his level was outstanding. our nbc colleague shared his reflections this morning on the "today" show on his one-time partner in the broadcast booth. >> it was a great naturalness to him. this wasn't trying to play announcer or analyst or somebody on television. this was john. what you saw is what you got and that was john away from the booth as well as in the booth. so he didn't have to put a different persona. and people can understand that and he loved the game like nobody has ever loved the game of football and you knew it. he was excited and excitable and people just gravitated to him and i don't think there will ever be anybody like that in the history of broadcasting as far as i'm concerned. >> return to the question john madden asked in a eulogy for his partner, can the history of football be told without mentioning the name john madden?