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Pat Summerall and John Madden in the Fox booth in 2002
Photo by: AP IMAGES
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When I was offered the opportunity recently to interview
John Madden, I jumped at the chance.
Madden, who is being honored with the 2016
Pat Summerall Award at the annual Legends for Charity event in February, was the voice of the NFL when I was growing up. Hearing Madden’s voice and listening to his cadence during a phone interview last week brought back a ton of memories.
Madden rarely makes public appearances any more, but he will be honored during Super Bowl week at the dinner that benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It’s clear that the award’s association with Summerall, who died in 2013, is a reason Madden agreed to be honored, and I wanted to ask him about the man with whom he shared an NFL broadcast booth for 22 consecutive years.
Madden remembered meeting Summerall before Super Bowl II in 1968, when Madden coached the AFL Oakland Raiders and Summerall did play-by-play for CBS. It wasn’t until 1981, though, when CBS paired the two that a close bond developed.
“The thing about Pat was that he was just the opposite of me,” Madden said. “I’m windy and go on and on. Pat could say more in one sentence than I could say in 10 paragraphs. That was a good thing. It gave me the confidence to do whatever I wanted to because knowing when I got through talking, he could make sense out of it — that’s what he always did. Sometimes it was just a word, sometimes it was a sentence. But he always did it.”
Madden said today’s play-by-play announcers should try to emulate Summerall’s laid-back style more than they do.
“A lot of play-by-play guys think that they have to lead the analyst,” he said. “Sometimes, they just lead you into a corner. Pat would always call the play, stop at the end of the play, give all the information, and then let me go. Then, at the end, he would put in his commentary. Everyone does the opposite. To me, that is what he did better than anyone.”
Summerall and Madden developed their chemistry from their days on the road, when they spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday together for games.
“They were both big hangout guys,” said IMG’s Sandy Montag, the longtime agent for both. “These guys just really enjoyed the people part of what we’re doing. They had more fun together. I think they had a lot more fun than broadcasters do today.”
Madden said he best remembers spending Thanksgivings with Summerall in either Dallas or Detroit.
“Thanksgiving is a family holiday, and for me, that family was Pat Summerall and the rest of the crew,” he said. “Those are things you’ll never forget. We’d have our Thanksgiving dinner the night before, on Wednesday night.”
The pair nearly split up in 1994, when CBS lost the NFL and Madden went to Fox. Madden said he didn’t know if Summerall would make the move to Fox, because he may have wanted to stay at CBS and call golf. Fox, though, made a big push to convince Summerall to come over.
“At that time, Fox didn’t have any sports,” Madden said. “We were the first sport. If you’re going to have one sport and it’s the NFL, you have to have Pat Summerall. Pat and I didn’t huddle up to make a package deal. We weren’t sure if CBS was really going to lose it. We weren’t sure Fox was going to get it. We weren’t sure what Fox was.”
John Ourand can be reached at jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ourand_SBJ.
