Slow and Easy Is the Madden Way to Travel

Super Bowl television commentator John Madden spent last week traveling by train across the country. He arrived in the Bay Area on Thursday and drove to Los Angeles Friday.

Madden was accompanied on the train trip by several newspaper reporters and, for part of the way, by a couple of television crews.

Meanwhile, Pat Summerall, Madden’s broadcast partner, quietly flew from his home in Florida to Los Angeles on Friday.

Summerall, asked if he’d ever taken a train ride with Madden, said no, but that he did take a bus ride with him once a couple of years ago.

“We were working a preseason game in Cincinnati and had another one two nights later in Green Bay,” Summerall said. “So CBS chartered a bus for the crew. Actually, it was one of those fancy motor coaches, complete with a master bedroom in the back. Of course, John ended up in the bedroom.

“We left Cincinnati at midnight and went straight to the Packers’ training camp, arriving at 10 a.m. the next day. We had a meeting at 1 p.m. with Bart Starr and that’s when we noticed John wasn’t around.

“It turned out he was still on the bus, sleeping. I went and woke him up and asked how he slept.

“John said, ‘It was a rough trip there for a while, but the end was really smooth.’

“I said, ‘John, you’ve been sitting in the parking lot the past three hours.’ ”

Add Madden: He coached the Raiders to a 32-14 victory over Minnesota in Super Bowl XI, but he has become much more famous as a television personality.

“It’s sure nothing I planned, or even thought about,” he said. “You don’t sit down and say, ‘I’m going to do this and that and then this is what’s going to happen.’ ”

He said he enjoyed having the reporters along on the train ride. “I looked at it as good companionship,” he said.

But he said the demand for his time by many of the reporters in town this week to cover the Super Bowl does get a little trying. During interview sessions with the players, Madden often draws as much attention as anyone.

“What is hard for some of them to understand is I’m doing the same thing they are,” he said. “I’m out there collecting information. I’m working, too.”

Madden will spend part of the week finishing up a Super Bowl television special. The one-hour syndicated show, creatively named “John Madden’s Super Bowl Special,” is a GGP Sports production.

It will be televised by more than 150 stations, including Channel 2 in Los Angeles, on Saturday night, Super Bowl Eve. Air time here is 7 p.m.

“It’s your basic preview show,” Madden said. “We’ll take a look at the coaches and all aspects of the game. We’ll have (Jimmy) the Greek on there and Howie Long. We’ll have all kinds of stuff.”

Giants are here: The New York Giants were greeted by several hundred cheering fans Sunday afternoon when they arrived at Long Beach Airport.

None of the fans, who were dressed in a variety of Giant jerseys and jackets, were allowed near the players. The Giants went directly from their plane to a bus for the 30-minute drive to their hotel in Costa Mesa.

Running back Tony Galbreath, caught up in the mood of hoopla, came off the plane with his video camera rolling, getting tape of the crowd as well as his teammates.

The Giants will practice at Rams Park in Anaheim.

Broncos are coming: The Denver Broncos will leave the snow of Denver and arrive in Newport Beach today for their final week of practice.

Coach Dan Reeves gave the players Sunday off--although they attended a pep rally at Mile High Stadium--and the Broncos also will not practice today.

Only three Denver players missed practices last week. Linebacker Karl Mecklenburg suffered a hyperextended knee in the win over Cleveland but is expected to play in the Super Bowl. Offensive linemen Mark Cooper (sore foot) and Keith Bishop (strained hamstring) are expected to return to practice by mid-week.

Birthday boy: Today is Reeves’ 43rd birthday, and he’ll celebrate it with the team tonight in Newport Beach.

This will be Reeves’ sixth Super Bowl appearance. He went to five Super Bowls as a player or assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys.

Reeves told Denver writers last week that his experience in such a big game with big hype will give him an advantage over Giant Coach Bill Parcells, making his first Super Bowl appearance.

“You can talk to somebody about (Super Bowl pressure) but you never know until you experience it,” Reeves said.

Said Reeves’ old coach, Dallas’ Tom Landry: “Dan’s been there before, as a player and assistant coach. He doesn’t need any advice from me. I’m really excited for him. It makes you feel good when someone you coached is successful and gets into the Super Bowl.”

For the record, Reeves is 2-1 in Super Bowls as an assistant coach. In Super Bowl X (1976), the Cowboys lost to Pittsburgh. In Super Bowl XII (1978), the Cowboys beat Denver. And in Super Bowl XIII (1979), the Cowboys again lost to Pittsburgh.

Add pressure: Madden says preparing for a Super Bowl as a coach and preparing for one as a broadcaster is entirely different.

“The good thing about being a broadcaster is you don’t have to worry about losing,” he said.

A nice place to visit: Bronco officials didn’t wait long to check out their accommodations in Southern California. Last Monday, the morning after Denver defeated Cleveland to win the AFC Championship, seven Bronco executives came to town and inspected the facilities at UC Irvine, where they will practice, and the Newporter Inn, where they will stay.

The Bronco advance party apparently liked it so much that all but publicity director Jim Saccomano decided to stay the week and meet the team when its arrives today.

Elway’s rose garden: Auto racing P.A. announcer M.R. (Rosie) Rosenlof writes to say Denver quarterback John Elway did very well in two previous appearances at the Rose Bowl.

Rosenlof was the P.A. announcer for the 1979 Shrine Game at the Rose Bowl, when Elway led the North all-stars over the South, 35-13. Elway, according to Rosenlof, completed 23 of 37 passes, both Shrine Game records, and threw for four touchdowns, tying Vince Ferragamo’s Shrine Game record.

When Elway’s Stanford team lost to UCLA, 38-35, at the Rose Bowl in 1982, Elway completed 29 of 39 passes for 352 yards and two touchdowns.

Awards dinner: Among the many activities during Super Bowl week will be the NFL Alumni’s fifth annual Player of the Year Awards dinner Saturday night at the Century Plaza Hotel.

Eleven awards will be presented by former NFL coach Weeb Ewbank. Broadcasters Charlie Jones, Merlin Olsen and Ray Scott will serve as masters of ceremonies. Dionne Warwick headlines the entertainment, together with Les Brown and His Band of Renown.

The $1,000-per-person affair will benefit the Los Angeles Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. For information, call dinner coordinator Dore’ Patlian at (213) 413-4400.

Attendance is up: The NFL reported regular-season paid attendance in 1986 was 13,582,141 for an average of 60,635 for 224 games, the second-highest in the league’s 67-year history.

It is only the second time that the average as exceeded 60,000.

Regular-season attendance records were set in 1981, when the total was 13,606,745 and the average 60,745.

For the record: Reader Jeff Gerbino of North Hollywood writes to correct a recent list that appeared on The Times’ “Day in Sports” page. In listing Super Bowl champions who didn’t make the playoffs the following year, the New York Jets were erroneously included.

The Jets won the 1969 Super Bowl, upsetting the Baltimore Colts, and the following season won the American Football League’s Eastern Division. They played the Kansas City Chiefs, the second-place team in the Western Division, in the first round of the playoffs and lost, 13-6.

Kansas City went on to beat Oakland, 17-7, in the AFL championship and Minnesota, 23-7, in the Super Bowl.