John Madden will join his fourth U.S. network next season when NBC begins its Sunday night National Football League telecasts.
The 69-year-old commentator will continue to work on ABC's Monday Night Football this season with Al Michaels. Then he'll make the jump when ESPN takes over the Monday night show and NBC begins Sunday Night Football. He is expected to be joined in the booth by announcer Bob Costas, but that was not confirmed in yesterday's announcement.
Madden, who also worked for CBS and Fox, said he had figured on ending his career with ABC.
"When I first got in the business with CBS, that was exciting," he said in a telephone conference call. "And then moving to Fox was a lot of fun. Being the first one there and starting something and being part of that. And then going to Monday Night Football and enjoying every moment of that. And then having the opportunity to do this is really something special. It's something new and different and fresh."
For several years, NBC moved away from sports because of expensive rights fees. But, after dropping baseball, the NFL and the National Basketball Association and wrapping up some big shows such as Friends, its cumulative audience plummeted. This spring, NBC ranked fourth among those aged 18 to 49, behind CBS, ABC and Fox.
NBC paid $3.6-billion (U.S.) over six years for NFL rights. The network is hoping Madden can help earn most of that money back.
"John is much more than a football legend," NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said. "He's an American icon."
Madden said football is too much fun to give up.
"This is something that I love, and I've loved it all my life," he said. "It's part of me, it's what I do and who I am. My whole life is based around six months of football, six months on the road, six months away from football. Right about now is when I start saying, 'I can't wait for it to start again.' "
Case for Canada
Do Canada's hockey players from the 1964 Olympics deserve bronze medals?
They certainly do. Father David Bauer's team of amateurs were one goal away from tying the Soviet Union and perhaps winning the gold medal.
And they competed under a set of rules that placed them in third place.
Yet, near the end of the tournament -- while the Canadians were playing in their final game -- the rules were changed to relegate them to fourth.
"While we were out on the ice sweating our guts out, they went to a meeting," said Brian Conacher, one of the team members. "We showed up at the medal presentation thinking we had won a bronze."
A few months ago, the International Ice Hockey Federation agreed to award the Canadians bronze medals as the winners of the 1964 IIHF world hockey championship. The Olympic tournament had doubled as the world championship.
However, the IIHF reneged on that promise after it became clear that the issue for Canadians was Olympic medals, not IIHF medals.
Conacher said: "I went to the Olympics. I had no idea we were also playing in that same tournament for the world championship."
The IIHF argued that a reversal of the 1964 decision would leave the federation vulnerable to other demands regarding previous rulings.
But that was a copout.
The 1964 decision was an isolated incident and blatantly improper. IIHF president Bunny Ahearne, who disliked the Canadians, arbitrarily made the rule change before the IIHF council could even take a vote.
The Canadians played the tournament under rules they thought would have given them third place.
Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson says he will pursue the matter, but how much clout does he have?
If he chooses to use it, he has quite a bit. Canada is the most powerful hockey country in the world. If its teams stopped showing up for IIHF events, the federation would pay a price.
The world junior hockey championship, for one, is barely on the radar screen outside this country. Without Canadian participation, it would amount to little.
Nicholson should tell the IIHF that it needs to admit its mistake and begin a process that will lead to duplicate Olympic bronze medals being awarded -- to the Canadians as well as the Czechoslovaks, who received theirs 41 years ago.
If not, say goodbye to Canada's involvement in IIHF events past 2006.
The federation could retaliate, but it doesn't have much influence.
For the National Hockey League's participation in the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, the real power lies with the league and, arguably, NBC, the U.S. Olympic rights holder and NHL broadcaster. It doesn't lie with the IIHF.
The Mighty Camels
Will Dubai win the bid for the Summer Olympics of 2016? Rogers Sportsnet has produced a five-part series on the oil-rich city. It is aggressively pursuing top-flight sporting events. Gene Principe's reports include a look at golf, tennis, auto and horse racing in Dubai. The city is building an indoor ski slope and has a hockey team called the Dubai Mighty Camels. The series will begin on Sunday on Sportsnetnews.
TSN's coverage of the first round of the U.S. Open will begin today at 10 a.m. EDT.
ESPN Classic Canada will air a Mike Tyson special on Saturday at 9 p.m.
TSN's Wimbledon telecasts will begin on Monday at 8 a.m.