Fox Hires Madden; Salary Could Be $8 Million

Is John Madden worth $8 million per year? Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of the Fox television network, apparently thinks so.

As expected, it was announced Monday that Madden will be Fox’s lead football analyst beginning next season, and sources are now saying he got a four-year, $32-million contract. Initially, it was reported as a $30-million contract.

If the $32-million figure is right, he will make $325,000 per game . Few network analysts make that much a year.

Although Fox hasn’t announced it yet, Pat Summerall will join Madden at Fox and make about $2 million per year.

Ed Goren, a senior producer at CBS, also will join Fox as its executive producer of sports, sources say. Earlier, it was reported that producer Bob Stenner and director Sandy Grossman, who worked with Madden and Summerall at CBS, will move over to Fox as well.

Terry Bradshaw, appearing with Jay Leno on the “Tonight Show” Monday night, implied he is also going to Fox.

“There will be some news this week,” Bradshaw said. “I’m going to have a gig--you could say it’s the littlest network. There’s a strong possibility I could bump into John Madden.”

However, a source said Bradshaw may be headed for NBC.

David Hill, the president of Fox’s new sports division, would not comment on future hires, saying: “This is John’s day.”

Of Madden, Hill said: “We not only wanted him, we needed him. If, as we say, we’re going to put on the best football telecasts, then we need the best football analyst.”

Madden said he met with Murdoch the night after the Cowboys and New York Giants closed the regular season.

At that time, Murdoch reportedly offered Madden a yearly salary $4 million. Later, there were reports that Madden would spurn the Fox offer in order to work “Monday Night Football” for ABC at $2.5 million a year.

Last week, NBC made a $5 million offer to Madden. A source said half of that would be for serving as a spokesman for General Electric, which owns NBC. Then Fox doubled its offer.