Pat Summerall, the deep-voiced NFL player-turned-broadcaster who spent half of his four decades calling sports famously paired with John Madden, died Tuesday. He was 82.

Susie Wiles, Summerall’s daughter, said her father died in Dallas.

“He was an extraordinary man and a wonderful father,” Wiles said. “I know he will be greatly missed.”

Summerall was part of network television broadcasts for 16 Super Bowls. His last championship game was for Fox on Feb. 3, 2002, also his last game with longtime partner Madden. The popular duo worked together for 21 years, moving to Fox in 1994 after years as the lead team for CBS.

At the end of their final broadcast together, Madden described Summerall as “a treasure” and the “spirit of the National Football League” in a tribute to the partner that complemented the former coach so well.

“You are what the NFL is all about, what pro football is all about, and more important, what a man is all about and what a gentleman is all about,” Madden said.

As former teammate and broadcaster Frank Gifford put it in an accompanying video tribute: “America is very comfortable with Pat Summerall.”

“There is no one more closely associated with the great legacy and tradition of CBS Sports than Pat Summerall,” Sean McManus, Chairman, CBS Sports said in a statement. ”His voice was synonymous with big events whether it was NFL football and the Super Bowl, the Masters or U.S. Open Tennis.”

Summerall played 10 NFL seasons (1952-61) with the Chicago Cardinals and New York Giants. In his second career, he became a voice so familiar to several generations of sports fans, not only those of the NFL.

He started doing NFL games for CBS in 1964, and became a play-by-play guy 10 years later. He was also part of CBS’s coverage of the PGA Tour, including the Masters from 1968-94, and the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

When CBS lost its NFL deal after the 1993 season, Summerall switched to Fox to keep calling NFL games with Madden. He had hoped to keep working with CBS for other events like the Masters, but network executives saw it otherwise. At the time, CBS Sports anchor Jim Nantz said he was “very saddened” that Summerall didn’t get to leave CBS under his own terms.

“He is CBS Sports. I always thought he could work here until he was 75 or 80 years old,” Nantz told The Philadelphia Daily News then. “He’s been a much larger influence on my career than I think he realizes. There will be a piece of Pat Summerall on the air as long as I do golf for this network.”

A recovering alcoholic, Summerall had a liver transplant in April 2004. The lifesaving surgery was necessary even after 12 years of sobriety.

After an intervention involving, among others, former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, former CBS Sports President Peter Lund and former PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beaman, Summerall checked into the Betty Ford Clinic in April 1992.

“I had no intention of quitting, I was having too good a time,” Summerall said in a 2000 Associated Press story. “The prescribed stay at Betty Ford is 28 days. They kept me 33 because I was so angry at the people who did the intervention, the first five days didn’t do me any good.”

Summerall received the liver of a 13-year-old junior high football player from Arkansas who died unexpectedly from an aneurysm. Summerall had an emotional meeting with the teenager’s family the following year.

Summerall often shared his testimony with Christian groups and told his story when speaking before other organizations. In his 2006 book, “Summerall: On and Off The Air,” he frankly discussed his personal struggles and professional successes.

Long before broadcasting Super Bowl games, 16 for television and 10 more for radio — in fact, before there was even a Super Bowl — Summerall played a role in what is known in football circles as “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” the 1958 NFL championship. The Giants lost to the Baltimore Colts 23-17 in the NFL’s first-ever overtime game.

“Pat was a friend of nearly 40 years,” CBS Sports’ Verne Lundquist said in a statement. “He was a master of restraint in his commentary, an example for all of us.  He was also one of the great storytellers who ever spoke into a microphone.”

Born George Allen Summerall on May 10, 1930 in Lake City, Fla., he was an All-State prep football and basketball player there, and lettered in baseball and tennis. He played college football at Arkansas before going to the NFL.

After breaking his arm in the preseason as a rookie for Detroit, Summerall played five years for the Chicago Cardinals before four seasons with the Giants. While he was also a defensive back, Summerall was primarily a kicker, making 100 field goals and 256 of 265 extra points in his career.

When asked about his fondest NFL memories during a May 2009 interview with the AP, Summerall said there were things that stood out as a player and broadcaster.

“You always remember the days as a player. I was in four championship games before there was a Super Bowl, so I remember those very well,” he said. “Broadcasting, I remember the last (Super Bowl) I did. Of course, I remember that. I remember the first one most vividly than any of the rest.”

Summerall was part of the NBC and CBS simulcast of the inaugural Super Bowl in Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 1967. After working the first half in the broadcast booth, he switched places with Gifford at halftime and was a sideline reporter during the second half.

“To look at the Coliseum that day and see that there were like 40,000 empty seats and the most expensive ticket was $12, it’s incredible to realize what was going on and what it’s grown to over the years,” he said during the 2009 AP interview. “It’s sort of staggering to me.”

Summerall, who spent his final years in the Dallas area, living in Southlake, was a member of the North Texas Super Bowl host committee for the game played there in February 2011 in the $1.1 billion Cowboys Stadium that opened in 2009.

“It’s a little bit different in that, it’s in my neighborhood, it’s in my home,” Summerall said in advance of that Super Bowl in which Green Bay defeated Pittsburgh. “It’s quite an honor just to be part of it.”

Summerall became a play-by-play announcer in 1974, and it was strictly by accident. He was working with Jack Buck, and CBS boss Bob Wussler thought the two commentators sounded too much alike. Summerall told Wussler that if a change was going to be made that he’d like to do play-by-play, and the following Sunday that’s what Summerall was doing.

His final play-by-play words beside Madden highlighted Summerall’s succinctness when calling the game-ending field goal.

“It’s right down the pipe. Adam Vinatieri. No time on the clock. And the Patriots have won Super Bowl XXXVI. Unbelievable,” Summerall said.

Sparse, exciting, perfect. A flawless summation without distracting from the reaction viewers could see on the screen.

After his final game with Madden, Summerall remained a full-time broadcaster for Fox one more season, doing primarily Dallas Cowboys games during the 2002 season. He decided to step down the following year when he realized he would spend most of the season away from home.

Summerall did a handful of NFL games for Fox and ESPN the next few seasons. He did play-by-play for Fox’s broadcast of the Cotton Bowl’s games from 2007-10, then for the bowl’s 75th anniversary in January 2011 conducted interviews as part of the pregame show and game broadcast. He also had voiceovers that were part of Masters broadcasts for CBS and game broadcasts on NFL Network.

“Pat Summerall was a hero to me,” Nantz said in a statement. “I treasured the gift of friendship that I had with him.  I was his understudy for 10 years.  He could not have been more generous or kind to a young broadcaster.  He was a giant and one of the iconic figures in the history of the CBS Television Network.”

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.

What will Summerall’s lasting legacy be? Leave your memories and thoughts in the comments section below…

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Pat Summerall  (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Pat Summerall, the deep-voiced NFL player-turned-broadcaster who spent half of his four decades calling sports famously paired with John Madden, died Tuesday. He was 82.

Susie Wiles, Summerall’s daughter, said her father died in Dallas.

“He was an extraordinary man and a wonderful father,” Wiles said. “I know he will be greatly missed.”

[worldnow id=8780366 width=385 height=288 type=video]

Summerall began working for CBS in 1961 and stayed there for 31 years before moving to Fox for the final eight years of his career.

Summerall spent much of his time honing a fantastic chemistry with the most famous football analyst in history, John Madden, and tributes have began pouring in on social media from those who associate Summerall with the big-time football games of their youth.

“When it comes to play by play, Pat Summerall is the gold standard” said Dallas Broadcaster Brad Sham on 105.3 The Fan.

[cbs-audio url="http://cbsdallas.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/041613-summerall.mp3" size="normal" download="false" name="Brad Sham remember broadcasting legend Pat Summerall" artist="105.3 The Fan"]

And in North Texas, Pat Summerall wasn’t just an institution for fans of the Dallas Cowboys…he had the respect of the players as well. KRLD’s L-P Phillips spoke with Dallas Cowboys legend Roger Staubach about Pat.

[cbs-audio url="http://cbsdallas.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/4-16-13-staubach.mp3" size="normal" download="false" name="Roger Staubach remembers Pat Summerall" artist="1080 KRLD"]

Summerall played 10 seasons in the NFL (1952-61) with the Chicago Cardinals and New York Giants.

[worldnow id=8781778 width=385 height=288 type=video]

Long before broadcasting Super Bowl games, 16 for television and 10 more for radio — in fact, before there was even a Super Bowl — Summerall played a role in what is known in football circles as “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” the 1958 NFL championship. The Giants lost to the Baltimore Colts 23-17 in the NFL’s first-ever overtime game.

Besides the NFL he also covered the the Masters from 1968-94, and the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

(© Copyright 2013 CBS Local Media a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report)

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“We kind of forget and take (security measures) as a nuisance, and then you realize this isn’t a nuisance,” John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. “At all these (events) that are coming up, security and what people are going to have to go through are going to be a constant reminder of what happened in Boston.”

Will attendance at big sporting events decrease?

“I would bet that it’s just the opposite, just knowing Americans,” Madden said. “The minute you let something like this terrorize you, where you stop doing things that are normal, that’s the effect that — whoever’s doing it — that’s the effect they want. And I think it should be and I believe it will be the opposite… Next year at Boston, they’ll have more people at the Boston Marathon than they had this year.” (5:55)

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Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

NEW YORK (AP) — The NFL has added four coaches to its subcommittee for the influential Competition Committee, which discusses and recommends rules changes.

Commissioner Roger Goodell chose Minnesota’s Leslie Frazier, Miami’s Joe Philbin, Carolina’s Ron Rivera and Atlanta’s Mike Smith for the subcommittee, which is chaired by Hall of Fame coach John Madden.

The coaches’ group discusses player safety, competitive issues, coaching and personnel development, and technological innovations.

Already on the subcommittee are the Giants’ Tom Coughlin, the Ravens’ John Harbaugh, and the Chiefs’ Andy Reid.

Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin, who served on the subcommittee since 2009, was recently added to the Competition Committee.

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

“I hoped that the winner wouldn’t win by one stroke over Tiger, where that could overpower the story of the win by Adam Scott or the way that Angel Cabrera played, because they played great,” John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. “In a tough situation on a big stage they came through and did what they had to do, one to get in the playoff and one to win the Masters… I was kind of rooting that either Tiger would win the thing and it wouldn’t matter, or that he would lose it by more than the two strokes, which he did.”

Woods finished tied for fourth, four strokes behind Scott and Cabrera.

Scott sank a 25 footer on the 72nd hole that took him into the playoff, and won the Masters with a 15-footer on the second playoff hole. Scott uses the long ‘broom stick’ putter.

“I wonder how many of them are going to sell today?” Madden said, noting they might not be of much help to amateurs. “They usually go to those things because they’re a bad putter. And then when they get them, they’re still a bad putter, usually… Guys that blame the instrument instead of themselves usually have a lot of instruments.” (7:45)

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Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.

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“You know what would be the toughest thing for me if I had to do that in the eighth grade — go back to Augusta, Georgia (and play in the Masters) — would be packing, packing my clothes,” said Madden”

• Complete Coverage: The Masters

“On one hand his mother has to pack for him — pack his suitcase for him — on the other hand he’s one over after the first day of the Masters. Now how does that happen?”

Meanwhile, 55-year-old Fred Couples was just two strokes off the lead after the first round. “It’s always good to see Freddie Couples,” Madden said. “Doesn’t he just look like a good guy — the way he just acts, reacts and moves? I still think he has the purest, greatest golf swing I’ve ever seen.”
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Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

http://www.boomercafe.com/the-challenge-of-trying-to-reach-75-million-baby-boomers/

Fast forward to last August and David Henderson describes how AARP is trying to reach boomers again after its failed Second Generation marketing campaign. They have teemed up with LinkedIn.com to created Work Reimagined, a free online service to assist baby boomers in finding employment.

“The participating employers at Work Reimagined are committed to recruiting workers of all ages, and many of these companies have immediate hiring needs,” according to AARP executive Adam Sohn, who managed the development of Work Reimagined.

“Sohn, by the way, is younger than the boomer generation, so like the staff of AARP’s earlier effort, he can only guess about the quirkiness, distinctive nature and needs of baby boomers at this stage of life.”

But they are trying, as are advertisers in the Super Bowl, to relate to our large, influential demographic.

http://www.boomercafe.com/marketing-to-baby-boomers-becomes-more-mainstream/

Wednesday marks the 77th birthday of one of the NFL’s most influential figures ever, former Raiders head coach/NFL TV analyst/video game guru John Madden.

Of course, years after Madden led Oakland to a Super Bowl XI victory, he earned acclaim as an NFL TV analyst while working alongside play-by-play man Pat Summerall.

Above is one of Madden’s great breakdowns…a look at the Gatorade buckets used by the New York Giants during Super Bowl XXI.

After watching this, just remember that Madden moved out of this dwelling a few years ago.

My man got paid.

The visionary behind our virtual football addiction…

The Hall of Fame former Oakland Raiders coach began his day, just like he typically does, with his exclusive morning sports discussion ‘Daily Madden’ on KCBS All News 704 AM & FM 106.9.

NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol has called Madden “absolutely the best sports broadcaster who ever lived.”

RELATED CONTENT: Download & Listen To The ‘Daily Madden’ Podcasts

Four years ago, Madden gave up traveling to broadcast NFL games each week of the season in order to spend more time with his family, which includes five grandchildren. Madden, who is reluctant to fly, often traveled to games in a specially equipped bus.

Madden’s blue-collar style and love for in-the-trenches football has endeared him to fans. His “Madden NFL Football” is the top-selling sports video game of all time.

Longtime broadcast partner Al Michaels has said Madden will have a unique place in pro football history.

“No one has made the sport more interesting, more relevant and more enjoyable to watch and listen to than John,” Michaels observed. “There’s never been anyone like him and he’s been the gold standard for analysts.”

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 he switched 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.

“There is one thing football fans have agreed on for decades: they all love John Madden,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said when Madden retired from doing game telecasts. “John was a Hall of Fame coach before becoming one of the most-celebrated personalities in sports. He has an incredible talent for explaining the game in an unpretentious way that makes it more understandable and fun.

“John’s the ultimate football fan who also happened to be an extraordinarily talented coach and broadcaster,” according to Goodell.

(Copyright 2013 CBS San Francisco. All rights reserved. The AP contributed background to this report.)

“You can’t take the accomplishment away,” Madden said. “One of your goals is to get to the playoffs. Once you get to the playoffs, immediately your next goal becomes to win in the playoffs.”

Madden said the Warriors’ improvement started with teamwork. “Playing as a team, that’s the first thing,” Madden said. “That’s easier to say than to do… Maybe the Warriors didn’t have the five guys or seven or 10 or whatever it takes to do it before and they do now. That’s one place that I know over the years that they’ve improved, and that’s playing as a team.”

The NFL draft is just two weeks away. Madden said most teams have their plans in place. “You ever play poker with someone that when they get a pretty good hand and they’re kind looking around, they take their cards and put them on their chest? That’s what the league is doing right now. They’re getting close, and they’ve all taken the cards and put them on their chest,” Madden said.

“Most teams have their draft boards now and their players rated and their players targeted and all that stuff, so they don’t want to be talking anymore.”

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Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.

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One amazing aspect of John Madden’s football odyssey are the points he made in several books that showed his love of the game while translating it to something fun and everyone could understand. In Hey Wait A Minute, One Knee Equals Two Feet, and One Size Doesn’t Fit All, he popularized notions that are still a part of The Chancellor of Football’s repertoire today.

• One knee equals two feet: When a receiver catches a pass and only has one knee touch the ground before going out of bounds, its a good catch as though two feet had touched. This is also good of one elbow or hitting the ground butt first before going out of bounds
• One stepper: A term used for cornerbacks when reacting to a receiver breaking his route in or out. Whether they are in a back pedal or running side by side with a receiver, the good cornerbacks react in just one step where the marginal cornerback will take two or more before reacting.

These are a few of the nuggets that he showed how he saw the game and simplified it for millions while giving valued information to assessing players and talents. Why prattle on when we can offer you something better… John Madden himself.

JohnMaddenvignette

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For many years he teamed with Pat Summerall in the booth and was the most expressive color analyst in television history. They developed the telestrator for him to diagram plays and blocking assignments for live television. He was a pioneer. Its a shame he didn’t make it to Monday Night Football until late in his career. The casual fan would have learned a lot about the game from him instead of only seeing him for 4 or 5 times a regular season.  The one thing we want the video game generation to understand is he was a record setting coach before. He made it to a record 5 straight conference championship games in the 1970s, which was second to Vince Lombardi and Paul Brown. Or the most since the AFL / NFL merger. Do you realize how re-written history is if he wins the 1973, ’74, ’75′ and ’77 AFC Championship games??

If his Raiders had won, the Miami Dolphins don’t repeat as champions for Super Bowl VIII. You don’t have the back to back champion Pittsburgh Steelers of Super Bowl IX & X. After winning it all in 1976, they would have defended their title against the Dallas Cowboys for Super Bowl XII..,.but alas this happened in the 1977 AFC Championship Game:

1977 – AFC Championship (Den 20 Oak 17) DVD Rip(01h06m47s-01h09m26s)

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Just like the Immaculate Reception back in 1972, his Raiders got jobbed in the playoffs. Yet Madden would go on to coach through the 1978 season before retiring as coach of the Raiders. His record was 103-32-7 over a 10 year period. Note that he had 7 ties during his career which started in 1969 as head coach but the NFL didn’t adopt regular season overtime until 1974, hence all the ties. He made the playoffs in 8 of his 10 years and had the best winning percentage of all time of those who coached 10 or more years. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

John Madden, Pro Football Hall of Famer.

He was one of the game’s greatest coaches before becoming the best color analyst of the television era covering the NFL. His coaching tenure actually started in the old AFL which became the AFC. Then he started having his All Madden Teams when he covered the game for CBS & Fox. He was more than just the name sake on Electronic Arts video game that bears his name. Year after year he challenged them to make more realistic game play and was a part of that game’s overall growth and success. We mention it here because a complete generation learned intricacies of football through the Madden video game series starting in 1989.

So today, we celebrate John Madden’s 76th birthday. Happy Birthday!! Thanks for your contributions to the NFL.

RIP Al Davis, Gene Upshaw, & Jack Tatum who appeared in the video.

Mark Collins’ 2Five Sports.

Taylor Blitz times is partnering up with 2Five Sports, a top recruitment company that helps players market themselves to perspective colleges. The Taylor Blitz Times influence is growing every day by leaps and bounds. We want to be there for football players at every step of the way. Learning the game, playing it safely, and players to make it to the collegiate and professional ranks. If you’re a high school participant with the grades and not getting exactly the looks that  you want. This is a way to market yourself and get in front of the right coach for you.

Mark Collins played in the NFL for 13 seasons appearing in 3, while winning two with the New York Giants in Super Bowls XXI & XXV.

Thanks for reading and please share the article.

Taylor Blitz Times new logo!!

I had my sonogram yesterday morning. It took about 15 minutes. The technician didn’t tell me anything, though. I have to wait for the doctor’s interpretation, which, I suppose, I will find out on May 2, when I return to see him. Tomorrow afternoon, I have my stress test at the same office.

We had a good meeting with our “huddle” group last night. “Huddle” (I really wish they would come up with a different name for this, since I’m not a big football fan) is a discipleship learning process, which is supposed to last anywhere from nine months to a year, after which we are all supposed to start a new “huddle.” Anyway, last night we were all supposed to share something that God brought to our attention during the past couple of weeks. It’s quite astounding how much all of our “kairos moments” all dove-tailed together.

Honorable mentions go to John Madden, 1936, Brian Setzer, 1959, Chris Carrabba, 1975.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL

Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name! Psalm 97:12
Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God. Psalm 86:1-2
Blessed be the LORD! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. Psalm 28:6
Oh, Lord, my soul truly thirsts for you this morning. Bring me to the fountain that is your Word and show me great things therein. Teach me your ways, that I may walk in your truth.

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. John 14:1-3

Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

One of the central messages of Isaiah is the failure of God’s people to be the holy servants of God. If they are going to “serve Him in holiness, they must be cleansed and trust in Him alone.” The first part of the book of Isaiah focuses on this failure. The second half of the book focuses on the cleansing. Servanthood is a prominent theme, and today’s passage uses this theme exclusively. It is the first of what are called Servant Songs. While Israel would argue that the subject of these songs is Israel, we must consider that they speak of an “ideal Israel who fulfills the call to servanthood and at the same time atones for Israel’s failure to serve the Lord.” This “ideal Israel” has the mission to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. (v. 7) This can be none other than Jesus Christ.

In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits and its breadth sixty cubits, with three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall put them in the house of God.”

Because of disobedience (which included the worship of false gods), the temple had been destroyed and God’s people had been exiled. In the book of Ezra, we see people returning to Jerusalem and being allowed to rebuild the temple. They took great care to do things properly, taking extreme measures to insure that the temple was built and furnished properly. “God’s work is not haphazard, a kind of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants effort.” There is a common thought, in modern times, that worship needs to be spontaneous, unplanned. While there is value in allowing for spontaneity, careful planning and study certainly do not quench the activity of God’s Holy Spirit. “Deliberate and intentional preparation for entering into God’s presence rids the mind and heart of trivial and worldly distractions.” I experienced this to be true this past Sunday morning, as I prepared for worship. Throughout the setup time and rehearsal time, I made it a point to be constantly thinking on why I was doing what I was doing, even going so far as to pray for everyone who was there working while I was setting up my area. As I constantly reminded myself, “It’s all about you, Jesus,” I experienced one of the most intense mornings of worship that I have had in a long time.

Here is a quote from one of my favorite authors, Eugene Peterson, from his book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction:
“If Christians worshiped only when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship . . . Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.”

Preparation for worship involves everyone, not just the pastor and worship leaders. Even if had no part in the setup, and even if I were not playing in the worship band, it would be important for me to prepare my heart for worship. To just show up and expect God to “zap” me is just a bit irresponsible. It would be like throwing seed on the ground without preparing the ground first. That seed will just blow away (or get eaten by birds).

I pray for the day ahead. Let this be a day of productivity, and if challenges arise (for both Christi and me), may we look to you for our strength, and not try to gather strength from within ourselves. Give us peace and hope as we live this day. Reach down to Stephanie and give her hope of your steadfast love in her life.

Grace and peace, friends.

John and I have spent a lot of hours together over the years. I’ve wasted more hours on his awesome video games than I’d like to admit, and I’ve always enjoyed his football commentary. Especially when he circled sweat marks on the teleprompter.

Here’s to another year, John. Happy birthday!

Madden’s favorite player was Louisville’s Peyton Siva. “I’d like to coach him. I wish that he would have been a football player around the time I was coaching.

“Even there at the end when he got fouled at the other end of the court (and) he ran down to the foul line, you knew that he just couldn’t wait to get up to the foul line and make those free throws to ice the game,” said Madden.

“And then when he said that he even babysits (Louisville coach Rick) Pitino’s grand kids, I thought man that guy is the real deal.”

Pitino joined former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian and five others elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame Monday. “(Tarkanian) was one of those guys that could coach anything and was interested in all sports,” Madden said. “He was everyone’s friend.

“He’s one of those guys who’d go into a room and light up the room, and it just seemed like everyone in the room knew him.”

Also elected to the Hall of Fame was former Skyline High guard Gary Payton, who Madden said “made it cool to be a defensive player.”

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“What’s happening is they’re losing fans at the stadium to television. And so now they have to make the fan experience better. But all they have to do is lower some of the doggone prices,” said Madden.

“Lower the ticket prices, lower the concessions, lower the parking, lower some of that. They’ve just gotten out of range for a lot of people who would maybe go to games but can’t afford it.”

The men’s NCAA semi-final between Syracuse and Michigan featured unusually bright uniforms. “Kids go for that,” Madden said. “In college sports, everything is for recruiting. I think the uniforms you wear now are recruiting kids in high school.

“The choice of where they’re going to go to school could very well be the uniform… I’ll guarantee you that’s a thought behind the uniforms they wear.” Michigan faces Louisville in the championship game Monday night.
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“It’s not just the opening day,” John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. “It’s the flag-raising ceremony. Then you have rings and the rings have to be better than the last time, and the parade has to be bigger than the last parade. It just goes on and on. But it’s not a bad on and on to be in. That’s a side of that deal you want to be on.”

The Giants haven’t announced who will throw out the first pitch, but it won’t be Madden. “There was a time that I would have,” Madden said. “If I were to do it, I would practice it. I would stretch my arm out and I would aim over the catcher’s head. I would not aim at the catcher because there’s no way I would throw it short. There’s no way I would throw a dirt ball. I’d let that sucker fly… If I don’t get it to the catcher, I’m going to get it over his head and I’ll get someone in the first row… If you’re going to do it, you have to throw the high hard one.”

John enters the NCAA Final Four weekend with all four teams in his bracket. He’s offered to sell one or two teams to his opponents, but hasn’t found a taker. “As Weeb Eubank said at a meeting years ago when he was the NFL coach for the Jets, he said ‘all I want is my fair advantage.’ That’s kind of my philosophy of life is all I want is my fair advantage. But in this I think I’ve earned my fair advantage by having all four of the teams in the Final Four.”  7:55

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“You would like them to commit to college and you’d like every good athlete to be a good student and everyone who starts to finish and get a degree. And that’s not reality.

“You start with the premise that every good high school athlete that can play college sports, is not necessarily a college student… It’s not that (all) these kids are going to college and then quitting and not getting a degree. It’s that they’re going to college to try to go to the next level,” said Madden.

Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez said he loves the team’s new clubhouse and batting cage at Dodger Stadium. “I always thought that those things don’t mean anything,” Madden said. “I didn’t like in the pros those fancy things. I think if they get too comfortable in their environment they don’t want to leave to go play.”

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“Where he ever thought that was coaching, I have no idea,” John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. “Where he learned that, how he got away with it, how he got started doing that – I mean, if we ever get to a point where we believe that you have to push and hit and shove and throw balls at kids to coach them or to teach them, then we’re in the wrong profession.”

Texas pitcher Yu Darvish lost a perfect game Tuesday night when the Astros’ Marwin Gonzalez hit a single between Darvish’s legs with two out in the ninth.

“Sometimes you just feel that you have to enjoy that,” Madden said. “We’re so where we have to be number one, we have to win it all, we have to be perfect. Sometimes when you’re just like a little off perfect, you know, that’s pretty good too.”

The Rangers won 7-0. (9:05)

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Jack Tatum, one of the NFL’s hardest hitters ever.

When it comes to the soul of the game, purists like our CEO thinks of games being dominated by fierce and aggressive defense. One player that embodied that spirit was Jack Tatum of the Oakland Raiders. When his name is brought up it’s hard to not think of the unfortunate paralysis injury suffered by Darryl Stingley in 1978. However he was much more than that.  During the 1970′s he made the Oakland Raiders defensive secondary the forceful equivalent of the Pittsburgh Steelers front four.

The Raiders weren’t a great defense from a statistical standpoint. In fact their highest ranking against the pass during the 1970′s was 5th in 1975, and 8th in 1973. As a matter of fact the year the Raiders went 13-1 and won Super Bowl XI the Raiders were 22nd against the pass. However for a record 5 straight years (1973-1977) the Raiders made it to the AFC Championship Game and Jack Tatum was a main reason why.

It was his physical style of play the Raiders fed off of and his mentality became that of the Oakland Raiders defense. Even SS George Atkinson, who began his career as a corner with the Raiders in the late 1960s’, had Jack’s playing style rub off and become his style of play. Nowhere in football history were there ever more cases of “alligator arms” than there were going across the middle when Jack Tatum was on patrol. His hits were like car collisions.

RaidersDBs

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One of his most famous hits occurred in what has been called the single greatest touchdown in NFL history, The Immaculate Reception. The famous Franco Harris touchdown with :22 left in the 1972 AFC Divisional Playoff the Steelers won 13-7. Initially on 4th and 10, Terry Bradshaw was trying to complete a pass to John “Frenchy” Fuqua when the ball and Tatum all arrived at the same time. NFL rules at the time didn’t permit a pass to be tipped by a receiver then caught by another receiver. Had that occurred the play would be ruled incomplete and penalized for “illegal touching”. The problem was it was so close you couldn’t call what happened from the naked eye.

Immaculate Reception – original broadcast

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When the Steelers were awarded the touchdown it touched off a bitter 5 year playoff rivalry and controversy over that play rages to this day. http://taylorblitztimes.com/2011/07/30/the-immaculate-receptionbefore-there-were-hail-marys/ Tatum had another famous hit that you saw in the first video when he knocked Sammy White of the Vikings out in Super Bowl XI. It was the fourth quarter and the Vikings were forced to pass and the Raiders knew it. However, 11 months later in what would be John Madden’s last playoff game as coach of the Raiders, another Tatum hit was in the middle of another controversy. It was during the 3rd quarter of the 1977 AFC Championship with Oakland trailing the Denver Broncos 7-3. The Raiders had fumbled to put the Broncos in business inside the Raiders 20 yard line. Several plays later when it was 1st and goal with the momentum teetering toward the Denver sideline, Tatum comes through with a thunderous shot…

1977 – AFC Championship (Den 20 Oak 17) DVD Rip(01h06m47s-01h09m26s)

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Another case of the Raiders coming up on the short end of the stick and was one of the reasons they lost 20-17. Although our CEO lived in Denver at the time and was cheering for the Broncos, he believes they were robbed. Rob Lytle clearly fumbled. Had they won they would have gone to Super Bowl XII with a chance to defend their Super Bowl title. They would have beaten Dallas and would have been crowned a dynasty had they made it there. Jack Tatum would play two more years with the Raiders before joining the Houston Oilers in 1980. He and quarterback Ken Stabler were traded to the Oilers to help Bum Phillips “Kick In The Door” which was the slogan used that year. Ironically they didn’t face Pittsburgh in the playoffs, instead they lost in Oakland to the Raiders in the 1980 AFC Wildcard Game 27-7. For his 10 year career, he did intercept 37 passes with a high of 7 in the lone year he played in Houston. Yet it was the fierce way he hit that brought Tatum his notoriety.

Prologue: However fame and memory of his play has been purposely obscured by NFL Films selectively after the event where Darryl Stingley was paralyzed. For every fearsome defender that has come through the NFL, there are videos of these tough players, many of which we feature here, yet Tatum is a glaring omission. Contrary to popular belief he did try to see Darryl Stingley while he was in the hospital in Oakland but the family turned him away. John Madden chronicles it in one of his books. Former Ohio St teammate John Hicks said Stingley’s paralysis had an affect on Jack Tatum, saying he became a recluse.

Tatum would have looked sick in a black helmet.

He seemed to be be caught between the tough guy persona and the humanity that did lie within. He’s been quoted from his book They Call Me Assassin that ”I like to believe that my best hits border on felonious assault.” Trying to capitalize on his bad boy persona since that was what he had to go off of in future years. We don’t know what was said to Jack Tatum by the Stingley family that night in that hospital. Yet defensive players using hyperbole to describe what they perceive as the perfect hit isn’t anything new. In the Soul of the Game article with Dick Butkus, he describes a scene from Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte. Where he describes how a decapitated head rolls down the stairs and he liked to project those things happening (to his opponent) on the football field.

In other writings and videos we celebrate the over the top intensity and meanness of an Ed Sprinkle, a “Bulldog” Turner, a Wilber Marshall, a Hardy Brown, a Cliff Harris, a “Mean” Joe Greene, a “Mad Dog” Mike Curtis, or what about the comments and actions of a one Jack Lambert?? None of these men were asked to apologize for the way they played nor should they have to. Well, neither should Jack Tatum. The question remains: Did  Jack Tatum handle the whole situation with Darryl Stingley the right way?? In my opinion he could have done more to make amends with him but it’s not up to me to be the complete judge on all that took place. Again we don’t know what was said between the Stingley family to him that fateful night. Understand I’m not trying to make the villain into the victim, but it’s high time that someone says something in Tatum’s defense. Quit treating him like a pariah, almost like he didn’t exist.

From THE Ohio State University, Jack Tatum!! RIP

Ronnie Lott, Kenny Easley, Todd Bell, Dennis Smith, Dennis Thurman, Leonard Smith and the generation of NFL Safeties that came onto the scene as he was retiring patterned much of their game after his. On July 27, 2010, Jack Tatum passed away, but the way he played lives on as the generation who saw him play share memories of him with grandchildren like a Paul Bunyan type. There isn’t a lot of footage on him so the stories have to be told of how he was such a hitter. Well he was an intimidating performer and definitely a Soul of the Game defender.

Dedicated to the memory of Jack Tatum (November 18, 1948 – July 27, 2010)

RIP Darryl Stingley (September 18, 1951 – April 5, 2007)

RIP Rob Lytle (November 12, 1954 – November 20, 2010)

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“I know it didn’t take Wilson long to beat him out,” John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. “I was shocked that (Seahawks coach) Pete Carroll made Russell Wilson the starting quarterback (so quickly)… He saw something very, very early either in Russell Wilson that he liked, which I would guess, or he saw something in (Flynn) that he didn’t like.”

Will Carson Palmer have a better chance at success with the Cardinals than with the Raiders?

“(The Cardinals) are in a tough division now,” Madden said. “You put San Francisco and Seattle in there and even the Rams with Arizona, Arizona can be a little better (than the Raiders), but they still look like a fourth place division team to me.” (7:30)

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