ON THE DL

Tony Kornheiser Talks John Madden, Passover, American Idol and Podcasts

Tony Kornheiser joins the show and we debate if he was a day late, or if my expectations are too great for people who say they’ll come on the show at a specific time. We also talk about Passover and wonder if it’s already over or if it ends tonight. Either way, I’m still eating matzah and Tony had bread earlier today. So somebody’s an idiot (hint: try eating matzah for a week...it’s me).

We start with Tony’s reaction to the news of John Madden’s retirement. Tony talks about the fact that Madden has made millions upon millions of dollars doing work, not just in the booth, but on video games and Ace Hardware ads and other ventures. And if he feels, at 73 years old, that it’s time to hang up his microphone then he hangs it up as one of the two best color analysts of all time.

“If you’re John Madden -- and let me state this clearly so it’s not taken out of context -- if you’re John Madden and you are the most popular, certainly the most popular, and in my mind, along with Howard Cosell, the greatest color commentator in any sport of all time...then all praise to you whenever you decide that you don’t want to keep rolling across the country.

“Madden is so adept and so wise at seeing what the public wants. He’s so much smarter than people give him credit for because they think he’s sort of a nice guy, but sort of a loud bull-in-a-china-shop buffoon kind of guy. He’s brilliant. He’s brilliant, John Madden. He really is. And I would say nothing but praising words when I talked about John Madden. And he decides that’s it for him, God bless him.”

We also reference the recent question at the Washington Post asking who the voice of the NFL is. The question was in response to the passing of Harry Kalas, but could the answer be John Madden? I had said it was Steve Sabol, and Tony reflects on the brilliance of Sabol as well.

Last week, Tony put out on the an idea of doing a podcast, 3-4 times a week, and charging $.10 per show. Would this work? Would people listen? Would Tony be able to embrace new technology? Would I somehow be involved in the process? These things are all discussed. And the answer to most is....no. Especially the last one, it seems.

Yes, I complain that Tony doing a podcast would pilfer my audience. He seems to think there is enough room for everyone. Let’s hope he does it, and let’s hope he’s right.

A few more things we discuss, including Pirates! And Cats invading Citi Field. Clearly this is part of the animal revolution.

Early this week, Tony brought up the fact that he had some skin treatments done recently. With Bob Ryan filling in for Wilbon in part this week, I thought it pertinent to talk about doing TV with skin issues (Bob looks great now, by the way). This leads to the question of why PTI isn’t in HD. There is no reason.

Last, sort of - there are some random things Tony brings up later like Padraig Harrington’s ball moving and other stories he’d spend much time on if he had his own podcast - we talk about Idol.

First, the anti-climactic “Save” that was used last night to keep Matt on the show. Clearly it was being used this week, because if not, they’d have to save Anoop or Lil next week, and neither of us think they’d do that. And you can’t have a save and not use it.

We debate the merits of the remaining contestants and Tony thinks I’m heartless for insinuating that Fox is playing up the death of Danny Gokey’s wife in order to get him votes - that his story is better than his signing. We also talk about who can win, who shouldn’t be there anymore and how terrible the show is when Simon isn’t talking. What an absolute blunder this week was, and I ask how doing live TV for as long as those people have, how can they always miss their time? Always.

Thanks for indulging this week. Tough week ends on a high note with Mr. Tony.