When Detroit Tigers legend and Baseball Hall of Famer Al Kaline passed away in December of 2020, we heard many tales of just how much respect he had for the art of the game. Take, for instance, the praise that actor Jeff Daniels had for his childhood hero and how that transcended baseball and inspired Daniels' acting career.
“As I grew older and went through acting and the industry, there’s Hollywood and commercialization of being an actor,” Daniels said. “Then there’s the art of it and the respect you have for those who came before you who were great and those who will came after. You find a place for yourself in the midst of all these great actors from before you and now.
“It was the same thing with baseball. Kaline had such a respect for the game. The game was bigger than he was. And you don’t always see that today whether it’s in baseball or movies or acting or Hollywood or in politics. And he had a respect for the game that he carried with him. He was certainly aware that he was on everyone’s version of the Detroit Tigers’ Mount Rushmore, but he always looked you in the eye; he never made you look up to him. He had such class, such elegance and such a respect for a game that was bigger than he was. And I didn’t realize that until later.”
Around a year later, another legend of his sport passed away after a long, influential life and career that impacted millions of fans. Here, we're talking about NFL icon John Madden, who died earlier this week. Much of the same that was said about Kaline's respect for the game and humility around others is transferrable to Madden, as we've heard in a number of memories, including one from Sunday Night Football executive producer Fred Gaudelli.
Sports media podcast host Richard Deitsch invited Gaudelli on his show to discuss Madden's legendary career, and Deitsch brought up a little-known story that dates back to the early 2010s.
"This is 2014. You told me that when NBC gained the rights to broadcast the Thanksgiving prime time game during the 2012 season — so you're talking to me two years after this happened — you, Drew (Esocoff), Al (Michaels) and Cris (Collinsworth) invited John Madden to an Italian restaurant in the North Beach section of San Francisco," Deitsch recalled to Gaudelli. "And you were basically going there with a secret plan, that we're going to try to convince him to come out of retirement to call one game, either on Thanksgiving night or... a game near his home."
Essentially, the idea called for a one-and-done-type special occasion in which arguably the greatest sports broadcaster in history would return on the biggest stage for one game, making it more of a must-watch event than it already was and giving Madden another chance to shine. But what was his answer? Quite simply, no.
"...He shot it down in about five seconds," Gaudelli said. "You know, 'hey, I'm retired, I don't do this anymore. You guys do it every single week, I have too much respect for what you do to think that I could just drop in here and, you know, be part of the broadcast... I had my time, it's your time, and thank you but no thank you,' was basically how it went."
True greats of different sports and industries recognize when their time has come and gone — we saw Drew Brees turn down the Saints' emergency QB offer this past week because he thought the team had a better chance without him — and it sounds like Madden was content with the stage of life he had been in.
Just another example of someone who truly respected, and was respected by, the game he loved most.
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