John Madden, the effusive football commentator who has won a whopping 14 Emmys, has signed to NBC for a six-year stint. NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said, "John Madden is the best analyst in the history of the National Football League and, in my opinion, the best analyst of any kind in sports television history."
In the '70s, Madden coached the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl Championship and then went on to a luminous career as a sports commentator. He has most recently appeared on ABC Monday Night Football. From 1994 to 2002, he worked as a commentator on Fox's broadcasts of the show.
Of the new deal, Madden said, "When the NFL did this new television deal, I looked at NBC Sunday Night Football package, and I thought, 'This really fits me well.'"
It looks like you got your order wrong, but he probably got nudged a bit from Monday Night Football and went to FOX. FOX probably also threw a lot of money at him to get him. They sure threw a lot of money at the league to get football. Anyway, that surely made it easier to leave MNF. MNF is (was) the marquee program for sports television. However, MNF is really becoming Sunday Night Football at the beginning of the new TV deals, and moving to NBC. So he's going to be on the most-viewed football program of the week, a deal that includes a flexible schedule for the last seven weeks of the season (read: 'important' late-season games will fill those TBA SNF slots).<br />
<br />
Sportscasters moving around is pretty common. Sportscasters who cover several sports usually stay with the networks regardless of what sports the network will air (think Bob Costas), while most guys are like Madden and cover one sport exclusively. Nowadays their contracts probably almost always are of the same length as that of the professional sports league's deal with their network. Of course Madden doesn't NEED to leave FOX, but a better example would be the sportscasters who work for ABC now covering basketball that previously covered it for NBC. Of course, again, Madden is just moving to what will be the best sports television program for football analysts.<br />
<br />
Anyway, you work for the site, hmm? It looks good so far. I'm kinda scared you guys are gonna GameSpot it, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.moreless
NBC to FOX to ABC to NBC. That's fairly hilarious.