Madden & Summerall

How They Revolutionized NFL Broadcasting

De: Rich Podolsky, Troy Aikman - foreword, Joe Buck - foreword

Narrado por: Tim H. Dixon

Madden & Summerall tells the inside story of how two unlikely partners became the greatest broadcast duo in NFL history.

This is the story of how John Madden and Pat Summerall got to CBS and, although very different, how they became the greatest broadcast team of all time. It is told by Rich Podolsky, who worked alongside them both at CBS.

Separately, they were great. Together, they were the greatest ever. Madden & Summerall is about two stalwarts of the game, but their story is not without controversy. Summerall was a five-sport star who became a broadcaster by accident. Uncharacteristically, he was a morning drive-time radio host before he found his path on TV. Madden was a bigger-than-life Super Bowl-winning coach, and he easily could have been a stand-up comedian.

We all remember the great storytelling John Madden, who won sixteen Emmy Awards, but we don’t remember how much he struggled his first two years on the air to find his way. In fact, he was almost fired after his first season. It wasn’t until he was paired with Summerall that it all clicked. They were so different, yet so perfect together—like peanut butter meeting jelly for the first time.

The book follows the intimate stories of their lives from childhood to death: before and during their great twenty-one-year partnership. Never-before-told insider stories (some fun, some scathing) from friends, family members, and dozens of ex-colleagues pepper these chapters.

©2025 Rich Podolsky (P)2025 Lyons Press

Probably Not What You Are Expecting

Like most people, I loved listening to Pat Summerall and John Madden (especially Madden) call NFL games.

The subtitle: "How They Revolutionized NFL Broadcasting" suggests that the book will be full of entertaining anecdotes about their broadcasts. Well, you won't get much of that.

This book is really a fairly standard and somewhat plodding biography of Pat and John. There are interesting moments, but much more of the story is about the pair's contractual details and also about network deals with the NFL. This is mildly interesting, but is spiked with granular details about the biographies of the characters making the deals or, sometimes, directing the broadcasts. There are a LOT of these detours.

It also does not help that the author repeats information throughout the book. A good editor would have pruned a lot of this baggage.

Is it a terrible book? No. Is it a good book? No. Is it a decent book? Yeah. Is it what you expected from the title and subtitle? Probably not.