Madden Set to Pack Bus : His Season Will End Sunday; He Might Be Headed to Fox

The old stories. The smoked turkeys on Thanksgiving Day. The jokes. Riding in the back of Pat Summerall’s pickup truck. The Friday night poker games. Hanging out around the bus.

These were the memory flashes John Madden was having as he prepared for CBS’ final NFL game.

After 13 years in the same booth, America’s most beloved sportscasting team, Madden and Summerall, apparently will move on to the Fox network after the NFC championship game today between San Francisco and Dallas.

Until this week, Madden hadn’t really thought about it. He was consumed with the football. Then, it dawned on him.

“I’m starting to get that feeling,” Madden said just a couple of days before the final game. “And it’s the first time I’ve had it. It’s not going to be easy.”

It’s all Fox’s fault. Last month, the 7-year-old network outbid CBS for the NFC portion of the NFL contract, and CBS was out of the NFL business, for at least four years. The NFL’s original network, which had done games since 1956, was consigned to four years of Sunday golf or basketball or some such.

“We did this game in Dallas earlier this year,” Madden recalled as he began to recognize the finality of today’s broadcast for the first time. “We were going to a Mexican restaurant, and Pat had his pickup truck. We all got in the back, and Pat was in front driving.

“I mean, I’m sitting in that back where I had some stuff hanging out. And I kind of thought at the time, ‘This is how it should be. Maybe this is what the whole thing is all about, the back of Pat Summerall’s pickup truck. It doesn’t get a whole lot better than that.”’

While Madden’s been riding around in Summerall’s pickup, Barry Frank of IMG, his agent, was trying to stir up a bidding war involving Fox, ABC and NBC. It culminated Thursday when the two announcers agreed to accept offers from Fox. Madden reportedly agreed to a $30-million, four-year contract.

The rumors had Madden going just about everywhere but Nickelodeon. Madden had said he was waiting until the season’s over to decide.

“I haven’t got into that. For some reason, it’s hard to believe, I know, but this is the most fun part of the season for me, and I’m not going to get into what I’m going to do after,” Madden said. “I want to enjoy what I’m doing right now.”

When the season is over, he’ll now make his move quickly.

“You know, the two Q’s--quickly and quietly,” Madden said. “I don’t know--because I’ve never done this before . . . And it is the unknown out there for me.”

CBS gave Madden his first broadcast home in 1979 right after he left as coach of the Oakland Raiders. His first year, Madden worked with a different play-by-play partner almost every weekend. He even got to work once with Summerall because Tom Brookshire had to go to his daughter’s wedding.

“My second year, 1980, I worked with Gary Bender the entire season. My third year, 1981, was my first with Pat, and we’ve been together ever since,” Madden said.

“The memories I have of being with Pat? Hell, he’s just the greatest guy,” Madden said. “It’s like I told somebody the other day. Pat wears well. The Friday night poker games, the stories Pat always tells about his grandaddy, sitting in that pickup truck, riding the bus. I know I’m rambling. And Pat bringing those smoked turkeys on Thanksgiving. All those things. Those are just Pat Summerall. That’s kind of what it’s all about.”

Madden is sure what the future is all about, at least for the next four years.

He also knows, “I’ll be covering football. I know that’s what I’m going to be doing. It’s the people you miss,” he said.

People like producer Bob Stenner and director Sandy Grossman, who have been doing NFL games on CBS together for 35 years, and all the technicians and cameramen and researchers and assistant directors and producers.

“We’ve been through a lot of things together and a lot of practices and a lot of poker games and football games and booths and different situations,” Madden said of Summerall.

“It would be hard to picture myself not standing next to Pat Summerall.”