NFL News NFL News, Reports and Updates
By Richie Zyontz
FOX NFL Lead Producer
Editor’s Note:Richie Zyontz has been an NFL producer for FOX since 1994 and is in his 23rd season as the lead producer. He has more than 40 years of experience covering the league and has produced seven Super Bowls. Throughout the 2024 NFL season, he is providing an inside look as FOX’s new No. 1 NFL team, including NFL legend Tom Brady, makes its journey toward Super Bowl LIX. Read more behind-the-scenes stories from Richie Zyontz here.
The NFL now dedicates Thanksgiving to the memory of John Madden, and rightly so.
After all, Thanksgiving was the day he loved most of all, and who better represented the league as a Super Bowl-winning coach, legendary broadcaster and energetic ambassador than Madden?
All three games on Thursday, including our broadcast of the New York Giants at the Dallas Cowboys (4:30 p.m. ET on FOX), will have field signage, commemorative coins, trophies and video vignettes celebrating Madden’s career. It will be a beautiful and touching day of tribute.
But to those of us who knew him and loved him — and that’s a very large group spanning every network at every level — every day is John Madden Day. And while many others could write this tribute, I feel uniquely qualified to do so as a pal of his for 40 years.
An awkward start to a long-lasting friendship
My first encounter with John didn’t go so well.
My entry level job at CBS involved making sure those up the food chain had all the necessary creature comforts on a given weekend. At a preseason game in San Diego in 1982, things went horribly wrong. Unbeknownst to me, Madden had been assigned a hotel room on the 19th floor with two twin beds. Now, we all know that even a king-sized bed was likely a pretty snug fit for him, and his fear of heights and claustrophobia would not be assuaged with a penthouse room.
[Related: More from Tom Brady | More from Richie Zyontz]
So Madden summoned me down to meet him for breakfast — or so I thought. There, buried…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/behind-scenes-fox-nfl-crew-thanksgiving-tribute-john-madden
Author :
Publish date : 2024-11-26 15:58:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
