On Thursday, Fox held two Super Bowl-related conference calls with the media. Some interesting things were said including Fox Sports President Eric Shanks talking about the potential for bad weather plus producer Richie Zyontz explaining why he he had cut off the now-infamous Erin Andrews interview with Seattle’s Richard Sherman.
You can take a look at the highlights below.
Thursday afternoon, FOX Sports conducted press calls to preview the network’s upcoming broadcast coverage of Super Bowl XLVIII on Sunday, Feb. 2. FOX Sports President, COO and Executive Producer Eric Shanks was joined by FOX SUPER BOWL SUNDAY analysts Michael Strahan and Terry Bradshaw. Super Bowl XLVIII lead game producer Richie Zyontz, and lead game director Rich Russo were joined by the game’s play-by-play announcer Joe Buck and analyst Troy Aikman. Below are highlights from both calls.
BRADSHAW ON QUARTERBACK RUSSELL WILSON – “He’s a pretty amazing talent. When I look at attributes I want a quarterback to have, number one, I want him to be poised, calm when there’s chaos around. I want him settling in, going through progressions, not panicking, and he seems to do that fairly well. As a matter of fact he does it very well. He’s very adept at getting out of pressure, running, scrambling around and making big plays down the field.”
AIKMAN SAYS WILSON IS MATURE BEYOND HIS YEARS – “He’s a dynamic player, mature beyond his years. You question whether or not this stage is maybe too big for him, and if you do, then you really don’t know him and you haven’t really spent any time listening to him because he’s a pretty gifted athlete, but he’s even more impressive as a guy. I expect him to come out and play well.”
BRADSHAW ON WHETHER OR NOT QUARTERBACK PEYTON MANNING SHOULD RETIRE IF HE WINS SUPER BOWL XLVIII – “He should keep playing. No one 37 years old has had a historical season like he’s had. He’s broken every record imaginable for the quarterback position. His offensive line has given him the protection that he’s needed; he’s stepping into throws. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone so accurate. I’m just absolutely amazed by what he’s done. If he wins the Super Bowl, that sounds good, but I can’t answer for Peyton.”
AIKMAN ON WHAT PEYTON MANNING HAS BEEN ABLE TO DO – “I couldn’t be more impressed with what Peyton [Manning] has been able to do. What he’s done the last two years is amazing, and as a former player, knowing how demanding that position is, especially as you get into your mid-30’s, him being 37, and here he has had arguably the best season of his career, but maybe ever at the position. It’s pretty impressive, and I don’t really know what more to add to what everyone else has already said.”
BUCK’S SUPER BOWL PREPARATION AND CALLING A GAME OF THIS MAGNITUDE – “I’ve been doing football on FOX since 1994, and I put as much into every game since the start of the 1994 season as the play-by-play guy as I will for this game. That’s the only way to treat this – to treat this job and not just the game. If you start changing things, you start winding your way toward trouble. With this being my fourth one, I’ve gone from ‘Oh my God, I’m doing the Super Bowl,’ to ‘Let’s just try to have fun and do our typical game.’ I’m proud of what we do every week, from [game producer] Richie Zyontz to [game director] Rich Russo to Troy and myself. I feel like we put a good product on the air, and why would we change that going into the game we have with the most viewers?”
STRAHAN REACTS TO CORNERBACK RICHARD SHERMAN’S POST-GAME COMMENTS FOLLOWING THE NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – “A lot of backlash unfairly came toward Richard [Sherman] because everybody wants to know what it’s like and wants to be on the inside, but when they get a glimpse of it, they get scared of it and they want to criticize the guy who did it. Richard is a good guy, he’s a smart guy, and he’s an inspirational player to a lot of kids who are going through some bad situations and growing up in not the best neighborhoods, but he made it out … Off the field, that’s not Richard, but on the field it is. When you see that side, you can’t complain, you can’t be scared, because when he’s on the field, he has to have the utmost belief in himself. We all did at that time when we were playing, because if you didn’t (don’t), you’re not (weren’t) going to survive out there. I don’t fault him at all. The comments about him are a lot worse than anything he ever did.”
FOX SPORTS PRESIDENT, COO AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ERIC SHANKS ON POTENTIAL BAD WEATHER FOR THE GAME – “The weather is just another thing that you prepare for, and that’s what we’re going to do. If the weather turns out to be not as big of a story, then it’s not as big of a story and will be covered accordingly. If there is [bad] weather, there will potentially be more initial tune-in. I couldn’t say how much or what, but this is probably the biggest Super Bowl in the modern era to have this much discussion about something in addition to the game and the players. It’s going to have to manifest itself into more people tuning in.”
SHANKS ON SPECIAL SUPER BOWL PRODUCTION ELEMENTS TO TEST WEATHER CONDITIONS – “We thought that wind could be a major factor in this game and in this stadium, so we worked with the same people that did the wind forecasting and wind graphic overlays for the America’s Cup sailing tournament, and we’re going to have some of those same weather graphics in the stadium. We tweeted out some of the weather from last weekend at MetLife stadium and what the wind does once it gets inside that stadium is pretty amazing … We’re going to try to show people the wind if it’s a story. We’re checking out some infrared cameras to see if body temperature or ball temperature or any story that an infrared camera would be able to show. Imagine on a touchdown, aside from regular cameras showing you if a foot was in or out, you actually have a glowing footprint after the player moves on with the footprint staying behind to show if he’s in or out.”
SUPER BOWL XLVIII ON FOX LEAD GAME PRODUCER RICHIE ZYONTZ EXPLAINS WHY FOX CUT SEATTLE SEAHAWKS CORNERBACK RICHARD SHERMAN’S POSTGAME INTERVIEW IN THE NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – “It was compelling television, but it started crossing over a line that I just didn’t want to see us go. Erin [Andrews] handled it very well, but I said, ‘Let’s end this thing.’ He’s [Sherman] a good guy. He’s an intelligent guy and he’s an emotional guy, and it was very compelling to watch, but it started to get a little dangerous for us.”
There you have it.
