John Madden is stepping away from his 30-year role at TV analyst for NFL games. His spot at NBC will go to Cris Collinsworth.







JOHN MADDEN FACTS

Born: April 10, 1936 in Austin, Minnesota.



Grew up: Daly City, Calif.

Football honors: Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2006.

Colleges as player: San Mateo Junior College, California Polytechnic San Luis Obispo.

College career: Played both ways and made All-Conference team in 1957-58 at Cal Poly.


Pro playing career: Selected by Philadelphia Eagles in 21st round in 1958, but suffered career-ending knee injury as rookie.



Head coaching tenure: Oakland Raiders 1969-1978 (Raiders assistant 1967-68).



NFL coaching highlight: Super Bowl XI (1977).



NFL coaching record: Regular season -103-32-7; Postseason - 9-7 (.759 regular-season winning percentage highest among coaches with 100 victories).

Broadcast stops: CBS, Fox, ABC, NBC as NFL analyst.



Known for: The All-Madden Team, a squad of NFL players who played the game the way he envisioned it should be played. (1984-2001)



Also known for: Miller Lite and Ace Hardware commercials, EA Sports' Madden video game.

Also known for II: Traveling from assignment to assignment by bus on the Madden Cruiser.



The NFL on television will have a different look and sound next season with the retirement of John Madden, who is stepping away from NBC in favor of Cris Collinsworth.
"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 ... much. "I enjoyed the game and the players and the coaches and the film and the travel and everything."

The retirement is not over health concerns, according to NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol and Sandy Montag, Madden's agent.

Ebersol said Madden, 73, recently had "his best physical in years" and that good health "actually propelled him in this direction even more."