John Madden returns to television -- for an interview

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John Madden’s big ‘boom’ isn’t going to be a part of our Sunday night NFL football broadcasts anymore. Madden has retired the Madden Cruiser and is watching football on television like most of the rest of us.

But Madden is making a guest appearance Thursday on the NFL Network when former coach and now NFL Network analyst Steve Mariucci chats with Madden on the NFL All Access show.

Also on Thursday’s show Deion Sanders does a one-on-one interview with Pittsburgh Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin. It’s just hard to think of Sanders asking the deep, probing, journalistic questions though.

And, here’s a surprise. On Friday, the network will feature highlights of Brett Favre’s Viking debut (Minnesota against Kansas City). This brings to mind those old ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketches done from a fictional Chicago bar in which fictional Bears fans would argue about how would Mike Ditka do if he had to coach a team thay only had five guys instead of 11, or if Ditka had to coach against a hurricane (he’d win until it was discovered the hurricane was named Hurricane Ditka), etc. This week has had the feel of, ‘So how would Brett Favre do if he never practiced and played against the world?’ Why, he’d win the Super Bowl of course!

-- Diane Pucin