JOHN MADDEN TO RETIRE

The NFL already lost one of their voices this week when Harry Kalas passed away doing the thing he loves. Apparently John Madden has followed and decided he would rather eat chicken wings and live his life in solidarity on his bus. That was always Madden's dream and now he can have it. He mentions family for the reason if you wanna buy it...

Madden mentioned his family as a big reason for stepping down.

His 50th wedding anniversary is coming up in December — prime football season when he'd typically be on the road. And his grandchildren —his oldest, Sam is 8 — are now old enough to know "when I'm not around,'' Madden said.

"You add up everything and it's the right time,'' he said. "There is nothing wrong with me. Nothing. But at some point, you know you've got to do this. The thing that makes it so hard is that I enjoyed it so damn much. That's why it took me so long.''

Love him or hate him Madden has introduced a generation of video game dorks to the NFL. Myself included. I could never really understand Madden when he announced football games and often times it seemed like he couldn't understand himself. The mumbling got annoying on NBC Sunday Night games. The magic was gone. Cris Collinsworth will replace him and he should be an instant upgrade.

Madden can move on to do other things. Eat wings, play with his grandchildren, sit in his Madden bus and wipe away the tears as he reminisces about all those wonderful Brett Favre moments. And of course do Vagisil commercials...