John Madden is giving up his NFL commentating gig after 30 seasons.

(See the news story here.)

He was quoted as saying, “It’s time.” And it is.

Madden long ago had become a caricature of himself, with his sound effects, and wild scrawls on a telestrator and his nearly incoherent ramblings.

Not that he was unlikable. Not through the sound system of a television, anyway. He seemed all bonhomie and good will, enthusiastic about football and football players. He seemed more like one of them than the former coach he actually was, seemingly as interested in big hits and a big meal as the X’s and O’s.

I don’t recall any particular trashings of Madden by sports-TV columnists (remember them?), over the years, but I got a sense of “guy who takes himself too seriously” when I read/heard that he was deeply offended by the dead-on impersonation of him that comic Frank Caliendo does.

What is interesting here is that Cris Collinsworth, probably the most interesting and insightful football commentator out there, will replace Madden. NBC’s coverage just got better. Much better. Instead of Madden’s confused enthusiasm we will get Collinsworth’s succinct and useful analysis.

Have to applaud Madden’s commitment to the game. He put in a lot of years, first in coaching the game and then in talking about it for television.

The NFL-on-TV made him wealthy, and it made him famous. He sold us hardware, and we all knew about The Bus and the turkey legs. We all knew he hated to fly and was a seriously quirky guy.

But the thing about guys with shticks — and that’s what Madden was really about, a noise-making, over-the-top, ultra-enthusiastic shtick not far removed from Dick Vitale — is that they fade with time. They get stale. He reached that point long ago. He rarely contributed anything to a broadcast that a middling NFL fan couldn’t figure out himself/herself just by watching.

That’s when it’s time for the analyst to give it up.

I don’t know if Madden recognized that and made his decision on that. It seems as if, at 73, he’s just tired, and we can relate to that.

We wish him well. Live long and continue to prosper, all that. But thanks for removing yourself from one of the NFL’s prime TV properties — the Sunday night game — and letting someone better take it over.