Let’s close out our Sunday NFL pregame show quotage today with NBC’s Football Night in America. Lots of stuff in today’s show.
“FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA” NOTES & QUOTES – WEEK 5
“He gave guys like me hope.” – Tony Dungy on Al Davis, who hired Art Shell in 1989
“All their hood ornaments look great. The paint job is beautiful. The problem is the engine’s broken.” – Cris Collinsworth on the Eagles
“They have too many veteran players to be so inconsistent each week.” – Rodney Harrison on the GiantsNEW YORK – October 9, 2011 – Following are highlights from Football Night in America. Bob Costas hosted the show live from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and was joined on site for commentary by Sunday Night Football commentators Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth. Co-host Dan Patrick and commentators Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison, Peter King and Mike Florio covered the news of the NFL’s fifth week live from Studio 8G at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios in New York. Alex Flanagan reported from Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., on the Jets-Patriots game and Jimmy Roberts profiled 85-year-old Summerville (SC) High School football coach John McKissick, who is in the midst of his 60th season and has won 591 games, more than any football coach at any level in history.
ON RAIDERS
Collinsworth on Al Davis: “There has never been nor will there ever be someone that will have his perspective that has played so many roles in the National Football League. He is a decisive figure in many ways. He rubbed some people the wrong way, but I can tell you that to sit in a room with Al Davis and talk football with him was unlike anything I’ve ever done.”
Michaels on Hue Jackson: “We should all begin to remember the name Hue, which is short for Huey, Jackson…This guy has it together. He is 45 years old and this is his first head coaching job ever. That team is playing very hard for him. They had a very dramatic win in Houston today.”
Harrison on being impressed with Hue Jackson: “After such an emotional week, keeping these guys focused, going on the road, and winning in a hostile environment. I played in Houston and it’s very difficult to win there.”
Florio: “With the passing of Al Davis, there are questions about the ownership of the team. But through very careful estate planning and succession planning, the Davis family will continue to own that team. That is Carol Davis, the widow of Al Davis, and Mark Davis, the son of Al Davis. There won’t be tax issues. There won’t be partnership issues. The Davis family will own that team. And if you saw Mark Davis’ reaction today, he doesn’t seem like he’s going to be selling that team anytime soon.”
King: “There are a lot of owners in the league who would like to see them sell and would love to see the Raiders go back to Los Angeles and to be one of the two tenets…the NFL believes not just one but two teams could work in L.A.”
Dungy: “I too, like Hue Jackson, owe Al Davis a lot. I was a young assistant coach in 1989 and Al Davis hired Art Shell, the first African-American coach in the league (of the modern era). He gave guys like me hope.”
Harrison: “As a kid I always admired the Raiders. I always wanted to be a Raider because of the mystique, being a tough guy, the black and silver.”
ON NFC EAST
Dungy: “They’ve got a lot of star power, a lot of talent, but these teams cannot hold onto the football, they can’t protect the ball and they’re self-destructing.”
ON EAGLES
Collinsworth: “All their hood ornaments look great. The paint job is beautiful. The problem is the engine’s broken.”
Dungy: “We can simplify it in one word – mistakes.”
ON GIANTS
Harrison: “This team is so extreme…They have too many veteran players to be so inconsistent each week.”
ON REDSKINS
Michaels: “I’ll tell you who’s a very happy guy right now, Mike Shanahan. Off-week, he watches the Giants lose to Seattle in the end and he watches Philadelphia lose. The Redskins are a team to watch.”
Dungy: “They look better and better as you’re watching the favorites, Philadelphia and the Giants, just turn the ball over and give up big plays on defense.”
ON 49ERS
Dungy: “You have to look at the job Jim Harbaugh’s done changing the culture, changing the mindset…Jim Harbaugh has made this team a contender. I think they’re going to win the West.”
ON BRONCOS
Dungy: “They looked dead and (then) Tim Tebow came in the game…If I’m (John Fox), I do it tonight…Tebow’s a winner. Put him in there.”
King: “I just got off the phone with Tim Tebow and asked him if he’s done enough to win the starting job. He said, ‘Thank God I don’t have to make that call. I just went out and played with a lot of heart.’ I think that playing with a lot of heart will make John Fox give Tim Tebow the starting job two weeks from today after the bye week.”
ON BILLS
Patrick: “Are we missing the bigger story here? Is Buffalo a little better than we thought?”
Dungy: “I think they are. They believe in their quarterback and defense.”
Harrison: “Defensively they give up a lot of yards, but they create turnovers…George Wilson made a big play against the Patriots and he made another today.”
ON VIKINGS
Dungy: “I talked to Leslie Frazier during the week and I kind of suggested that Christian Ponder starting might be better for the Eagles than Donovan McNabb starting. He immediately said, “No. Donovan has the faith of the locker room.’”
ON AARON RODGERS VS. BRETT FAVRE
Dungy: “Brett Favre beat me an awful lot when I was at Tampa, but I would take Aaron Rodgers as a coach because he can do all the things Favre can do but he doesn’t turn the ball over.”
Harrison on who he’d rather face: “Brett Favre because he gives you a lot more opportunities at interceptions.”
That does it.
