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Whether you’ve watched football or not for the last 25 years, you’ve heard the name John Madden. Even those that call him Steve Madden know who he is and could probably muster a decent impression, although it’s probably just yelling “BOOM” inordinately loud. Every sports media outlet, even his competitors, are airing more tributes and retrospectives than if the man had actually died. So why has one announcer made such an impact?

Before Madden football announcers (outside of the controversial Howard Cosell) were just background noise, adding or subtracting nothing from the action. They were neutral at best and the aim appeared to be allowing the action to speak for itself. That all changed when John Madden put the color in color commentary with his partner Pat Summerall. His knowledge, passion for the game and everyman appeal were impossible to conceal and officially ushered in the era of the sports personality. While his contribution may be responsible for creating the logjam of mediocre imitators in the booth and possibly spawned the unnecessarily grating ESPN anchor that make themselves bigger than the story, Madden’s unique legacy is nothing short of remarkable. He never devolved into schtick like once popular Chris Berman, even though his style remained familiar. Even as he aged, his zeal was always fresh. The fact he lent his image to the most popular video game series not involving Italian plumbers and inter-dimensional transport only extends his timelessness, as it exposed Madden to a brand new generation and launched a new avenue for branding.

This may not be Madden’s final ride. As we know, retirement for celebrities and athletes is to be taken with a grain of salt. However, I wouldn’t plan to have Turducken on the Thanksgiving menu this year.

What will you always remember about John Madden?

Image via Wikipedia

Drew Carey certainly has no qualms about taking on long standing American traditions. First, he replaces Bob Barker on the best game show and steadfast sick day delight in TV history, The Price is Right. Now he’s attempting to revolutionize fan participation in sports: 

Carey also got his wish: Sounders FC fans will be able to vote to fire the club’s general manager.

“I don’t know why anybody would not want this for their team. I think it’s the greatest idea,” said Carey, who still sounds more like a typical frustrated sports fan than a part-owner of a professional team.

“You vote for a president; you vote for mayor. I don’t know why you shouldn’t be able to vote for the general manager of your local sports team.”

via Drew Carey full of ideas as owner in MLS – MLS – Yahoo! Sports.

Carey got the idea while visiting Barcelona and was inspired to bring the idea back to America as a manner of fan empowerment. It seems to be a perfect time for the idea, considering the recent groundswell of individual empowerment. Record numbers turned out for both the Primaries and the Presidential election. Reality shows that factor viewers into the decision-making process like American Idol are extremely popular. Internet technology has allowed for anyone to build their own circle of influence. So why couldn’t this work for sports?

On top increasing fan participation, it would add incentive to purchase season tickets or make a financial contribution to the team, which is especially important for teams desperate for revenue. Sadly, Sounders’ fans won’t have the opportunity to vote until 2012 when their current General Manager’s term is up… unless they have the power to adjust term limits.

Image via Wikipedia

Ever received a friend request from a woman with an inviting picture but a conspicuous profile on your favorite social networking site? It could be scam, or you could just be collateral damage in an NFL covert operation to vet draft picks.

The twist? These women don’t actually exist, at least not in the way that some unsuspecting NFL prospects are led to believe. Indeed, they are a figment of one NFL team’s imagination – a phony Facebook profile, used as a tool by one franchise in the pre-draft vetting process. A Trojan horse that, when used effectively, unlocks a door to a world of Internet pictures and information which most NFL teams are now consistently compiling to help polish their dossiers on draft picks.

 

“It works like magic,” said a personnel source that was familiar with his team’s tactic of using counterfeit profiles to link to Facebook and Myspace pages of potential draft picks. The source directed Yahoo! Sports to one of the team’s “ghost profiles” – a term he coined because “once the draft is over, they disappear. It’s like they were never there.”

via Social networking a potential trap for prospects – NFL – Yahoo! Sports.

While not as prevalent on Facebook (yet), anyone with a MySpace account has almost certainly received a friend request from a fake profile that uses an alluring picture as bait. For most average people, it’s pretty easy to spot a profile like this because they only get requests from people they actually know, and not random attractive women that want to connect with them. 

It’s a little different for an NFL-caliber talent, who have been receiving disingenuous friend requests online and in real life since middle school. An impossibly beautiful woman contacting you out of the blue isn’t a foreign concept, especially when you likely received similar treatment during your recruitment. That kind of experience dulls the somewhat innate skepticism that sounds the “too good to be true” alarm for regular guys. For high profile athletes, very few things fall into that category.

What do you think of the NFL’s strategy? Share your input in the comments.

One of the major acceptable prejudices still pervasive in our society is based on sexuality. Being gay or lesbian still is not accepted by and large. Which makes the story of this anonymous college football player all the more interesting.

‘Tim’ is the pseudonym for a gay Division I college football kicker. Outsports has verified his identity and we have allowed his story to be told anonymously because we feel it is an important one to tell.

via Gay college football player fits in well on his team.

The assumption about the testosterone filled locker room, particularly in a sport like football, would be that his teammates would reject him or at the very least disapprove of his sexuality. However, it seems to be quite the opposite.

This modicum of protection isn’t just because Tim is good at his sport, it also comes from genuine gay-positive sentiment. “My uncle is gay,” Tim recalls one of his teammates telling him. “I’ve got no problems with it.” Apparently, nobody else on the team does either. Tim has received no homophobic harassment and says he has never been harassed by anyone for being gay.

Perhaps we’ve underestimated the macho culture of American football. But why is “Tim’s” experience so drastically different from what people expect? The answer is simple: competition. As the stakes continue to rise for programs, the desire to win becomes even more paramount which may inadvertenly destroy the barriers between teammates. When a group of people begins to focus on a much larger goal the differences, both major and minor, simply fade away.

Undoubtedly there are many closeted athletes that have had a vastly different experience than “Tim’s.” However, this may be a harbinger of progress that brings hope to future generations living in a more progressive society.

Sure economic times are bad, but does the NFL have to resort to this?

Monetize. That was the buzzword for NFL owners in search of creative new revenue streams in these economically-challenged times.

Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones, a member of the league’s business ventures committee, said the league is exploring the possibility of having sponsor logos worn unobtrusively on practice jerseys. In addition to receiving a four-year, $4 billion extension from DirecTV and investigating relaxing rules against liquor and lottery sponsorships, the practice jersey sponsor logos were addressed at the three-day owners’ meetings that concluded Wednesday. Further discussion will be held at the league’s May meetings in Fort Lauderdale.

“It would be similar to logos worn on pro soccer jerseys,” Jones said.

via NFL might consider sponsors’ logos on practice uniforms – The Huddle – USATODAY.com.

If the league does pursue this monetization strategy, I hope they take it to the extreme and have companies sponsor individual players and coaches ala NASCAR. This could lead to some of the most humorous product pairings in the history of advertising. TO and Orville Redenbacher. Donovan McNabb and U-haul. What are some of the other humorous NFL ad pairings you can think of?