FOOTBALL IN HIGH HEELS: FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA 11.6.16
STAMFORD, Conn. – Nov., 6, 2016 – Following are highlights from Football Night in America, which aired prior to tonight’s Sunday Night Football matchup between the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders. Mike Tirico opened the show live from inside Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, Calif. It is the first time that NBC’s Sunday Night Football has broadcast a game from Oakland. He was joined on site by Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworthand SNF sideline reporter Michele Tafoya.
Dan Patrick hosted Football Night, the most-watched studio show in sports, from NBC Sports Group’s Studio 1 in Stamford, Conn. He was joined by Super Bowl-winning and Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Tony Dungy; two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison; and NFL Insider Mike Florio of NBC Sports’ ProFootballTalk. Paul Burmeister reported from Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., on today’s Falcons-Packers game.
Football Night coverage also included Tafoya’s interview with Raiders QB Derek Carr.
Following are highlights from Football Night in America on NBC:
ON RAIDERS
Tirico: “Welcome to Football Night in America, from the Black Hole for the first time.”
Collinsworth: “It all started from the minute that Jack Del Rio took the job…a little piece at a time, they’ve restored a little bit of the pride that was this organization.”
Collinsworth on Derek Carr: “If you had to make a comparison with Derek Carr, the way he moves his feet, the little flick of the wrist in the throws, there’s a little Aaron Rodgers. His all-time favorite was Brett Favre, but watching him in the pocket, there’s a little bit of Rodgers there.”
Florio on Raiders possible move to Las Vegas: “They have the $750 million in public money to move to Las Vegas and Mark Davis, the team owner, has said he wants to move. Sheldon Adelson, owner of the Sands Casino, has recently said that the Raiders want too much from us; we’ll walk away from this. I’m told Adelson would like to get a path to control the team at some point which would complicate the effort to get approval to move because the owners aren’t thrilled about the idea of a casino owner controlling one of their teams. So that’s where it stands. We’ll see how it plays out in the coming months…They’ve got to get it done in six months because they have the approval to build the stadium and they need to match everything up so that when the leave Oakland after two or three years they can go straight to Las Vegas.”
Collinsworth: “All I really care about are these great fans. It’s really a shame. This is one of the last old-school environments, like the Dog Pound and all that crazy stuff…Let’s face it, the tickets are more expensive and it’s not always an easy thing to do to be able to get the ordinary folks back in here who dress up like this and scream and yell and act like crazies (laughs). It’s a fun place to watch a football game. I wish they could find a way to make it work here.”
ON BRONCOS
Harrison on Denver’s offense: “I’d like to see them become a little more explosive down the field; take some shots down the field and soften those defensive backs up.”
ON PANTHERS
Florio on the Roger Goodell-Cam Newton discussion: “The Commissioner pointed out that with that quarterback strike zone — from the shoulders down to above the knees — that anything beyond that draws a foul if you are hit in a forcible manor. The Commissioner admitted that referees are not necessarily on the same page as to what is and isn’t forcible, and that’s an area where they will try to improve their consistency. The problem with Cam Netwon is because he’s so big, when he gets hit it doesn’t look as forcible as it would look with other quarterbacks. So they’re going to work to be consistent on what is and isn’t a forcible hit to a quarterback.”
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Dungy on Rams LB Mark Barron’s hit to Cam Newton’s head: “Some of these hits have to be called…I know how they interpret it, but some of this has to be called.”
Harrison on Newton: “He has to understand he is the marquee player on the team and you’ve got to get rid of the ball. He stays there, he’s trying to make a play, and he’s holding the ball. These guys are coming after him. He’s got to just dump it off incomplete pass and just move on to the next play.”
ON RAMS
Harrison: “It’s time to make a quarterback change.”
ON COLTS
Dungy: “(Andrew) Luck outplayed Aaron Rodgers today. That was the difference.”
ON STEELERS
Patrick on botched Steelers onside kick in which kicker Chris Boswell tried a soccer move known as a rabona: “It’s rabonehead.”
Harrison: “When I look at their offense, it just seems like they only have two guys offensively, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell. It seems like they depend on those two guys and they don’t have a reliable third option…You have to start looking at the coaching staff…You can’t make these type of rookie mistakes and expect to be in the playoffs… Ben is the best quarterback in that division, and I think they’ll get back on track and they’ll score some points.”
Dungy: “Three-game losing streak. Pittsburgh has more talent than this.”
ON RAVENS
Dungy on AFC North: “I like the teams with the best defense. You have to look at Baltimore; they’re playing the best defense of anybody.”
Harrison: “I just don’t think (Joe) Flacco is really good right now, and I think that defense wasn’t really good. They’re depending on a 37-year-old guy (Steve Smith) to be their number-one guy. I just don’t know how long you can sustain that.”
ON COWBOYS
Harrison: “It’s unbelievable…the poise, the control of the huddle that he has…it’s tremendous by a rookie quarterback.”
ON LIONS
Harrison: “Matthew Stafford is the best quarterback in that division (NFC North).”
ON BROWNS
Harrison on Jamie Collins following a highlight in which he allowed a touchdown and then was shown laughing on the sideline: “This is the reason (Bill) Belichick got rid of him – laughing, smiling, no big deal.”
ON CHARGERS
Harrison on Melvin Gordon: “He looks so relaxed. He’s probably the most-improved player from his rookie year to his second year. When you have confidence, that means you can play fast and he’s playing with a lot of confidence.”
ON JAGUARS
Florio on Gus Bradley’s job status: “I’m told he will coach next week at home against the Houston Texans. I didn’t get the sense that there’s any guarantee beyond next week.”
DEREK CARR WITH MICHELE TAFOYA
On the Raiders’ 6-2 start: “Everyone’s so excited, obviously. When I first got here, we were in a bad place. We were 0-10 at one point. It took me 11 games to get my first win as a quarterback. The fact that we’ve won six already in our first eight – honestly, I’m just speechless. I’m thankful for it.”
On recording a franchise-record 513 passing yards in last week’s overtime win vs. Tampa Bay: “I still get goosebumps from that. Me? I still think of myself as a little kid, as just a fan. It’s still kind of surreal that I even get to play in the NFL. I think someday I’ll look back on it and say, ‘Wow, that was pretty cool.’”
On the memory of his brother and fellow QB David Carr being drafted No. 1 overall by the Houston Texans in 2002: “I remember shaking Mr. McNair’s hand – the owner of the Texans. I remember walking up to Mr. Tagliabue and telling him, ‘I’ll be back.’ I wasn’t very politically correct as a young kid, but that felt normal to me. I thought everyone got to do that at my age.”
On hearing the criticism of his brother David during his tenure with Houston: “It made me want to fight somebody. It really did. Just watching him go through it. He never complained, getting his face beat in. Never pointed a finger. It taught me so much, that no matter what you’re going through, you’ve got to be the same person, and he was.”
Tafoya: “So when it was time for you to come into the draft, there were some people who thought, “Hmm, the genetics, the name…’ What would you say to those critics now?”
Carr: “Thank you. Thanks for passing on me. I wanted to be in Oakland.”
On the impact of being even atop the AFC West with Denver: “It means we’re doing things the right way. It shows us that the team that won the Super Bowl last year has six wins, and so do we. The road goes through them. We’re looking forward to it, because they’re so good, and they have what we want.”
