FOOTBALL IN HIGH HEELS: FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA WEEK 8
STAMFORD, Conn. – October 29, 2017 – Tonight’s Week 8 edition of NBC’s Football Night in America, the most-watched weekly studio show in sports, will feature Mike Tirico’s interview with Detroit Lions QB Matt Stafford and Michele Tafoya’s interview with Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger. Football Night will also feature highlights, analysis, and reaction to earlier Week 8 games, ahead of Steelers-Lions tonight on Sunday Night Football.
Football Night airs each Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on NBC. Tirico will host the program live from inside the stadium, joined on site by the Sunday Night Football team of Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth and Tafoya.
Dan Patrick hosts Football Night from NBC Sports Group’s Studio 1, joined by Super Bowl-winning head coach Tony Dungy, two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison, and NFL Insider Mike Florio of NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk. Paul Burmeister will report from FedEx Field in Landover, Md., on the Cowboys-Redskins game.
INTERVIEWS: Below are excerpts from Tirico’s interview with Stafford and Tafoya’s interview with Roethlisberger. If used, please note the mandatory credit: “In an exclusive interview airing tonight on Football Night in America.”
MIKE TIRICO WITH MATT STAFORD
Stafford on how his twin daughters have changed his life: “In so many ways, it’s been awesome. They’re six-and-half, seven months at this time now, so they’re kind of turning the corner, and their personalities are coming out. It’s a whole lot of fun to be in our house.”
Stafford on his diaper changing skills: “I’m pretty good. I’m as good as I need to be. I do my best (laughs). But, Kelly does so much.”
Stafford on his wife Kelly’s social media: “She loves being on Instagram, putting all of that kind of stuff out there. I’d rather not, but you’ve got to have balance. I keep her in check, she keeps me in check.”
Tirico: “She sticks up for you every once in a while.”
Stafford: “Yeah, no question. I have to ask her to tone that down too sometimes (laughs). It’s all coming from a good place. She just supports me, and is willing to probably fight anybody to keep my name in the right place.”
Stafford on qualities that give the Lions a comeback almost every game: “We’re a very even-keeled team, and that starts with our head coach. Coach Caudwell is a very even-keeled guy, everybody likes to give him grief about not showing emotion, but the guy keeps a level head, and it helps us. It’s a total team effort, and I think that everybody appreciates everybody else’s effort in the fourth quarter and how we play. There have been a couple this year that I wish we would have gotten it, but we got close.”
MICHELE TAFOYA WITH BEN ROETHLISBERGER
Roethlisberger on how he’s been so good at extending the play: “I don’t know, I think maybe just growing up, we used to run around and whoever had the ball was just trying not to get tackled. You just scramble and run around, and I’ve always had a good arm so I guess just running around and finding a way to sling it.”
Tafoya: “Finish these sentences for me: the Steelers are at their best when?”
Roethlisberger: “The defense is playing like they do, and the offense scores points.”
Tafoya: “Ben Roethlisberger is at his best when?”
Roethlisberger: “He doesn’t turn the ball over, and spreads the ball around.”
Tafoya: “When you do hand it off to Le’Veon (Bell), and you step and you watch, what do you see?”
Roethlisberger: “Poetry in motion. He’s going to find a way to just make running the ball beautiful.”
Roethlisberger on what comes to mind being back in Detroit for the second time since he won his first Super Bowl at Ford Field: “Probably handing Jerome Bettis the game ball, promising him that I would get him a game ball from every playoff win. I remember holding that ball as tight as I could, people coming up to try to take it, and finding him and giving him the last one.”
Roethlisberger on how his role has changed since his first Super Bowl win: “I think now I’m the Jerome Bettis, if you will. I’m the veteran guy, the leader. You hear young guys say, ‘Let’s go play it for Ben.’ It means a lot.”
Roethlisberger on if he ever thinks, ‘What am I doing?’ by continuing to play despite the physical demands: “I’d be lying if I said no. But, those same moments when you’re sitting there saying ‘Man, I’m sore,’ or limping into the facility, going to get treatment or whatever it may be, you see your teammates, and you see the smile talking about the game or whatever it is. It kind of reels you back in and says, ‘Man, that was a lot of fun.”
–FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA–
