John Madden Getting Sick of Riding Old Bones Across Country in a Bus to Cover Crappy Games

The Washington Post has just reported that NFL broadcasting stalwart John Madden will miss his first week blabbering about football for the first time in 476 games. He's not gravely ill and not planning on retiring soon either, so the Frank Caliendo suicide watch is also put off indefinitely. No, the 72-year-old Madden insists the week off is more "circumstantial" than anything else and, instead, he will be at home in the Bay Area spending time with his five grandchildren doing grandfatherly things.There is no specific reason as to why Madden will miss the game — more "circumstantial" than anything else, the article says. Plus Madden says it was "discussed" prior to this season with NBC rep Dick Ebersol and apparently this was good enough a week for NBC not to spend thousands of dollars in gas money on Madden's personalized "Too Chickenshit to Fly" mobile to get the big guy to Florida. Instead, Cris Collinsworth will fill-in, leading to the obvious speculation that he'll be the eventual heir to the Madden throne. But Collinsworth says that's not in his future plans and he has no desire to fly around the country every weekend covering football games because he likes watching his kids grow up. Also, Collinsworth is allergic to Turducken and suffered gran mal seizure the last time he used a telestrater. Madden's Broadcasting Streak to End at 476 Games [WaPo]