In the quiet of June, NFL news can become sporadic and unreliable at best. Typically, injury news and the occasional player arrest is all we hear about. Last week, however, NFL fans got some big news. Whether you think it’s good or not is open to debate.

NBC recently signed a deal to televise NFL Sunday night games, making what they see as a “huge” addition to their broadcast. They have acquired legendary coach and commentator John Madden to call those Sunday night games. NBC is also looking to add Al Michaels to complete this coup and have what they feel to be an all-star commentary team.

Will it work out? I don’t know, I won’t be watching.

While ratings don’t necessarily lie, and Madden’s popularity is undeniable, for some football fans like myself, it is more enjoyable to watch an NFL game on mute than listen to Madden’s inane blubbering for four hours.

I have no hard feelings against John Madden, the person. From what I understand, he was a great football coach and seems to be a very likable guy. Unfortunately, what America loves does not necessarily mean greatness (see also: the Chicago Cubs). From a strictly analytical standpoint, Madden is among the most intolerable personalities possibly in all of sports.

Madden has always been, in my eyes, a master of the obvious. He has an incredible knack for repeating himself, repeating what his co-anchor says and stating the obvious. While some people might find this charming, and certainly could be helpful to someone who isn’t much of a football fan, as a dedicated football fan, Madden routinely insults my intelligence.

Another annoying Maddenism is his propensity to pick a favorite player and babble incessantly about how great he is (any Bears or Vikings fans out there will nod with me at the man’s love affair with Brett Favre) or overplay the importance of a particular player. In fact, when I was fairly young, I decided I would count how many times Madden mentioned Deion Sanders in one telecast. The number was in the 20s, yet I don’t remember Sanders making any spectacular plays that day.

Next on the list, arguably most important, is voice quality. Madden actually sounds like his mouth is full when he talks, and when he gets excited, his speech tends to slur in an indescribable and somewhat horrifying manner. Even if Madden had something relevant to say, I can’t hear it.

Lastly, and this almost seems like an afterthought, is Madden’s prattle about food and all other things edible. OK, we get it, you are a big guy, and you like to eat. But what exactly does that have to do with football?

There is a silver lining here, however, for fans of the Madden video game series. Electronic Arts, who develops and publishes these games, has signed an exclusive deal with the NFL to produce games with the NFL license. After this season, Madden will no longer be affiliated with ABC/ESPN, which recently inked a deal with EA. If we are lucky, EA will use this turn of events to ditch Madden altogether and use ESPN’s team of Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann and Paul Maguire who are, in my opinion, probably the best commentary team on television.