The impact of John Madden and Pat Summerall on today's NFL broadcasting
Sports Media with Richard Deitsch
Audacy
4.5 • 757 Ratings
🗓️ 18 September 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode 546 of the Sports Media Podcast features Rich Podolsky, the author of “Madden & Summerall How They Revolutionized NFL Broadcasting.” In this podcast, Podolsky discussed the process of writing a book about John Madden and Pat Summerall; the beginning of Madden's broadcasting career and how he was mediocre at first on air; Madden working with Bob Costas when Costas was just 27; Madden getting the biggest break of his fledgling broadcasting career when he was paired with Summerall; how Vin Scully nearly became Madden's permanent partner; how Summerall's broadcasting career began; what the NFL Today was like in 1975, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the sports media podcast. I'm your host, Richard Dyche. My producer is Patrick Antonetti. |
| 0:18.4 | One guest on this episode, but he has written a really, really |
| 0:22.6 | interesting book, especially if you are sports media nerd. Rich Podolsky is the author of Madden and |
| 0:28.5 | Summerall, how they revolutionized NFL broadcasting. The forwards for this book are by Joe |
| 0:34.6 | Buck and Troy Aikman. It is out in stores slash where you get your books |
| 0:41.6 | online once you are hearing this. So head to Amazon, et cetera, especially if you are a fan |
| 0:48.8 | of NFL broadcasting. And Rich Berdowski worked for many, many years in this profession and wrote a fabulous book with just great insights into, you can make the argument the greatest broadcasting team of all time. |
| 1:03.5 | That's certainly a subjective viewpoint. |
| 1:06.5 | But they would have a legit argument to make on that. |
| 1:10.0 | And with that, I bring in Rich Podolsky. |
| 1:11.6 | Welcome. |
| 1:12.7 | Thank you. |
| 1:13.4 | Glad to be with you. |
| 1:14.4 | All right. |
| 1:15.0 | Let's first start here and give you sort of what is the usual NPR question. |
| 1:21.4 | Why did you write a book about two people who were last on the air in 2002 together? |
| 1:27.0 | I came off writing a book about the NFL today, |
| 1:30.8 | the history of the NFL today, four years ago. |
| 1:35.0 | And the death of my good friend, Phyllis George, |
| 1:38.8 | put me back in touch with a lot of former colleagues. |
| 1:42.5 | And I realized that that show meant an awful lot to |
| 1:47.1 | television and sports broadcasting. And it really was revolutionary in that it was the first |
... |
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