On tonight’s edition of NBC’s Football Night in America, Al Michaels and Rodney Harrison conduct the interviews in advance of the Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles game on Sunday Night Football. No Bob Costas. I guess he was in St. Louis watching the World Series.
“FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA” PREVIEW – WEEK 8
AL MICHAELS INTERVIEWS COWBOYS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR ROB RYAN; RODNEY HARRISON INTERVIEWS EAGLES CB NNAMDI ASOMUGHA
“They’re the fastest team I’ve ever seen on offense, but I always believe in hitting them in the mouth. We’ll see what happens.” – Ryan to Michaels on tonight’s game
“You can’t convince me that we’re not the team to beat.” – Asomugha to Harrison on making the playoffs despite Eagles 2-4 recordNEW YORK – October 30, 2011 – Al Michaels interviewed Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and Rodney Harrison interviewed Eagles cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha for tonight’s Week 8 edition of Football Night in America, which will also include highlights, analysis and reaction to Week 8’s afternoon games.
Football Night airs each Sunday at 7 p.m. ET with Costas hosting the program live from inside the stadium. In addition to his interviews, Costas is joined on site by Sunday Night Football commentators Al Michaels (play-by-play) and Cris Collinsworth (analyst) for reaction to the afternoon games.
Dan Patrick co-hosts Football Night from Studio 8G at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios and is joined by Super Bowl-winning head coach Tony Dungy, two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison, Peter King of Sports Illustrated and Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk on NBCSports.com. Alex Flanagan will report from Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pa., on the Patriots-Steelers game.
INTERVIEWS: Below are excerpts from Michaels’ interview with Ryan and Harrison’s interview with Asomugha. If used, please note the mandatory credit: “In an exclusive interview airing tonight on Football Night in America.”
ROB RYAN WITH AL MICHAELS
MICHAELS on Ryan’s father, Buddy, having been the head coach in Philadelphia and Arizona, both Cowboys rivals: What was his initial reaction when you got the job in Dallas?
RYAN: Disbelief. He was a little shocked by it. He’s like, ‘You’ve got all these other things going. Why here?’ I’m like, ‘Dad, it’s the best opportunity for me.’ It really has worked out great.MICHAELS on Dallas’ defense playing better: What’s made the difference this year?
RYAN: Well, me. [joking; laughter]. Honestly, starting over with some Pro Bowl football players. All these guys have been in the Pro Bowl and deservedly so. We got all together and have been working hard ever since. We’re not all the way there yet, but we’re playing good ball and we’re going to keep doing it.MICHAELS: You’ve been an assistant coach for 25 years, 10 different places, but no head coaching opportunity yet. Does that eat at you?
RYAN: I don’t think it’s going to eat much further. My chance will come. It only took my dad 25 years and, hell, he’s better than me and Rex put together. Those things happen. I’m not sure how it will go, but eventually I’ll get my chance to be a head coach.RYAN on his war of words with Eagles WR Desean Jackson earlier this year: That was kind of annoying because we signed three great players the day before, so I’m bragging about those guys and all I’m hearing about is all these great players that Philadelphia had signed. It bothered me because I thought it was disrespecting the players that I coach and that I knew would be great for us.
RYAN on Jackson saying, ‘Maybe I can run on the sideline and tackle the coach’ and Ryan responding that he’ll fall on him: [Joking] There’s no question. Is he a good enough athlete to get it done? Absolutely. Am I a bad enough athlete to get tackled by a small guy? Sure, but I am going to fall on him. So I welcome the challenge. If he wants to come hit me, beautiful. A little guy like that not’s going to hit that hard anyway.
It would be fun to beat these guys. There’s no question. They have a ton of talent over there. They’re the fastest team I’ve ever seen on offense, but I always believe in hitting them in the mouth. We’ll see what happens.”
NNAMDI ASOMUGHA WITH RODNEY HARRISON
HARRISON: Three months in, is there anything you regret?
ASOMUGHA: No. Not at all…I don’t regret it because the journey isn’t over yet…Everyone’s hot and cold on us. And it’s all part of the journey. We know that at the end of this thing, we’re going to be better for what we’ve gone through right now. It’s coming together.HARRISON: Will Philadelphia make the playoffs? Win the division?
ASOMUGHA: You can’t convince me that we’re not the team to beat. It may not look like it because we’ve lost those close games, and they’ve all been close games. We lost in the fourth quarter, really. You still can’t convince us that it’s not going to be our show to win.
That does it. We’ll have the Football Night in America quotage later
