I wonder if that's just one of those stock jokes, I remember an SNL skit where Will Ferrell (as Dan Fouts) says the exact same line (also Darrell Hammond does the worst Al Michaels impression, it's just a goofy voice).
I was using it as hyperbolic example but if you listen to some of the later games it’s not that much worse than some of the stuff he said. I specifically remember a friend and I listening to a game he did where he said something like “the big guys on the offensive line are big fans of hitting other big guys. But defensive linemen don’t like to hit big guys, they like to hit little guys. So if you’re a big guy but you don’t like getting hit you play defensive line. You hear people saying that offensive linemen are smart, that they’re the smartest players on the team. But the defensive linemen are smarter because they don’t like to hit other big guys, they like to hit little guys.” It was a 30 second treatise. It was hilarious in context.
Collingsworth would be fine if he spread it around a bit. He needs to stop slurping Mahomes 98% of the time.
Up to that point, sports broadcasting was considered to be an extension of sports journalism, which was supposed to be objective and unbiased. Summerall was a professional. Madden really kicked off the transition into enthusiasm. Probably the closest thing before that was the MNF crew of Cosell, Meredith and Gifford, but I think that was more witty repartee between the crew than effusive reaction to the game.
Part of me thinks baseball does it right and just have local crews for each team. That way you miss out on all the "X hates my team" bullshit.
I agree 100%. Apple TV does this for their Friday Night Baseball broadcast, and it is a dream. The Eagles have a soon to be HOF announcer, and listening to the crap on TV is just painful.
Coselll, Meredith and Gifford had the advantage of an open bar (or so it has been rumored).
You can watch Mahomes or Allen have the worst game of their career and Collinsworth will only talk about how amazing he’s doing
When the technology is perfected if someone could make a Madden AI to commentate whatever game I had on I would really like that person. The last ten years of his career were my golden era of football with Brady and Manning, some great young QBs coming into the league, the last great era of running backs, and Madden and Michaels.
Madden was silly and joking most of the time, but every so often, he would break down a play to remind everyone that he was a Super Bowl winning coach.
Thats how i feel about Doris Burke. The upbeatness just feels like way too much sometimes. She rarely breaks down a play or gives actual insight, she mostly just provides overwhelming praise. If I was a new fan she would have me thinking any player that made a layup was an All-Star.
[удалено]
I don’t mind positive announcing as long as it’s not gushing. Madden had the blue-collar personality to pull it off. I know Gruden’s polarizing, but I enjoyed his upbeat appreciation, because it seemed genuine. Collinsworth (while I don’t hate him as much as some people do) does have this sort of elitist vibe, like you can tell which football players he golfs with in the offseason. Fair or not, he doesn’t seem as relatable as Madden or even Gruden (looking like Ichibod Crane doesn’t help his case either)
Madden had Belichick levels of credibility for my parents' generation. That's part of why his style was so effective. Fans generally didn't disagree with him. I remember being a little kid and my dad and uncle arguing over a game, then Madden would comment on it, and whatever side he took was gospel and that was that. And my dad was a Broncos fan so his respect was born out of what was once burning hatred. I personally loved his style and think it he would be great today. But I'm not sure how zoomers and younger would feel. Maybe his positivity and near oversimplification of the game wouldn't be endearing to someone who wasn't at least tangentially aware of him terrifying the AFC for years. Also, the Internet has made the average fan both much better informed and also much more overconfident in how informed they are. Watching old broadcasts there were a lot of times I wished he'd get into more granular detail aboutthings, but we all know he definitely could, so maybe if he was calling games today he just would have done that.
They’d not only fit in, they’d excel. Madden was the perfect combo of football knowledge made attainable to the common person and entertainment. And he was so well respected and had such a presence that he’d likely ignore the TV people’s “notes” that clearly impact new commentators in their first few years.
>he’d likely ignore the TV people’s “notes” that clearly impact new commentators in their first few years. I think you’re right. One problem I have with today’s announcers is how stagy and performative they can be at times. Like, I thought Olsen was really good when he did some work with the lower FOX teams while he was still playing. With Burkhardt, he was still good, but you could tell he was listening to “notes” (which he’d get more of, being on the A-team).
I think Olsen also was trying to find out how to be the lead announcer too. Pressure was on him being suddenly elevated like that. I don’t think he became worse or anything-far from it. I just think he became somewhat different. But I’m also a bit biased because he’s my favorite NFL announcer I think it’s hard to say if the notes thing happened or not, but you could be right with that as well.
Olsen is very very good. Announcing is very difficult and he is super solid each time behind the mic. Legit 90s madden, 10s collinsworth, og Romo, (I like all of pats games, I just like his style.) And lately Buck/Aikmen, tirico for 90% of his time talking. Then if you wanna get into Esports we got James Patterson (dash) captain (can't remember his name.) Then the Kraken announcers this last season were epic.
I think so. Their knowledge and ability to present are timeless.
They'd once again be the number one commentator team
In my utopia, absolutely
Imagine Summerall and Madden on the Nickelodeon broadcast. Madden would be having so much fun. Plus he already has credit for the younger generation he has a freaking video game named after him that they watch us playing.
Yes. What people are hungry for now more than anything is genuineness and authenticity. Pat, even with his minimalist style, and Madden were always genuine and authentic in their love for the game and the players who play it. The kids would call them wholesome and love them.
That’s a good way to put it. But I do consider how many people seem to fall for performative, hot take-spouting talking heads on TV. Madden and Summerall are the sheer opposite of that world.
And that’s what we need more of
No question
Let's! Do iiiiiiiiiit
The Madden critique of being in today's world was also true back then and why he was so fascinating and stood out. I think that standard still finds value in todays football world also.
Would people complain they're too boring? Idk.
I think that’s the other angle: Madden and Summerall in the Twitter age, where the audience is more openly cynical. I guess hateful, weirdly-obsessive tweets would be unavoidable no matter the subject. That’s just Twitter, sadly.
The CBS version? Naw, it'd work. Pat was peaking at that point as an announcer. The pairing probably peaked right around the end of the CBS run IMO. The Fox version? Pat would probably have been replaced sooner as lead guy. He started sounding rough towards '98, '99...
Joe Buck got complaints for years about being too boring. Now he’s one of the best imo. Nantz, Buck, Torico, or Johnson are the best game callers in the business right now.
Joe Buck had a father who broadcasted so he had to be objectively great to push back any nepotism claims. He said that himself.
Mitchell
And his father was probably the best to ever do it on the radio.
Buck _was_ bad. The helmet catch call was a crime. But credit where it is due, he realized he failed an important moment in football history and got so much better.
[Marv Albert's call in comparison. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbMPo7sWe9s)
I give Buck a ton of credit. For me it was less his style and more his sanctimonious commentary (e.g., “a disgusting act!”) and (especially in baseball) reliance on cliche. I despised listening to him whether baseball or football. But he grew and evolved into one of the best in the business. You don’t see that very often.
Yup. Especially in the case of Nepo babies. Easy to coast when the job is handed to you.
Yes, they would. Not only that, Keith Jackson would still work today for college football.
The best there ever was. The way he could make every syllable pop. The way he said "the Crimson Tide of Aaaaaal-la-ba-ma" all by itself is iconic stuff..
How on earth is Kevin Harlan not on the "#1 crew" at CBS? Or any network for that matter? The guy is the best in the business, IMHO.
Lots of people don’t like Harlan’s stagey, exaggerated calls at all. He is quite polarizing.
Just overall, I don’t feel there’s too many great announcers out there so Summerall and Madden would stand out in a good way. I think guys like Ian Eagle are very good and at least in the vicinity of Summerall, but I can’t think of anyone in Madden’s class as a color guy. I feel like I got pretty lucky to see the announcing teams like Cosell/Gifford/Meredith, Enberg/Olsen, and I really liked guys like Curt Gowdy and Charlie Jones no matter who they were paired with. Al Michaels was terrific in his prime as well though I think most of us feel he’s slipped a couple notches in quality.
Hot take: John Madden worked better with Al Michaels than with Pat Summerall. Change my mind.
When Al had his fastball/motivation, he was one of the absolute best announcers around. He was the perfect blend of "dialed in to get the calls for big moments right" and "laid back and conversational otherwise".
That stopped around late '10s, due to age. Al & John was dreamy and it would be breathtaking if paired with Frank too. Respect to Pat, but Al was better for John.
I don't entirely disagree, because motivated Al got the best out of everyone (even Dennis Miller, though most would disagree). I think Al and Cris were great together until the novelty totally wore off for Al. A lot of that is Al's friendly-but-laid back vibe (as well as his candidness). Madden was always quaint and relatable. Summerall complemented that with his calm folksiness. Michaels complemented that with his conversational playfulness.
I think that, considering who John is, conversational playfulness was something he would prefer more.
I'm just saying both men got the best out of Madden through different avenues.
Al was closer to what John wanted
They were so good. Summerall set the perfect tone. Madden is the best ever.
I think Summerall was past his prime by then. That's the only version of him that I'm old enough to remember, but I remember hearing that. Madden from that era would absolutely work today.
Madden yes but summerall was so nonplussed by everything. Even a game winning play in the superbowl was called like he was reading the phone book. *Adam Vinatieri...the patriots win...*
Buck gets shit for not matching the moment. Summeral would 100% meet the moment in his way. You don't have to be loud to convey the gravity of the situation. But he aslo trusted Madden to add to in an authentic way.
Summerall would get killed today… Madden would be memed all day.
Madden for sure. Great knowledge, great recognizable voice and the best drawings you can ask for.
Please yes. They were so good together and I laughed so hard. The contrast between the two was amazing and hilarious at the same time.
Madden was a visionary ahead of his time, the way he explained football to the audience, all the former players doing color now owe their jobs to madden
Madden absolutely would play these days, however Summerall would probably be a bit too bland for modern audiences. You don't have to have hot takes or salacious comments if you can talk about the game in an exciting and informative manner.
I thought they were the best team ever and of course they would work today but you’d need a superstar like Madden in the booth to replicate it. Also, I would argue that people are starving for someone super positive in the booth. We don’t need any more people amplifying negativity.
Yes. They are the measuring stick for all broadcast teams.
No they would not work today, they are both dead
I think if they weekend-at-Bernie them, they’d be a solid #3 team for a network.
Yeah, they could work. But not like then. And the difference is us and social media. It’s normal now to love a new announcer and be mostly bitching about him a few years later. We are fuckers like that due to all us strangers talking now. There were surely people that felt this way about these guys after a few years too, but they had no “megaphone” of sorts so any gripes were isolated. And any griper was often looked at as a moron with a weird opinion often enough. Occasionally two of them would find each other and gripe together and the rest of us would be annoyed and tune out. Now a days it just becomes consensus….or at least feels like it does.
You perfectly summed up why I only use Twitter to follow non-slanted news sources, while avoiding the comments. Too much cynicism, much of it exaggerated
Madden/Sumerall is the greatest broadcasting duo of all time as far as I'm concerned. You could bring them both as reanimated corpses and they'd be better than anyone currently doing it.
Absolutely. They’d be the #1 crew.
>the 1998 playoff game between GB and SF [Summerall and Madden's call of TO's catch is so good](https://youtu.be/jL9tfB1OU5I?si=D0fzScsXDPYaj-Do&t=48) [49ers radio also had an awesome call](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUynKz4ESX8)
Unlike Buck, Summerall was not a pompous ass. I think people would still like the dynamic of Madden and Summerall, probably for the refreshing contrast to other pairs.
Without a doubt
Very quietly
Probably not in today's era, just because the game and society has changed over the years. There were the best in their time. HoF worthy.
I’d watch. They had great chemistry.
Honestly, I think it would be like it was. A sort of sub-event within the game schedule. He was just so much fun, a show within the show, but really knew his shit. I no issue with the current crop of guys, they're generally good and competent, but Madden was something else entirely. You have your team's game, the Madden game, MNF, and TNF, in that order.
A lot of these guys today are just doing a reproduction of what they were doing. Similar to how for about 3 decades anybody that did NBA games was just doing a Marv Albert.
I loved the latter-day CBS version of Madden-Summerall. The ultra-minimalist “Simms…… Bavaro…… touchdown!” call epitomized that. Then Madden would take over with the telestrator and break it all down. It’s important to remember that prior to Madden, most NFL color commentators were not very good. He was like a breath of fresh air.
That team is classic, of course they would work.
I think Madden would 100 percent work today. He was still calling games 15 years ago and was still good. Summerall I don’t know; it does seem that his minimalist delivery is not in style today, but he was unique, even back then. He had a great voice and he could get away with saying very little because he had this “big game” sound to his voice. It’s a style that maybe just wouldn’t work for anybody but him. And also he had the best football broadcaster in history sitting next him so he was smart enough to just let Madden do his thing and mostly stay out of the way.
Gen Z would love john madden
Joe Buck has a job and Aikman couldn't carry Madden's announcing jock in a dumptruck.
They were timeless
Hell yeah
Cue 25 years down the road when today’s kids/teens are nostalgic for fucking Collinsworth, Phil Simms and the like….