Rest In Peace, John Madden

John Madden died suddenly yesterday at the age of 85.  No immediate cause of death was reported.  To say that he had a flamboyant persona would be a significant understatement; John Madden commanded attention.

He is most deservedly in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  His coaching career in the NFL consisted of a 10-year span with the Oakland Raiders where he accumulated a record of 103-32-7.  His teams were better than .500 in every season and the Raiders were in the playoffs in 8 of those 10 years.  In 5 consecutive seasons from 1973 to 1978, the Raiders were in the AFC Championship Game, and they won the Super Bowl in 1976.  After coaching, he began his broadcasting career that spanned 3 decades.  Personally, I believe that the broadcasting team of Pat Summerall and John Madden as the voice of professional football on television was a significant part of the explosive popularity of the NFL in the 1980s and 1990s.  As a testament to his broadcasting abilities, he was hired on at some point by every network that had NFL games to air.

Rest in peace, John Madden…

There is an Op-Ed in today’s Washington Post by Charles Lane about the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing.  While I think he misses one important point, I believe the piece is worth reading because what he says is fundamentally correct.  Here is the link.

The problem with the argument that Americans should not tune in to watch these Games because they are being held in a country that is repressive and dictatorial misses the point that lack of eyeballs here in the US will not change the hearts and minds of the rulers in China.  Here is what a “TV-boycott” of the Winter Games will do:

• It will financially hurt NBC who has already paid the IOC for the telecast rights.

Charles Lane suggests that this will “teach a lesson in the costs of collaboration” with such repressive regimes.  Maybe so, but not for a while; the NBC deal with the IOC runs through the 2032 Olympic Games which have not yet been sited.

I have no dog in this fight; I am not an investor in NBC.  However, I am a believer in taking actions that have direct effect whenever possible.  In this case, the idea of “reading a book” instead of watching the Olympics does not have any real effect on the folks that Messr. Lane perceives as the “bad guys”.  The IOC is – and has been for years – corrupt to its core.  The Chinese government exercises its governance in ways that have no parallel here in the US.  Those institutions can be disliked and opposed – – but a TV boycott of the 2022 Olympics is an impotent gesture at best.

Having said that, I will probably watch about 15 minutes of the TV coverage of the Games next year for a reason that Charles Lane does not cite in his piece.  I do not find the events in the Winter Games to be entertaining.  So, at the bottom line, Charles Lane and I will behave in the same way – – but for very different reasons.

Finally, let me close today with a view of the Olympics offered up by screenwriter John Ridley:

“If the Olympic Games ever served a true altruistic purpose, they have long since outlived it.  Yeah, the pursuit of athletic excellence, sportsmanship and international goodwill is pretty noble.  But the modern Olympics are at best a vehicle for agitprop; at worst, a scandal magnet.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………