John Madden, legendary NFL coach and broadcaster, dead at 85

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John Madden, legendary NFL coach and broadcaster, dead at 85
John Madden, one of the NFL's most iconic figures – as a Super Bowl-winning coach and as a longtime TV analyst who translated the intricacies of the game in a colorful way that even casual fans could understand – died Tuesday at age 85, the league announced.

"Nobody loved football more than Coach. He was football. He was an incredible soundboard to me and so many others," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. "There will never be another John Madden, and we will forever be indebted to him for all he did to make football and the NFL what it is today." 

The Hall of Fame coach turned broadcaster was known for his exuberant calls combined with simple explanations, which provided fans a weekly soundtrack to NFL games for three decades. The league said he died unexpectedly and did not detail a cause.

Madden gained fame in a decade-long stint as the coach of the renegade Oakland Raiders, making it to seven AFC title games and winning the Super Bowl following the 1976 season. He compiled a 103-32-7 regular-season record, and his .759 winning percentage is the best among NFL coaches with more than 100 games.

But it was his work after prematurely retiring as coach at age 42 that made Madden truly a household name. He educated a football nation with his use of the telestrator on broadcasts and entertained millions with his interjections of "Boom!" and "Doink!" throughout games. Madden was also known as a pitchman selling restaurants, hardware stores, and beer, and he became the face of "Madden NFL Football," one of the most successful sports video games of all time.

Most of all, he was the preeminent television sports analyst for most of his three decades calling games, winning an unprecedented 16 Emmy Awards for outstanding sports analyst/personality, and covering 11 Super Bowls for four networks from 1979-2009. CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON OUR TOP STORY. 

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Harry Reid, former Senate majority leader, dead at 82
Harry Reid, a longtime Democratic U.S. senator from Nevada who rose to serve as majority leader from 2007 to 2015, died Tuesday at age 82.

Reid, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018, served in Congress from 1983 until his retirement in 2017. He announced in 2019 his cancer was in remission.

He became most well-known for his use of the "nuclear option" in 2013, leading the charge to end the filibuster on executive branch nominees and judicial nominees other than to the Supreme Court.

Reid initially broke into elected office in 1969, serving in the Nevada Assembly until 1971. He then served as Lieutenant Governor of Nevada from 1971-1975 before being elected to serve Nevada's first district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982. He was first elected to the Senate in 1987.

The Nevada lawmaker consistently bucked his own party on the issue of Roe v. Wade, which he believed should be overturned. A fierce advocate of conservation, he helped spearhead designating nearly 5.1 million acres of Nevada land as federally protected.

Reid played a central role in helping push the agenda of former President Barack Obama, leading the charge to unify all 60 members of the Democratic caucus in support of the Affordable Care Act in 2009. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

In other developments:
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CDC significantly reduces estimate of omicron prevalence in US
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) significantly reduced its estimate for how prevalent the omicron variant of COVID-19 was in the U.S. earlier in December, saying Tuesday that the variant was responsible for 22.5% of all new cases for the week ending Dec. 18 after previously saying the variant was responsible for 73.2% of all new cases for the same week.

For the week ending Dec. 25, the agency says omicron accounted for 58.6% of all new cases.

Jasmine Reed, a spokeswoman for the CDC, noted that there was "a wide predictive interval posted in last week’s chart," and the downward revision was partly due to the "speed at which Omicron was increasing."

"CDC’s models have a range, and… we’re still seeing steady increase in the proportion of Omicron," Reed told Fox News Digital. "In some regions in the country, Omicron accounts for – 90% or more of cases."

Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general in the Trump administration, explained that the revision was likely partly due to a responder bias caused by a testing quirk with omicron called "S gene dropout," in which one of the three target genes is not detected. When that gene is not detected, it can be an immediate marker for omicron. 

The new estimates mean that the delta variant was still dominant for most of December, though omicron has a slight edge now. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

In other developments:
- Dr. Siegel: Omicron is a 'super-booster,' could lead pandemic to milder COVID-19 disease
- CNN's John Harwood defends Biden after claim there is 'no federal solution' to solve COVID
- 'The Five' slam Biden for failing on COVID campaign promises and 'giving up'
- Troops encouraged but not required to get COVID-19 booster shot
- Biden, after claiming no 'federal solution' to COVID-19 pandemic, boasts about 'federal plan'
- COVID-19 cases: NYC sees fourfold increase in children hospitalized

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SOME PARTING WORDS

Federalist publisher Ben Domenech on Tuesday night urged Americans to "demand more of our nation, our neighbors and ourselves," in 2022. 

"It is time in this closing week to take stock of all that we learned this year, the frauds that were exposed, the evils we learned to hate, and the truths we woke up to who we are and who we hope to be," Domenech suggested on "Fox News Primetime." "A year that began with a promise that now we could return to normal and ended with a horrifying possibility that this, all of this terrible this is normal now."

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This edition of Fox News First was compiled by Fox News' David Aaro. Thank you for making us your first choice in the morning! We’ll see you in your inbox first thing Thursday.