Though Thanksgiving football is still Thanksgiving football, and it doesn’t get much better than that, the tradition was a little bit brighter back when John Madden called the action. The legendary former coach and broadcaster’s quirky personality endeared him to fans, and watching him give out post-game turkey legs was a thing of beauty.
He is now 80 years old. He retired from broadcasting in 2009, but he still pays close attention to the NFL. Madden recently sat down with Cam Inman of the East Bay Times and discussed the state of the league.
His insights are fascinating in their entirety, but one stands out in particular: his strong take on Thursday Night Football.
“Something has to be done about Thursday Night Football. It just doesn’t work,” he said. “It’s not only a fan thing, it’s a team thing. It’s a safety thing. It’s a competitive thing. It doesn’t work. I know about money, and I know about business. Maybe you have to tweak stuff a little more. To help teams, maybe you get a bye the week before.”
It’s not a bad idea. That way teams would have a week-and-a-half to prepare, then a week and two days to recover. It would certainly aide the safety concern.
Madden also talked about the league’s declining television ratings and how Thursday Night Football has exacerbated the problem.
“What happens is there are not a lot of good teams, and they have too many windows to put these games in,” Madden said. “When you think of an early Sunday window, a late Sunday window, a Sunday night window, a Monday night window, a Thursday night window. They all want good games, and there’s not enough good teams.”
Madden is right, again. This year’s Thursday night matchups have been widely decried as boring and uncompetitive. That’s because the league has an impossible problem: it has too many marquee slots and, naturally, not enough good teams to fill them.
Madden is recovering from having heart surgery last year.
“I’m glad I think we’re all finished; I hope so,” he said. “I’ve been through all that and am coming out the other end now. It’s just good to get out and around and see people.”
Clearly time or health struggles have not dampened his love for football. We hope to hear more from Madden. The game is just better when he is involved.
