Tonight on NBC, Sunday Night Football will air an NFC East rivalry matchup between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys. We’ll have interviews with the Giants defense conducted by Bob Costas. And Michele Tafoya gets into the act with an interview of the Cowboys’ DeMarcus Ware.
We have partial transcripts of the interviews below. Check them out.
“FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA” PREVIEW – WEEK 14
BOB COSTAS INTERVIEWS ANTREL ROLLE & JUSTIN TUCK; MICHELE TAFOYA INTERVIEWS DEMARCUS WARE
“I thank God everyday for being drafted a Giant, and I want to retire a Giant.” – Giants DE Justin Tuck
“They want to find us a new boss. Gotta go out there and fight for him. We have to.” – Giants CB Antrel Rolle on playing for Tom Coughlin’ s jobNEW YORK – December 11, 2011 – Bob Costas interviewed New York Giants cornerback Antrel Rolle and defensive end Justin Tuck together, and Michele Tafoya interviewed Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware for tonight’s Week 14 edition of Football Night in America, which will also include highlights, analysis and reaction to earlier Week 14 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 Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo., on the Bears-Broncos game.
INTERVIEWS: Below are excerpts from Costas’ interview with Rolle and Tuck and Tafoya’s interview with Ware.
ANTREL ROLLE & JUSTIN TUCK WITH BOB COSTAS
COSTAS: Under Tom Coughlin, the Giants are always strong in the first part of the season, and often tail off at the end. Any explanation for that?
TUCK: I’ve lost a lot of sleep over that. We definitely preach ‘finish’ more than anything. I know it’s not a lack of us studying, or us going out and wanting to win the game. It’s just one of those things where you have to find a way to get out of this funk, and what a better time than now.COSTAS to Rolle: The way your schedule worked this season, outside of your division, you faced Brady, you faced Brees, you faced Rodgers. Which one of them was the best?
ROLLE: All of them are dangerous, and I’ve grown a higher level of respect for each of those guys. Tom Brady, he’s magnificent. The way he scans the field is like I’ve never seen before. Drew Brees, he’s a very athletic quarterback and the way he releases the ball is like zip-zip. And Aaron Rodgers, he’s just an overall cocky guy, but you know what? I love it.COSTAS to Tuck on DeMarcus Ware suggesting he has Cowboy-envy and wants to be a Cowboy:
TUCK: As far as me wanting to be a Cowboy (he pauses), I don’t see where that’s accurate or true. I think its just DeMarcus trying to get up under my skin. I thank God everyday for being drafted a Giant, and I want to retire a Giant.COSTAS to Rolle: You have any sense at all that you are playing for Tom Coughlin’s job?
ROLLE: I’ve never been on a team where every year, at a certain point, your coach’s job is being threatened. It’s about us at the end of the day. We represent him. He’s the boss. So because we’re not out there taking care of our job and handling business they way we’re doing, they want to find us a new boss. Gotta go out there and fight for him. We have to.TAFOYA’S INTERVIEW WITH DEMARCUS WARE
TAFOYA on Jason Garrett calling timeout before potential game-winning kick last week against the Cardinals: Does a call like that cause a team to lose any confidence in their head coach?
WARE: When you think about a coach that comes in that meeting and says, ‘Hey, I made a mistake on that play,’ well, guess what, we need to forget about that.TAFOYA: Eli Manning said before the season, and not in a boastful way, that he was an elite quarterback. You’ve played against every great quarterback in the league today, is Eli Manning an elite quarterback?
WARE: Eli Manning is a sleeper. You look at the stats, and he’s right up there with those quarterbacks. When it’s crunch time in the fourth quarter, he’s making those plays. He’s up there with those elite quarterbacks, but they’re just not giving him his credit.TAFOYA: Which of the teams in the NFC East do you consider your biggest rival?
WARE: More recently, for the last three years, it’s been the Giants. Every time we’re playing the Giants, you’re playing for (first or second place), so it’s like you’re winning two games if you can beat them once.
That’s all for now.
