Legendary sportscaster John Madden announced his retirement Thursday, according to reports. Madden is one of the most popular sportscasters over the last three decades.
"You know at some point you have to do this - I got to that point," Madden said on his Bay Area radio show Thursday. "The thing that made it hard is not because I'm second guessing, `is it the right decision?' But I enjoyed it so damn much.
"I enjoyed the game and the players and the coaches and the film and the travel and everything."
Cris Collinsworth will replace Madden, moving over from the network's studio show, NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol said. Collinsworth filled in when Madden took a game off last October.
Ebersol called Madden "absolutely the best sports broadcaster who ever lived."
Madden ensures that his health is in tact, but he wanted to spend time with his family. His 50th wedding anniversary is in the fall and has five grandchildren.
"No one has made the sport more interesting, more relevant and more enjoyable to watch and listen to than John," said longtime broadcast partner Al Michaels in a statement. "There's never been anyone like him and he's been the gold standard for analysts for almost three decades."
Madden began his pro football career as a linebacker coach at Oakland in 1967 and was named head coach two years later, at 33 the youngest coach in what was then the American Football League.
Madden led the Raiders to their first Super Bowl victory and retired in 1979. He joined CBS later that year. He worked at CBS until 1994 when the network lost rights to broadcast NFL games, leading him to switch to Fox.
He left Fox in 2002 to become the lead analyst for ABC's "Monday Night Football" and joined NBC in 2006 when that network inaugurated a prime-time Sunday game.
Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006 and his "Madden NFL Football" franchise is the top-selling sports video game of all-time.
"There is one thing football fans have agreed on for decades: they all love John Madden," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. "John was a Hall of Fame coach before becoming one of the most-celebrated personalities in sports. He had an incredible talent for explaining the game in an unpretentious way that made it more understandable and fun.
"John's respect and passion for the game always stood out. He was the ultimate football fan who also happened to be an extraordinarily talented coach and broadcaster."
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