Today I Learned John Madden Hated Calling Dallas Cowboys Games

Yesterday we found out we lost a legend, John Madden is sadly no longer with us. However, I learned he wasn't a fan of doing Cowboys games for one reason.

I wanted to do a lovely tribute to John Madden with my favorite moments of him calling Cowboys games.

My favorite is this one above where he's talking about Troy Aikman trying to grow a beard and he literally draws a beard on Troy. The drawings that Madden used to do always made the broadcast ten times better.

Here's another one. Nate Newton's "Steam Head". "You could have a BBQ on that head." Plus all the countless Thanksgiving's Madden called back in the day. I learned he is the only announcer in history to call games on all four major networks. CBS, ABC, FOX, and NBC. I think the reason we all loved John Madden so much is because he just broke football down into the simplest terms.

A four-year-old could watch a Madden broadcast and just laugh at him going "BOOM" on a big hit. In doing research for Madden today though, I learned he really didn't like calling Cowboys games. Since Madden and Summerall were the premiere commentators, they called a lot of Cowboys games.

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This is nothing against the Cowboys themselves, John's hate was actually against the fans. Well, sort of. When a team travels on the road, the commentary team usually stays in the same hotel the team does. This way they can do interviews before the game. With the Cowboys being a America's Team, they have a lot of folks that want to see them.

Madden said typically on a road game for any other team, you have 20-30 people in the lobby wanting to see the team. For a Dallas Cowboys game, you have 500 people in the lobby and you can't go anywhere. Simply trying to go downstairs for dinner was a nightmare. Don't ever come between John and his food.

I can understand why John didn't like calling the games then. I don't like being hangry myself and having to go through a crowd of people is annoying. Just add it to the list that the Cowboys are and will forever be America's Team.