I'll never forget watching the 1993 NFC Championship Game...Cowboys vs. 49'ers at then Candlestick Park. I wasn't there in person, but John Madden made me feel like I was.

The Cowboys went on to beat San Francisco and advance to the first of their three Super Bowls in the mid-90's. And it was Madden in the booth who put the perfect capper on that game, when he declared that the Cowboys had now become the team to beat in the NFL. It was like listening to someone in power annoint his next successor.

John Madden put the punctuation on the Cowboys' defining moment of the 92-93 season. Cowboy fans had to smile, with deep satisfaction.

Since then, some of the Cowboys' greatest moments have had Madden along for the ride. And we, the fan, have been all the better because of it. He wasn't perfect by any stretch; he had a preference for overstating the obvious and oversimplifying some of the game's finer points. But he had a gift for bluntness and for removing all sugarcoating from the action.

With Madden, what you saw was always what you got. No bull. No artifice. It was like watching the game from the sidelines, with a true coach's perspective.

No one appreciated the game more. When Emmitt Smith shook off a separated shoulder to help the Cowboys clinch the NFC East in January of '94, it was Madden who declared it the single gutsiest performance he had ever seen. If the man had any football allegiances, he never showed it in the booth.

He was the consummate professional. And one Cowboy fans will certainly miss.

2 Comments

jerry leeth said:

John Madden is that special someone who you always wanted calling the shots for your team.Us cowboy fans will miss him for sure.

April 16, 2009 9:49 PM

Richard said:

It want be the same, I'm going to have a hard time watching the game which Madden were suppose to call. Want be the same.

April 17, 2009 6:34 AM

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