John Madden

Pat Summerall was “one of the card-carrying good guys,” and his death is “a damn shock,” said John Madden, his longtime partner in the broadcast booth. Summerall, 82, died Tuesday, Fox Sports spokesman Dan Bell confirmed. The Dallas Morning News reported that Summerall died in his room at Dallas' Zale Lipshy Hospital, where he was recovering from surgery for a broken hip. “He was so solid and a good friend and a real pro,” Madden told The Times in a telephone interview.

Sochi officials have announced that they hope to make their city safer and more appealing by killing more than 2,000 stray cats and dogs before the 2014 Winter Olympics, according to the RBC Daily newspaper. "It's obvious that there should be no animals on the streets," Sergei Krivonosov, a government official, told the paper. "We have responsibilities to the international community. Killing [strays] is just a faster way to solve this task. " Russian press has reported public protests in response to the announcement.

Welcome to plasma paradise. Nine massive flat-screen televisions with a cinema-quality movie screen in the middle. A different NFL game on each screen, with the sound coming from the big one in the middle. Plus seven experts, the fathers of nine NFL quarterbacks. Who but John Madden could watch football that way? Call the it what you like -- Hut-Hut Heaven, Sunday Click-It, Temple of BOOM! -- just don't call it the Man Cave. Not within earshot of Madden, at least.

With the death of Pat Summerall, sports broadcasting lost one of its great straight men. Summerall, who died Tuesday at age 82, played a decade in the NFL during the 1950s. But he was best known for his pairing with John Madden on TV, where the two redefined football game announcing for 22 seasons starting in 1981 on CBS and later on Fox.  Madden, a former coach, made for an expansive, excessive, endlessly voluble analyst, and Summerall provided his perfect play-by-play foil.

What if you could outsource retirement? "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" took a cast loaded with British talent - Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy among them - to India to find out. The fish-out-of-England romantic comedy did boffo business. With a $10-million budget, it has grossed more than $135 million worldwide since its May release, making it Fox Searchlight's highest-grossing specialty film of 2012. Director John Madden ("Shakespeare in Love,") and writer Ol Parker were in town recently to chat about the film, playing off each other like a seasoned comedy team.

With the death of Pat Summerall, sports broadcasting lost one of its great straight men. Summerall, who died Tuesday at age 82, played a decade in the NFL during the 1950s. But he was best known for his pairing with John Madden on TV, where the two redefined football game announcing for 22 seasons starting in 1981 on CBS and later on Fox.  Madden, a former coach, made for an expansive, excessive, endlessly voluble analyst, and Summerall provided his perfect play-by-play foil.

John Madden has answered to three names over the course of his five-decade career in the NFL. To the people who remember him leading the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl victory, he's Coach. To those who know him best as a broadcaster, he's John. And to Generation Xbox, he's Madden. But who is he now? Madden, 73, surprised the football world last month when he called it a career, retiring after 30 years in the broadcast booth -- and with three years remaining on his contract with NBC.

For more than a generation the avuncular John Madden was the principal voice of America's most popular game, professional football. In his more than 30 years as a broadcaster, the former coach turned announcer appeared on all four networks and was familiar to those old enough to remember his 1977 Super Bowl victory with the Oakland Raiders as to those young enough to tackle his bestselling video game.

Hall of Fame coach John Madden said Tuesday that he anticipates NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will hand out severe punishments in the wake of the so-called "pay for performance" bounty scandal of the New Orleans Saints. "When [Goodell] does something and he gets them -- and I don't know what the discipline is -- but I'll tell you what, when he puts some teeth in the rules or whatever he's going to do, it won't happen again," said Madden, who co-chairs the league's safety panel with former player Ronnie Lott.

I AM NOT John Madden's daughter. My name is Madden, and it's true that I grew up on the gridiron. My father was a college and professional football coach, and our family dressed in team colors of purple and white, cardinal and gold, orange and white. Family vacations often included detours to empty stadiums. "Look alive, kids," Dad would say. "That's where the Kansas City Chiefs play!" We moved every three or four years, my father forever seeking "the opportunity to win."

Sportscaster Pat Summerall, who teamed with John Madden for more than two decades on NFL telecasts, forming one of the best known announcing duos in TV history, has died. He was 82. His death was confirmed by Fox Sports spokesman Dan Bell, according to the Associated Press. No other details were immediately available. Summerall had been living in Southlake, Texas, in recent years. Known for his deep, resonant voice and a smooth, understated delivery that wasted no words, Summerall worked with Tom Brookshier on the NFL for CBS from 1975 and was paired with Madden in 1981.

Pat Summerall was “one of the card-carrying good guys,” and his death is “a damn shock,” said John Madden, his longtime partner in the broadcast booth. Summerall, 82, died Tuesday, Fox Sports spokesman Dan Bell confirmed. The Dallas Morning News reported that Summerall died in his room at Dallas' Zale Lipshy Hospital, where he was recovering from surgery for a broken hip. “He was so solid and a good friend and a real pro,” Madden told The Times in a telephone interview.

Pat Summerall, who was half of one of the best known announcing teams in television sportscasting history as John Madden's broadcasting partner for more than two decades of NFL games, has died. He was 82. Summerall, who lived in Southlake, Texas, died Tuesday at a Dallas hospital, where he was recovering from surgery for a broken hip. Fox Sports spokesman Dan Bell confirmed his death. Known for his deep, resonant voice and a smooth, understated delivery that wasted no words, Summerall worked with Tom Brookshier on the NFL for CBS from 1975 and was paired with Madden in 1981.

What if you could outsource retirement? "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" took a cast loaded with British talent - Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy among them - to India to find out. The fish-out-of-England romantic comedy did boffo business. With a $10-million budget, it has grossed more than $135 million worldwide since its May release, making it Fox Searchlight's highest-grossing specialty film of 2012. Director John Madden ("Shakespeare in Love,") and writer Ol Parker were in town recently to chat about the film, playing off each other like a seasoned comedy team.

The drama "Broken" led the way Monday with nine nominations for the British Independent Film Awards, including best film.  Rufus Norris was nominated in the debut director and director categories. Also nominated were Tim Roth as lead actor and Cillian Murphy and Rory Kinnear as supporting actor. Ben Wheatley's "Sightseers" and Peter Strickland's "Berberian Sound Studio" earned seven nominations each. Joining those three titles in the category of best film are "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" and "The Imposter.

Will the actors and filmmakers from your favorite movie be making room on their mantels this award season? Or watching the Oscars from afar? Oscar 8-Ball knows all. Throughout the coming months, Gold Standard columnist Glenn Whipp will assess the chances of the films in contention. Maybe that includes "Ted. " Probably it doesn't. Only the magic Oscar 8-Ball knows. "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" charmed American audiences and wowed their U.K. counterparts, grossing more than $130 million worldwide since its May release.

IT IS EARLY EVENING ON a Tuesday in mid-December, and John Madden is aboard a train that, after the usual phantom starts and inexplicable delays, has finally pulled out of Chicago. Unable to fly because of claustrophobia, Madden has just spent two days in Amtrak-imposed limbo, since no direct passenger rail service exists between Denver, site of his previous assignment, and Dallas, where he is headed now to cover his final game of the regular football season.

Ten weeks before today's season opener, on a hot Los Angeles afternoon, the lobby of the Century Plaza hotel is humming with people who look like they've arrived at more than a convention. Here they come, striding purposefully in dark- suited teams of three or four, a blur of teeth and cuff links, slim briefcases and heels, the men and women who own, manage or sell time for the stations of the no-longer-upstart Fox network.

Now that one shoe has dropped with Peyton Manning choosing the Broncos, some of the focus shifts to the other -- what happens to Tim Tebow? It's likely that Denver will trade Tebow as soon as possible, and in fact that might have been one of Manning's stipulations for picking the Broncos. After all, considering Tebow's popularity, Manning wouldn't want the distraction of a segment of the fan base pushing for a quarterback change after a bad game. So where is Tebow most marketable?

The Indianapolis Colts have called a news conference for 9 a.m. PT Wednesday to announce the release of quarterback Peyton Manning, the centerpiece of their organization for 14 seasons and in many ways the face of the NFL. Both Colts owner Jim Irsay and Manning will participate. It's a sad end to an era for many people, among them John Madden, who told The Times he cannot envision Manning in another uniform. "Some guys deserve a happy ending, and he does," Madden said by phone.