Before tonight’s New York Giants-DC NFL Team, NBC’s Football Night in America will review the day’s highlights and scores plus preview the Sunday Night Football game.
Football Night in America host Bob Costas will interview Giants two-time Super Bowl winning coach Tom Coughlin about this season and also provide an essay about Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III.
Here’s a partial transcript of the Couglin interview.
BOB COSTAS INTERVIEWS TOM COUGHLIN
Football Night in America Preview – Week 13
“You have to talk to yourself about getting back up because it’s not about me, it’s about our team.” – Coughlin on bouncing back
Costas Narrates RGIII EssayNEW YORK – December 1, 2013 – Bob Costas interviewed New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin for tonight’s Week 13 edition of Football Night In America, which will preview Giants-Redskins, and include highlights, analysis and reaction to earlier Week 13 games. Costas also narrates an essay that examines Robert Griffin III’s 2013 season.
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 two-time Super Bowl winner and Super Bowl XL MVP Hines Ward.
Dan Patrick co-hosts Football Night from NBC’s famed Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Patrick will be joined by Super Bowl-winning head coach Tony Dungy, two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk on NBCSN and NBCSports.com, Peter King of Sports Illustrated, and former NFL Executive of the Year Scott Pioli. Carolyn Manno will report from Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., on the Broncos-Chiefs game.
INTERVIEW: Below are excerpts from Costas’ interview with Coughlin.
TOM COUGHLIN WITH BOB COSTAS
On bounding back after last week’s defeat: “It’s difficult. It’s not an easy thing. We really did want that very badly, and we put an awful lot into it. The word relevance came up many times. We were relevant again and we were in a big game that, if we won, we were in second place in the division, etc., etc. It took the wind out of our sails. Even though our emotions were down, the thing that I had to do, in my job, is encourage them to get back up off the floor. They got themselves back up off the floor and we started looking towards this big game with the Washington Redskins.”
On trash talking/taunting: “I don’t believe in any of that and I never have. Talk is cheap, play the game. You need to do your talking on Sunday night on the field in your performance. The rest of it is all wasted. We’ve been the beneficiary, quite frankly, over the years of lots of bulletin board material provided by the opponent. Why in the world would you provide for someone else?”
On genuinely exuding enthusiasm even after a defeat: “Whatever it is, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it’s not hard. It’s harder for me now at this age than it was, say, 10 years ago. The losses are very difficult to deal with. There are a lot of nights where I might be sitting there by myself in the dark with my wife sitting next to me and not much conversation going on. But, again, you have to talk to yourself about getting back up because it’s not about me, it’s about our team. I really have to be strong for our team.”
On if there’s a difference for next year finishing 8-8 instead of 7-9 this year: “You bet your life it does. It makes all the difference in the world. This playoff situation, we know it’s remote. Nevertheless, we continue to try to win game in and game out just like we have from the first game on.”
We’ll wrap up the early Sunday NFL pregame show quotage coming up.
