Daily Madden: There's No Quitting In Football
(KCBS) - The Philadelphia Eagles are out of the playoffs. But coach Chip Kelly is focused on this weekend's game against the Giants.
"Let's get this straight," he said. "We're going to win the football game." That means the starters will play. "That's the way it should be," John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. "We've gotten a lot better on that in the NFL. Remember just a few years ago it used to start in like week 15 -- 15, 16 and 17 -- they'd say, 'we're going to rest our starters, we've clinched, we're not going to play.' But it's still a regular season game, and you only have 16 of them. And your fans only have eight of them -- eight home games. I think that's part of the deal. That's what you're paid for. That's what you're supposed to do, and that's what players are supposed to do and coaches are supposed to do. I never understood that, not playing guys."
Madden said not trying your hardest to win isn't fair to the players.
"If you tell (some) players that you're going to sit them because you want to rest them and you don't want them to get hurt, what do you tell the guys you are going to play?...You still have to play the game, and if you make the game 'oh, it's bad to play, and you should be scared to play it,' then you're in big, big trouble." (6:20)
Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 and Monday and Friday mornings at 9:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.