Cultural Cuisinart

So, John Madden has officially announced his retirement from broadcasting.

I'm pretty bummed out about this - Madden was one of my favorite announcers and I'm going to miss his presence on Sunday Night Football.

I know a lot of people made fun of him for various things, such as his patented Madden-isms where he stated some pretty obvious stuff ("The team that has the most points at the end of the game is the one that's going to win.") He was also mocked in certain circles for his love of the digipen, going crazy with the virtual X's and O's on the video playback.

However, what a lot of fans fail to realize is that football needs a guy like Madden around. What Madden did was make the game accessible to the casual fans out there. While I myself found his commentary a little simplistic from time to time, I also realize that there are a lot of casual fans out there that don't understand formations, basic referees decisions and so forth. For the girlfriends, wives, and yes, boyfriends forced to sit with their sports-loving significant other, Madden provided a great entrance into the often confusing world of professional football.