John Madden Will Skip Sunday's Game at Tampa Bay

John Madden will sit out NBC's Sunday night game at Tampa Bay to take a breather from cross-country bus trips. He will be replaced by Cris Collinsworth. "I just wanted to have a bye," Madden said by telephone Monday. He had been in Jacksonville on Oct. 5, had traveled to San Diego for Sunday's game and would have had to immediately drive south and east for the game between the Buccaneers and the Seattle Seahawks. "The whole thing starts with the Raiders and 49ers not being good," said Madden, who lives in Pleasanton, in northern California. "I never get a home game. I've got five grandkids now and I want to be home a little. Last year, I never got home at all." Madden will actually get two weeks off. On Oct. 26, NBC will not carry a game rather than go head-to-head with Game 4 of the World Series on Fox. He will return Nov. 2 for the New England-Indianapolis game. Madden has had Sundays off in the past, at CBS and Fox, after the N.F.L. went to a 17-week schedule, and when he did not work on a Sunday after a Thanksgiving Day game. "It used to work so well when the 49ers and Raiders were good, and the Rams were in Los Angeles," he said. "We'd be out there and I'd be home one week a month."