In advance of tonight’s Houston at San Francisco game on Sunday Night Football, Bob Costas talks with Texans QB Matt Schaub while Tony Dungy speaks with 49ers signal caller Colin Kaepernick. It all airs on NBC’s Football Night in America starting at 7 p.m. ET.
Here are partial transcripts of the interviews.
TONY DUNGY INTERVIEWS COLIN KAEPERNICK; BOB COSTAS INTERVIEWS MATT SCHAUB
Football Night in America Preview – Week 5
“We’re a team that’s to be reckoned with.” – Colin KaepernickNEW YORK – October 6, 2013 – Tony Dungy interviewed San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and Bob Costas interviewed Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub for tonight’s Week 5 edition of Football Night in America, which will preview Texans-49ers, and include highlights, analysis and reaction to earlier Week 5 games.
Football Night, the most-watched pre-game show in sports, airs each Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on NBC with Costas hosting the program live from inside the stadium. He will be joined on site by Sunday Night Football commentators Al Michaels (play-by-play) and Cris Collinsworth (analyst), as well as NBC NFL analyst Hines Ward, for reaction to the afternoon games and to preview tonight’s match-up.
Dan Patrick co-hosts Football Night from famous Studio 8H at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios in New York City. He is joined by Super Bowl-winning head coach Tony Dungy; two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison; Peter King of Sports Illustrated; Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk on NBCSports.com and NBC Sports Network; and Scott Pioli, the former NFL Executive of the Year who is new to the NBC NFL team this season. Alex Flanagan will report from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on the Broncos-Cowboys game.
INTERVIEW: Below are excerpts from Dungy’s interview with Kaepernick and Costas’ interview with Schaub.
COLIN KAEPERNICK WITH TONY DUNGY
On Coach Harbaugh yelling at him: “My rookie year we had a couple of rough days. There was one day, I don’t remember exactly what I was doing. There was something I wasn’t doing quite right, quite how he wanted me to, and he just went off. He has a little fire to him and he doesn’t really snap and go off on players so when he did that, I’m really messing up. For him to go off like this in front of everybody, it’s bad. I’ve been better since then.”
On his twitter following and criticism: “It lets you know that there are people that still think you aren’t where you should be. It’s kind of like what Coach Harbaugh tells us sometimes: ‘When people start talking really good about you, that’s when you need to be worried.’ I think from the time I was young, I’ve had a lot of people tell me I can’t do things so that’s a reminder that I’ve been through this before, and I’ve been successful going through it before.”
Tony Dungy: “As far as you guys know, are you guys still the best team in the NFC?”
Kaepernick: “I’m not going to say what’s on our mind but I think we’re a team that’s to be reckoned with.”
Dungy: “That’s not what I asked. Are you the best team in the NFC?”
Kaepernick: “I think everybody on this team thinks so. We have to go out and prove it week in and week out because after four weeks in the season, I think teams doubt us. They doubt what we’re capable of and I think they think we’ve fallen off, and we have to go out and prove that that’s not the case.”MATT SCHAUB WITH BOB COSTAS
On the scrutiny and criticism the past few weeks: “It’s been tough. Obviously a lot of times we get too much criticism, but also we get too much praise when things are going good. It just comes with the territory. The one thing you have to do is go back to work the next day and the next week and prepare for the next game.”
On his second interception against Seattle, which tied the game and led to a loss in OT: “It was a bad decision. I should have, in that situation, just taken a sack or just thrown the ball at the ground near the vicinity of my receiver. It was just a bad play and I take responsibility for that.”
On his reaction to fans burning his jersey in front of the stadium and the Matt Schaub “Pick 6” burger: “I’m just going back to work. For me, it was get right back in the film room, get right back out on the practice field, get the game plan down, and just get ready for San Francisco. That’s all I know. That’s all I can do. These obviously are passionate fans, so we’re just looking to erase the past few weeks with a win.”
That is all of the quotage until later tonight.
