Tonight on Football Night in America, Bob Costas will talk with Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb and New York Football Giants coach Tom Coughlin in advance of tonight’s Sunday Night Football game on NBC.
Football Night in America airs at 7 p.m. ET on NBC. Take a look at the partial transcripts of the interviews that will air tonight.
“FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA” PREVIEW – WEEK 12
BOB COSTAS INTERVIEWS GIANTS HEAD COACH TOM COUGHLIN & PACKERS WR RANDALL COBB
“When people ask me the question about last year, I simply say, ‘It didn’t finish too badly.’” – Tom Coughlin on his team’s rollercoaster seasons
“We’ll take out that vengeance on the field.” –Randall Cobb on last year’s playoff loss to the GiantsNEW YORK – November 25, 2012 – Bob Costas interviewed New York Giants Head Coach Tom Coughlin and Packers WR Randall Cobb for tonight’s Week 12 edition of Football Night in America, which will preview Packers-Giants, and will also include highlights, analysis and reaction to earlier Week 12 games.
Football Night In America, the most-watched pre-game studio show in sports, airs each Sunday at 7 p.m. ET 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 and former Steelers WR Hines Ward for reaction to the afternoon games and to preview tonight’s match-up.
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.
INTERVIEWS: Below are excerpts from Costas’ interviews with Coughlin and Cobb.
TOM COUGHLIN WITH BOB COSTAS
On if he has a theory about his teams start well and then slump and then experience a late surge: “I really never have sat down and said, ‘Look, this is a major major issue for us.’ Because when people ask me the question about last year, I simply say, ‘It didn’t finish too badly.’ But, that doesn’t disregard the fact that this does take place. Why does it take place? That is a very good question. I can throw some things at you after 10 games. Were we a little bit stale? Where we injured? Were we fatigued? No, I think they are all excuses and we don’t make excuses around here. So, we just didn’t play as well as we are capable of playing.”
On still having confidence this season despite recent losses, and whether they will come out on top: “We will. There is not any question about that Bob. We’ve been through this before. It’s unfortunate, but it does go a bit like that on occasion, so we have a lot of things that, we are trying to work and improve upon. But we know we’ve been here and we know we have been able to pull ourselves out of these kind of things before.”
On what was going through his mind during David Tyree’s famous ‘Helmet Catch’ during Super Bowl XLII: “The Tyree thing, first I’m looking out there and Eli is trapped, I mean, they’ve got him. Then he throws it down the middle of the field, and I’m like ‘Oh my God it’s down the middle of the field.’ Because a lot of times you overthrow the ball in the middle of the field and good things don’t happen. He’s got the ball pinned to his helmet, and he can’t hang, there’s no way he can hang on to the ball falling on the ground like that, especially with a guy that was hanging over him (Rodney Harrison). He did.”
On Tom Brady’s Hail Mary during Super Bowl XLVI, putting the ball right in the end zone: “The last play of the game. You know we left a little bit of time on for this guy and we know, we didn’t want Tom Brady to have any time. He hits a fourth-and- seventeen for crying out loud, are you serious? He doesn’t loft the ball, he throws a rocket, and its coming right at its coming down like this and you teach your guys to knock the ball down, and they can’t knock it down because he’s throwing where those 6’ 7” guys are. I can still see Kenny Phillips up as high as he could go and there’s a bunch of hands up there, and I’m worried if the ball is going to tip off their hands to the back line, because they’re are starting to be in position there. In reality, Antrel Rolle and (Rob) Gronkowski are going for the ball low like its right here. All the sudden it’s on the ground and I’m thinking ‘Wow we’re World Champions.’”
RANDALL COBB WITH BOB COSTAS
On his first game in the NFL in 2011 against the New Orleans Saints where he ran an amazing 108 yards for a touchdown: “I felt something inside of me, telling me it was time to bring it out. I trusted my instincts and I made that move and the rest is history.”
Costas: ‘It’s like a version of the basketball thing where the coach thinks the guys is taking a bad shot, ‘No, no, no, yes!’: “Yes, Yes!”
On earning the trust of QB Aaron Rodgers, who recently commented on Cobb saying, ‘He does so many things on the field. ‘He’s so smart. He knows progressions and timing and when he has to get open’: “It does and that is something that I really wanted to work on this off-season. Understanding when I’m the No. 1 read and when I’m the No. 3 read and understanding how to use my leverage as a receiver. It was a good off-season for me being able to build that chemistry with him.”
On being a tough receiver despite his height: “You have to as a receiver. They’ve made the game a lot safer for the receivers. I really don’t agree with some of this stuff, because I like the physicality, I like the toughness in football. That’s one of the reasons that I like the game. I always was a fearless kid. I wanted to play with my older brother so much. My older brother was seven years older than me, my cousins, they all played football out in the street. Tackle football out in the street. On the concrete and they wouldn’t let me play. The older I got, the more I wanted to play. I think that drove me, that passion of just being tough and physical.”
Costas: ‘They played tackle football on concrete? Without helmets I’m guessing? No pads, street clothes I’m guessing? This is insane, you know that?’: “No helmets. No pads. Just street clothes. Yes it is (insane).”
On whether the Packers loss to the Giants during the playoffs last year at Lambeau Field still stings: “Oh yeah, it definitely does. When you go 15-1 and are projected to win the Super Bowl. When you let a team come into your house, and knock you off the throne, that’s something that’s going to stay with you. I think that’s something I use as motivation. When you think about that, it’s in the back of your mind. You don’t forget those kinds of games and I think that’s something that all of us have been thinking this week in practice. I think that we’ll take out that vengeance on the field.”
That’s going to do it. The next post should be the FNIA quotage from tonight.
